Considering that they release Darwin for free this isn't surprising. I think the number reason not to release OS X for PCs is the support nightmare more than anything else. No amount of money would be worth it to them to deal with that.

Sigh. How about looking at it? How about checking to see if it is still sealed? OS X Lion came on USB sticks and not discs. While it isn't impossible to counterfeit these sticks, there's simply not enough incentive to do so.

And you've never heard of anyone selling an unopened box of Windows? Or an unopened box of any software.

Again if you don't want used software that's your problem. It isn't a pirated copy and the only person that might care is Apple. And they don't.

What I'm hearing from you is that you're not really serious in your complaint. You want to put as many obstacles in your complaint so that no one could ever resolve it. Next thing you won't install it unless Steve Jobs himself gives you the copy.

Here is what a reasonable person would do: Buy OS X Lion still sealed new in the box. There is no step 2.

FireWire was narrowly purposed towards low latency, high bandwidth transfers. That's why there was never a FireWire mouse or FireWire printer ports. It was overkill for these purposes. It was never designed to connect any and all peripherals. You are completely missing this point.

Oh really? Search for Thunderbolt dock. You don't use TB like this but many others do.

Again, it is not. According to Intel and others it is aimed to almost expose PCIe bridge to connections rather than replacing USB. USB again cannot do what this. It adds a layer of complexity on top of it.

Since when? No one I know has a USB driven monitor so it cannot be everyone. Yes they have monitors that have USB ports but these are to use as a USB hub. The input is VGA, DVI, or HDMI.

Again you are completely missing the point. If you need sustained transfers like digital video back in the day, you wanted a FireWire not a USB. That's why professional used FireWire long after everyone else stopped using it.

How the hell is TB going to cost you a lot more money? If your laptop has it, then it has it. Now if you don't have TB and you have to get a new laptop to get it, that's a different story. But if your laptop didn't have eSATA or USB 3, then you are going to have to get a new laptop to get it, it's more expense than your old laptop. A TB dock also has USB ports, BTW.

Again there is a reason why professionals are getting TB devices.

Other than the fact that Intel is the one pushing it and is part of their ultrabook specification? Other than most of the laptop manufacturers are starting to make laptops with it?

Um Leopard (10.5) was released 6 years ago and was last updated supported in 2009. So as a geek, you haven't updated your wife's machine in 4 years. That means that it was vulnerable to security holes and bugs for 4 years.

The upgrade for Leopard to Snow Leopard has always been $29. The fact that you avoided it for years does not mean that you should get it for free. Also the fact that Apple still supports it even though it is now 3 versions older than the current says that Apple still works with older products.

Again you can get OS X for a Hackintosh. Buy a copy on ebay. It's not a pirated copy. Apple places no validation on their OS but OS X will only recognize certain hardware. Any Hackintosh site will tell you which boards/chips/etc can be used.

Outside this period which I already mentioned, you don't get Windows update for free. You pay a lower price for updates vs full retail but you still pay.

But it's not free. And you can still purchase OS X. Today.

If you are willing to do without support, what does that matter?

And you got free OS updates when you buy a Dell, HP, Lenovo PCs? Other than OEM PCs bought in an interim period right before the release of a new OS, you had to pay for an update except for Window 8. If you built your own PCs, you didn't even get the OS free with the hardware.

Apple has never released profit for divisions as far as I can tell. Doing so would give too much advantage to competitors. Apple does release overall profit.

That would be impossible as Apple does not release divisional profit numbers.

Last time I checked profit and market share are not the same thing. A company can be wildly profitable and have a small market share.

Oh really? Do you know how many variations of video cards you get with nVidia and AMD alone? When I had a PC, I can tell you that an updated driver from either of them had a chance of making your video unusable to the point where you had to roll back to a previous driver. Add in drivers for Ethernet, sound, etc and and it's not pure speculation. It's fact. Apple has invested a great deal in customer support. Can you imagine the sheer number of appointments they would have to deal with for hardware problems that they had nothing to do with/ability to fix?

If you want to install OS X on a Hackintosh, you still can. This does not change that aspect at all.

Um no. By that logic, FibreChannel and Ethernet also were for the same purpose as USB and FireWire. FireWire was designed to be low latency, low overhead, high bandwidth transfers. In the aspect of low latency and low overhead, USB still fails. 30% overhead is way too high. USB got faster rates over the years so that for most transfers you can use it. I would not use USB if I needed high bandwidth transfers all the time. Like if I was editing HD Video on a NAS device for example. That's why eSATA/TB is being preferred in NAS devices by the pros.

FireWire 400 still kicks USB 2.0 ass when it comes to sustained transfers rates. The max theoretical rate of USB 2.0 is 480 Mbps. That's the absolute max. With real world conditions, you are lucky to get 200Mbps. While USB 3.0 increases the rates, at its core, it still does not solve the original problem of latency and overhead.

FireWire was used because 400 was still better than USB 2.0 for this purpose. Apple eventually dropped FireWire support because, again, occasional transfers were good enough with USB 2.0. Also, dropping FireWire meant freeing up board space on iDevices as FireWire required separate chips.

You cannot run video and Ethernet simultaneously over USB. Period. That alone means TB is far superior as you can run video, Ethernet, and USB over TB. USB is the universal connector for peripherals. It will not be okay to use for high bandwidth applications.

Again, USB and TB overlap in functionality but are not direct competitors. That is why Apple includes both. Even with USB increases in speed, it still suffers from fundamental design flaws like high overhead that make it unsuitable for a number of applications. Making it faster will only do so much to alleviate this problem. Also again, you cannot use USB to hook up your video, Ethernet, and data transfers in one cable. If that isn't clear, I don't know what is.