Does it strike anyone as strange that Steve Jobs rolled out both OS 9 and the new iMacs on Tuesday without ever mentioning the relationshipbetween them? That is, will the new iMacs ship with OS 8.6 or OS 9? Apparently the first new iMacs must have 8.6, since they are shipping”now” while OS 9 won’t be out until later this month (October 23rd).The new iMacs are specified as eligible for Apple’s new“Mac OS Up-To-Date” program, so it will only cost you $20 or soto get all those cool features Steve Jobs was showing offbefore he introduced us to our new iMacs.There’s no word on when the new iMacs will ship with OS 9,but until that time it seems that the under-$1000 entry-level iMac really means under $1020–close but no cigar.
On the up side, this suggests that Apple really is shipping the newiMacs in quantity right now,otherwise why not make a big deal out of shipping them with a brandspanking new OS?On the other hand,perhaps Apple still has sour memories of delaying the 2400c in the USso they could tout its “brand new OS”–the late great OS 8.
For a full list of computers eligible for the Mac OS Up-To-Date program,get this PDF file. You must have purchased the system from an authorized reseller or Apple itselfon or after October 5,except that G4 and iBook purchasers are eligible for the programregardless of purchase date.
