[citation][nom]Windaria[/nom]Zander, you are absolutely correct... but there is a problem in what you indicated. Notice how hardware is getting cheaper? Computers are getting less expensive to make. In about 5-8 years, your phone will likely have the processor and graphics capabilities of your modern desktop, and you will likely be able to dock it in a cradle that hooks up to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, but let you undock it to carry it with you. Moving your data between devices won't be as much of an issue, you'll likely just use the same device for far more stuff, and what you do move between things you will likely simply store remotely, and every device you have will be able to access it. In fact, Microsoft has filed a patent for this kind of a scenario recently...My point was this. Not that MS has no business charging less for a crippled version, but that charging as much as they do for the full fledged desktop OS is a complete ripoff. After all, the same development is going into both, but what they charge for Windows Ultimate is completely unjustified.Hardware needs to have the materials brought together and formed, for each and every item that is stamped and made. New development, new refinements of technology, and we make new things, and they find ways to reduce costs.Software? Windows costs what, 2-4 times what it used to. They make it once and duplicate it as many times as they like. More computers are in use now than ever before, magnifying how much money the company makes by not just the increase in cost for the product, but also the number of instances of it being used in the market. And for what? The OS itself is less important now than it ever was, it is all about the software that runs on it.My main thought was, why not just get rid of the binning, and charge what they are charging for the netbook version for all of their versions, since the same work is going into all of them.But they won't... so I'll keep using Linux. I'm just glad that with HPs recent release I'll be able to get the better-specked version of the netbook for less money, for once, since I won't have to buy the Windows license. Now if only more companies dropped the cost and gave people the option to get the hardware for what it actually costs, without having Windows forced on me as well, with the hardware.[/citation]
Thank you for being kind in your remarks to me, but I gotta ask, are you crazy?? " Now if only more companies dropped the cost and gave people the option to get the hardware for what it actually costs..."
If I hired you as a sales manager and you told me this is your philosophy, you would be instantaneously fired on the spot. Heck, I probably wouldn't even hire you in my business if I figured out that you were this way beforehand. I'm not saying I am glad things are this way, but it's called capitalism and marketing. They will charge whatever people are willing to pay. Even if you are "forced" to buy a Microsoft OS because your 15,000 embroidery machine won't work without it, and your business will fail without that embroidery machine, you still have a choice. You can embroider all your clothing by hand, or you can pay the very profitable $169.99 that MS charges for an OEM license of their top OS ($170?? Oh CRAP! They are such a ripoff - I mean it's not like Adobe charges several times that for a program that merely "edits photos!!")
They choose a balanced price that will gain them the most profit for the least amount of effort and initial cost on their part. If they charge too much, they will sell less, hurting business. If they charge too little, they may sell more copies but with less margin on each copy. Ideally they would (like any intelligent business) choose the happy medium where they can maximize both numbers of sales and margin per unit, and I guaran-dang-tee that's exactly what MS tries to accomplish. You and I would likely do the same in a capitalistic society, even though our country has lost many elements of the original way it was instituted.
I would love for things to be a better deal, and I hate to see the big man on top raking in dough while employees get the shaft and consumers pay the price. Enter what we call competition. Some of the employees that get the shaft break away and do their own thing, charging less. There are simply millions of examples of this happening in the U.S. and around the world. This competition helps keep prices lower. Even though Apple and Linux systems account for a miniscule amount of the overall multitude of computers in the U.S., and largely around the world, they are still competition, and they still help keep MS at least somewhat honest. They have to make their OS at least work decently well, or they will start to see people defect.
Here's the problem with your complaints. You don't like the price? Heck, you use Linux so you probably don't like the price or the product, right? MAKE SOMETHING BETTER. Make an OS that runs all the latest games, works with most old and all new hardware, runs every popular office suite (including FREE ones!!), photo/design editing suite, and many video editing programs ... and charge LESS for it ... better yet, make it FREE!! Sure, Linux is GREAT, but it simply doesn't work with the mainstream, and it's not plug and play for non-computer-smart normal consumers that just want it to turn on and WORK. As much as I hate Leopard, Apple has the next best OS for consumers. What holds off the masses is the PRICE, yet another example of how marketing works.
If there were reasonable and practical alternatives to these "overpriced" softwares, people would buy it. I've used Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, and Gimp. The latter two simply don't compare. Even though CS4 suite costs $1700, I buy it once, and it lasts for 3-4 years before I upgrade again. In that time CS4 (unless my business SUCKS) will be one tool that my business uses to gain profit.
Maybe their software seems overpriced to you, but they don't give a CRAP about you as an individual. They care about the masses. And as long as the masses are buying their OS, you have ZERO grounds to say that it is a ripoff. Sorry.
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