Re: Hard locks attract workarounds, workarounds become a honeypot for malware.
They already know it won't work fully on some machines so prevent those machines from loading the free software.
It would work fine if they included the drivers. If the hardware doesn't support a particular feature (and there hasn't been much in x86 since 2008 to warrant this) then that particular feature can be disabled.
Apple frequently uses system upgrades to fix bugs in existing releases that it subsequently no longer maintains. The Bluetooth bugs in Lion that were only fixed in Mountain Lion are an example, but there are plenty of others.
The free upgrade strategy fits in well with built-in obsolescence: your system is more than five years old so you should buy a new one. While it certainly makes commercial sense there's no denying that this is annoying for customers. And older installs are often in places with multiple machines. I only recently ditched my 2006 Mac Mini that I kept around as a potential backup device. Selling premium hardware on the basis of its quality and then denying it upgrades will degrade the image over time. Not that Apple cares that much for users since it discovered consumers…
Biting the hand that feeds IT
