Apple Inc (AAPL)

[langostino]

external monitor port in case of emergency?

Don't see how that helps much. If your monitor goes, the port goes with it, as does the computer. You're still out the PC.

True, for those working in a thin-client setting, it's no loss. Of course, not all of us work in that sort of environment. In fact, I'd say that's a pretty small minority of people buying iMacs.

I still haven't heard whether you feel like you'd be missing out on using your 22" ACD if it had been force-tethered to the 1999 (or earlier) PC it originally served?

BTW and FWIW, if Apple had designed the iMac with any genuine measure of self-serviceability, I think a fair amount of the straight-jacketing could be eliminated. Again, thin client environments could care less. But there's no excuse, IMO, to sell someone a $2,000 desktop PC/monitor that the user cannot easily upgrade the hard drive and optical drive. Unless, of course, the entity doing the selling profits from artificially forced obsolescence.