Okay, so we were roundly tongue-lashed for complaining about a lack of Mac-related drama even as the whole MacFixit 10.1 update ruckus is swinging, but personally, we don't find the whole thing terribly exciting for some reason. We're actually a little surprised that people are getting as worked up over it as they appear to be. If you're not up to speed, here's the Soap Opera Digest version: Many Mac users bought and installed Mac OS X 10.0.x, updated to 10.1 via Apple's update-only CD-ROM, and then updated to 10.1.1 via Software Update. Some of them discovered that, if problems occurred, there was no way to downgrade back to 10.1 without going all the way back to square one and installing 10.0.x first-- that's a hassle. Well, MacFixIt did a little poking around and discovered to its surprise that the 10.1 upgrade CD can be converted to a full 10.1 installer just by burning a copy with one file deleted. Apple demanded that the instructions for doing so be removed. MacFixit complied.

Now, here's where the controversy comes in: apparently a lot of people (at least judging by the twelve zillion posts on this subject over at Slashdot) are now miffed at Apple for putting the legal squeeze on MacFixIt. Granted, it was probably "Not A Good Idea" for Apple to ship an updater CD that was, in fact, a full installer CD with one extra file labelling it as an updater; indeed, we're kind of surprised that no one figured out how to do this sooner. Still, despite the fact that it was Apple's doozy of a mistake, we still think the company was probably wise to request that a site as popular as MacFixIt stop telling people how they can effectively turn a $19.95 update CD (heck, maybe it even works on the free discs doled out in retail outlets, we don't know) into a complete $129.95 Mac OS X 10.1 installer, albeit an unlicensed one.

Note that we're not necessarily saying we think that MacFixIt violated any laws or even the Mac OS X license agreement (as Apple contends in its "hey, cut that out" letter, which has since also disappeared from MacFixIt). We're just saying that, having already screwed up pretty badly by choosing to make upgrade CDs in a fundamentally brain-damaged fashion, the only thing worse would be for Apple to lend tacit approval to the practice of obtaining and converting said CDs in lieu of purchasing fully licensed copies of Mac OS X. Well, okay, that's not quite true; it might be worse still if Apple were to post the instructions on its own home page and then advertise that fact with commercials starring Jeff Goldblum in heavy rotation during Must-See TV. But you get our drift; we consider it to have been a sane response to Apple having dug itself into a nasty hole.

It doesn't seem to us that MacFixIt is going to be any the worse for having yanked the report. In fact, we wouldn't be surprised if all this controversy (and coverage by WIRED, who calls the whole situation a "fiasco") was increasing the site's traffic significantly. So hey, MacFixIt's okay, Apple's as good as can be expected under the circumstances, and anyone who really wants to know how to convert a 10.1 upgrade CD into a full installer will always be able to find the instructions floating around out there on the 'net. Everybody wins, sort of. And we're a sucker for a happyish ending.