1. Apple has done what many thought impossible

First, Mac OS X is probably the most impressive piece of OS engineering in recent memory (save the original Mac OS). Apple has taken an industrial strength UNIX operating core, and mated it with a friendly user interface. I don't think many people understand the import of this achievement. It was/is a mounumental task to wrangle a multi-user operating system into a single-user-type GUI, while retaining all the multi-user capabilities, advantages, permissions, etc., and still keeping the single-user experience as friendly as a Mac. It has been years in the making.

2. Apple has made a decision about a ship date for good reason

Apple needed to specify a ship date. The industry and users have been waiting for it for months; many for years. Those of you who were around for Copland, Taligent, Pink, Rhapsody, and Mac OS X Server 1.x all know what I am talking about. This is proof perhaps of how difficult it is to make a traditional modern OS usable by everyone from the novice home computer user to a university researcher who is a UNIX power user but still needs a productivity OS. This OS has been so long in coming that many software developers were going to wait until they actually saw the OS ship to even begin carbonizing their apps. Thus, Apple was in a catch-22: OS X needs apps before it ships, but they need to ship to get apps. What to do_ Well, do the best you can in this situation: get as many developers as you can on board, and come up with a stable, workable, completed product, and pick a date to ship. The timing is essential. Whatever time Apple chose, the flood of apps and drivers would be 2-3 months later. If they had waited until summer, apps and things wouldn't be ready until fall, and they would have missed the crucial back-to-school buying season of the education market - an essential market Apple is trying to recapture. Apple could wait indefinitely to release OS X; what good would that do_

3. Because a semi-arbitrary ship date was chosen, it was inevitable that things wouldn't be absolutely perfect at ship time

So Mac OS X 1.0 won't ship with a DVD player on the 24th. You'll download it 2 weeks or 2 months later; what's the big deal_ Apple isn't forcing anyone to purchase OS X on the 24th. If DVD playback is so important to you, and rebooting into Mac OS 9 is such a chore for the oh-so-many-times you watch movies on your computer or waiting a few weeks for the DVD player is such a pain, then DON'T GET MAC OS X ON THE 24TH! The 24th is essentially a silent release; Macworld New York, and when machines start shipping with OS X, is the real release. Analysts can cry and pontificate about how not having a huge party on the 24th is a missed opportunity and users can predict the doom of Apple because of not having a DVD player at ship time; neither, however, are true. And as for the OS being completely, perfectly ready on the 24th in every way: apparently people haven't seen any of Microsoft's OS releases, or any other OS release for that matter. Speaking of Microsoft, I'm surprised more people aren't complaining about something substantial, like a native Microsoft Office not being available at ship time, instead of complaining about the lack of a DVD player.

4. People don't have to buy Mac OS X on the 24th

These ridiculous arguments about iMacs that still have 64MB when OS X prefers 128MB are also invalid. Apple is held to a higher level of scrutiny by everyone, certainly. And they are the one company that makes the hardware and the OS. So, if Windows 2000 requires X amount of RAM, and some PC doesn't come with it, should we call for the head of the CEO of that PC maker_ Of course not. So one of Apple's products has 64MB of RAM, and a still-unreleased OS needs 128MB, and people have the gall to complain_

a. The OS isn't even released yet.
b. No one has to buy OS X on the 24th.
c. All the machines that ship with OS X will more than handle it.

5. People are improperly (and illegally) judging an OS based on pirated, prerelease, specialty builds

I don't think anything more needs to be said about this. Judging Mac OS X based on these pirated builds, which you don't even know the purpose of (i.e., a build intended only for Setup Assistant testing has FireWire broken), is wholly inappropriate. Ever since the first leaked builds after Public Beta, people have been treating each successive build as if it's the final! Sure, it's fun to get a window into the future and see what Apple is working on with OS X. But you need to reserve judgement until OS X actually ships. Give Apple some credit. They have a brilliant group of product managers, engineers, and programmers who all know what they're doing. Development cycles of particular OS components may not be synced up from build to build. One team may be developing their product against an older build and wait for a few cycles to update. A build may be intended only for testing a particular networking htmlect, but Classic in that build may be horrendous. Only official, seeded builds can be judged, and even then only by qualified persons (read: ADC members or other legitimately seeded persons) who know the shortfalls, known problems, etc.

6. No product will be perfect at ship time

How many times have you heard someone say, "Oh, I'm not installing the 1.0..." or seen an institution hold off on upgrading to something like Windows 98 until the first one (or two) service packs come out_ The Mac OS X release on the 24th is an early adopter release; it's not intended for widespread public consumption. No, it's not like a beta, but rather a product that may not do everything that everyone wants perfectly. People who get OS X on the 24th will do so because they WANT to, and hopefully KNOW what they are doing. It is being released because it's a good, finished product and essentially, "it has to be released some time!" If Apple waited to release OS X until it did everything for everyone, it would never be released. And for those of you who think DVD playback is essential, just because some of Apple's supported computers shipped with DVD drives, think again. YOU may think it's essential, and that the OS isn't "complete" until it can play DVDs, but not everyone shares your opinion. If it's so important to you, don't get OS X on the 24th.

7. We can worry about "what the media will think" until we are blue in the face and never get anywhere

Some people have noted that they themselves, nor anyone they know, really cares about DVD playback on the 24th, but are worried about what the media, and thus other people who read these articles, will think. Already, C|net has posted a negative article about the topic. Alas, it begins. But when will we realize that Apple will never be perfect in the media's eyes_ Yes, it is bad press, and no, I don't like it. But should Apple throw the whole OS X release strategy off schedule just because there might be some bad press and/or bad public perception with regard to a measly DVD player_ I don't like to see Apple unfairly ripped either, and of course Apple had to know the DVD issue would get some reaction. But honestly, it's not a big enough deal to turn any number of people away from OS X. Also, hasn't anyone ever seen the media rip Microsoft to shreds when they miss ship date after ship date and have bug after bug in their products_ Summertime is go time, not the 24th.

Let's all take a step back and look at this in perspective

This is possibly Apple's biggest undertaking ever. Everything is working out as planned, and, in time, Mac OS X will do everything you want. It will have DVD. It will have iTunes. It will have iMovie. It will have iEverything. Maybe not on the 24th; anyone who expected OS X circa Macworld New York to be the same as OS X on the 24th was seriously deluding themselves. Many, many things will be added, enhanced, fixed, updated, and changed between the 24th and MWNY. And we, the early adopters, will be helping Apple to do that. OS X will be a different beast this summer; perhaps more along the lines of what some people in this forum, and definitely the general public, are waiting for. But one thing is for sure: Mac OS X is the future of Apple, and that future looks very bright.