So, OS X 10.9 Mavericks has been released and the upgrade from the previous version will be free. If I haven't been getting a great OS for free for years, since I've been using Ubuntu for 4 years as my main OS.
It bugs me is that while the new OS X will be free as it cost nothing, it's not really free in way that respects people's rights the way free and open source software does. Mavericks is still tied to Apple's hardware, not to mention that the source code is not available to be studied, modified and redistributed by users freely.
While Apple does make some good software and hardware, it really bugs me the level of control them even after you buy them. Not only that, how some features are just being added to their software are made to seem as innovations introduced by them which have been around on other OSes for some time.
Yes, sometimes their version is more polished than the previous software; but the fact that there was software that did that before them still stands.
If you want a quality OS that cost you no money at all, while it truly respects your freedoms as an user you should be looking to GNU/Linux for it. There are several distros that are easy to use, and don't require you to be an expert programmer to be able to use them at all. If you get interested to learn more to tweak your OS, or other software, there are great tools and forum where you can learn to do so and contribute to the community at large.
Yes, that the new OS X comes for free is just means that you won't be giving any money for it. But, you're still quite giving away many of your freedoms to Apple.
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