Just a Joke
 

Just a Joke

(Chuckle)

Does Apple actually charge for software updates?

I don't think it does.

Apple only charges for upgrades to the next minor OS version.

And then there is Google.

https://www.techradar.com/amp/news/g...pps-on-android

^ Just another day in the US of A.

Meaning: just because it happens in the US of A doesn't mean that the sentence "Google is force-installing ..." applies globally. And last time I looked, the WWW was a global thing.

I am sure Google only offers said capabilities to select US states and would never dream of doing such a thing in other countries.

That's an old one but a good one - and satirical...

It's more about the attitudes of users than anything else.

Not anymore, and not for some time. Previously (as in 10+ years ago), Apple would charge for major OS update versions (e.g. from 10.2 to 10.3), but if memory serves it didn't run $100+ like major Windows releases were (I think it was more like $60-70, and you got physical discs). More or less since the transition to x86 hardware even those updates are at no cost, limited only by compatibility with the underlying machine (as in, the very first machines that 'qualified' for that won't run the very latest version of the OS). Now on some level you could argue that by requiring hardware upgrades due to feature changes in the OS (for example there is a 'break point' where modern versions of OS X require Metal API support, which makes a lot of machines that could still run modern Windows or linux incapable of running modern OS X unless their graphics card can be upgraded), they 'charge' for the update, but they provide security updates even for deprecated stable releases for some time as well.