While gluing batteries and soldering ram may not be necessary to achieve the thickness of the new machine, eliminating the traditional RJ45 jack was unfortunately. I can't think of a way around it other than the flimsy sliding mini-jack used in old PCMCIA cards. And that is something far too fragile to include, IMO.

Apple have also been disappointing with every subsequent OS release, especially in relation to older machines, but I suppose that can be a thread of its own. Lion remains the worst OS ever released by Apple even after 4 updates. A machine from mid-2004 (running 10.5) is pretty much useless today for even simple web browsing and email. "pretty much useless" means just shy of completely unusable in speed and function - lots of spinning beach balls in Safari (no Flash either).