"Sure, you could bring your Mac to an Apple Store or a third party dealer that is generous about such things, and download to your heart’s content. But what if there’s no cooperating dealer nearby?"
Here in the boonies, before we got Wi-Fi, I would take a blank CD or a USB flash drive to a friend's place in town who had broadband, download the stand-alone installer then transfer it to the CD or flash drive.

Not even DSL? Surely there's a telephone line in those area's? Whats the hold up? Looks like there's mone to be made with a good DSL service.
Anyway, I'm glad 'the colonies' liberated us  so we can enjoy all this information. I can't imagne doing business without it. But then again, I work for a design company. Just a few years ago everything was faxed and we had to re-type it!
Love the speed. I just hope the dikes will hold…

It’s not an issue over here in Europe. Everybody in The Netherlands has got broadband. You can get a DSL subscription for as little as 10 euro’s a month (1,5 Mb / 256 Kb/s, no limit, no contract, pay per month). Right now cable companies ‘replied’ with new subscription; 29 euro’s; 6 Mb/ 1,5 Mb and a free phone service.
Apple’s putting their efforts into fast internet, just look at high quality music, music video’s, tvshows, movies, HD trailers and ‘what not’… It’s great!

Yes, this is one of the problems we have here in the “colonies.” There are millions of people in the USA who do not have broadband, and, alas, stand very little chance of getting it right now. As wireless Internet sprouts up around the rural areas, that'll change.

And there are people who fail to see the value of faster Internet service.

Peace,
Gene

It would have to be a good deal to get me hooked on a subscription. I bought iLife ‘04, but skipped ‘05 because I didn’t see enough value in it for me. The fact that iPhoto 5.0 was corrupting people’s libraries was another reason to stay on the sidelines. I have a .Mac account, but I used to work in Apple retail so I didn’t have to pay for it. I won’t be renewing unless Apple makes some significant improvements. Steve Jobs hinted in his D5 interview that big things are coming to .Mac later this year so I’ll keep my eyes open.

I feel for the folks stuck with dial up. They are victims of vast and rugged geography and a sparse population. People in Europe have excellent internet and cell phone coverage because their population density is up to 250 times what it is in small town North America.

I agree that renewing .Mac is always a little problematic for me too. I'm never sure if I'm going to do it or not, but end up renewing anyway. Perhaps I am too optimistic, but I do believe it'll get better — someday.

Peace,
Gene

There already is such a program. The Apple Maintenance Program is there mainly for schools and businesses to get upgrades for 3 years on iLife or Mac OS X packages.

It doesn't include .Mac, nor does it affect consumers

Peace,
Gene

It would have to be a good deal to get me hooked on a subscription. I bought iLife '04, but skipped '05 because I didn't see enough value in it for me. The fact that iPhoto 5.0 was corrupting people's libraries was another reason to stay on the sidelines. I have a .Mac account, but I used to work in Apple retail so I didn't have to pay for it. I won't be renewing unless Apple makes some significant improvements. Steve Jobs hinted in his D5 interview that big things are coming to .Mac later this year so I'll keep my eyes open.

I feel for the folks stuck with dial up. They are victims of vast and rugged geography and a sparse population. People in Europe have excellent internet and cell phone coverage because their population density is up to 250 times what it is in small town North America.

There already is such a program. The Apple Maintenance Program is there mainly for schools and businesses to get upgrades for 3 years on iLife or Mac OS X packages.

It's not an issue over here in Europe. Everybody in The Netherlands has got broadband. You can get a DSL subscription for as little as 10 euro's a month (1,5 Mb / 256 Kb/s, no limit, no contract, pay per month). Right now cable companies 'replied' with new subscription; 29 euro's; 6 Mb/ 1,5 Mb and a free phone service.
Apple's putting their efforts into fast internet, just look at high quality music, music video's, tvshows, movies, HD trailers and 'what not'… It's great!

It would be nice to have a choice, maybe a tiered system through .mac could be a way forward. Then as each new OS comes out you would get a discount depending on your level in .mac.

I have to agree since I have moved to a place where i cannot get broadband so dial up is the norm and I have a friend who never updated her macbook so is on 10.4.6 and it is 310 megs just for the intel update let alone iphoto itunes quicktime etc etc so I'd so nearer to 430 megs Our wonderful IP's disconnect dialup users evry 5 hours ! I have tried to get Aple to send update CD's but cant get them too and any of the Apple stores simply dont reply. So yes some sort of subscription offer would go down a treat but it will never happen because we are all suppose to have access to highspeed services..