QOTD: Do You Think Windows 7 Prices Are Fair?

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Since we always applaud competition in the CPU market, let's start applauding competition in the OS market. Kubuntu ( www.kubuntu.com ), is probably the most direct competitor to Windows7 in the realm of Linux, and one of the best KDE distros. Many of the people on here are gamers, and therefore Linux may not make as much sense for, but surely we all have friends and family who just do email/internet/office stuff, who could be completely satisfied with Kubuntu + OpenOffice. In the spirit of competition, let's all try to convert someone to Kubuntu Linux this weekend.
 
They should scale their prices so that Ultimate is, at most, $120. How do you even do business with their announced prices? If they already didn't have a ridiculous amount of the market share, those prices would make you think the software came with some fancy collector's edition of Microsoft paraphernalia (i.e. mugs, shirts, and mousepad made of the dreams from children)
 
I would rather a discount on the Full retail version than an upgrade. Having to install an old OS prior to upgrading is a major pain. When I switch to a new OS I do a fresh clean install, not an upgrade. The price saving would be nice since I'm installing Win 7 on 5 computers
 
Well if MS paid me around 200 bucks to install Windows crap on my sexy WD Black raid array, I'd consider it... but I'd never pay 300 bucks to get my hard drives contaminated and infected. I can get masterpieces (Kubuntu) on my array for free... who the hell actually buys this Windows crap?
 
If the Upgrade price was the price for the full version and 60% of the "new full price" for the upgrade version than yes, I would agree.. but not like it stands now..
 
[citation][nom]nhobo[/nom]W7 will prove to be the downfall of M$ even more than Vista did. There is no must-have killer app that necessitates "upgrading" from either XP or Vista. There is no massive performance boost, compatibility or stability increase. All you get is a revised interface to relearn, some new icons and a lighter wallet. Vista was the lid on M$'s coffin, W7 is a nail.The age of freeware is at hand with Linux, OpenOffice, StarOffice, etc. The age of M$ is over. Only a fool would plunk down money for this crap. Especially when they already have reliable, stable software like XP.[/citation]


100 + ,,Couldn't have said it any better myself.
Took the words right from under my fingers..
"A fool and their money are easily parted."
 
The Open Source crowd seems to think that people have a choice here. Linux isn't remotely poised to compete with Microsoft. Software tends to be, maybe needs to be, a monopoly; short of the U.S. patent office invalidating all Microsoft's proprietary standards and opening up the market to competition, they're untouchable.
 
These pricings are absolutely horrendous.

I have purchased multiple copies of windows XP professional OEM for $150 or less for either personal or professional use and microsoft might have actually put out a good version of an OS now, as opposed to vista... but it isnt twice as good as XP was.

With this sort of extremely high pricing, hopefully the free market will encourage software developers to start supporting other OS's like Mac and Linux so that M$ stops feeling so fat especially after the disaster that vista was.

M.S. needs some competition
 
Stupid. After leaving us hopeless with Vista, Microsoft expects consumers to shell out big bucks for a lifesaver? I will be buying the OEM copy or just getting it for free via you-know-what but I'd expect $150 to be a fair asking price for Windows 7 Home Premium (retail).
 
The price is far too high for the number of features and unsecure default settings. OSX is cheaper and of course there are Unix and Linux for free and all of those offers a more secure and user friendly environment.
 
fair

If you dont like it there are many free systems out there and plenty of other choices. To me, the cost of commercial operating systems outweight the time required to run free systems and setup as I like.

Oh well, I'm sure this will be full of "the giant Microsoft company sucks" regardless of what anyone says or however much Gates is helping the world through jobs and charity.
 
[citation][nom]nhobo[/nom]W7 will prove to be the downfall of M$ even more than Vista did. There is no must-have killer app that necessitates "upgrading" from either XP or Vista. There is no massive performance boost, compatibility or stability increase. All you get is a revised interface to relearn, some new icons and a lighter wallet. Vista was the lid on M$'s coffin, W7 is a nail.The age of freeware is at hand with Linux, OpenOffice, StarOffice, etc. The age of M$ is over. Only a fool would plunk down money for this crap. Especially when they already have reliable, stable software like XP.[/citation]

Must been living under a rock for the last two years.
 
[citation][nom]paranoidmage[/nom]It's a rip off to people who have vista but like to do clean installs.[/citation]

You can do a full install with the upgrade. I used to do it with a upgrade version of XP. As long as you have a previous version of Windows and a legit license you can and will be able to with Windows 7.

The upgrade discs still have all the same files. Its just the license key. Much like the OEM version is the same as the full version but only has that specific version (32bit or 64bit) but is half the price.
 
just way too much ! 200$ for the cheapest and 320$ for the ultimate it just doesn't make sense to me. no office tools incorporated, no readers, no good webbrowsers, no everyday use servers (ftp for ex., be fair, and ftp server is good in hand), no voip telephony, no up-to-date drivers, nothing. just a simple OS with an explorer, a media player, image viewer, and a very basic text editor (notepad and wordpad).
so my opinion is, this thing is 2-3 times overpriced.
 
Its a rip off. The retail version of home should be $100. Because people really like to deal with the upgrade version, like having to re-install Vista JUST to go ahead and install Win7 over it? Pretty damn stupid! With Win98x, it justs ask that you put in a Win95 CD to validate.

Okay... so, lets say you have paid your $100 over priced upgrade Disc for your HPaq computer. 6 months go by and a virus takes out your OS/drives or the HD dies... whatever.

Well, now what? As with many name-brand computers, you DON'T have a recovery disc (if they work) and you have this Upgrade disc demanding that you SPEND 1hr installing Vista JUST so it can wipe it out? And if you dont... you have to, buy a retail version or something to replace what you already paid for?!

The retail version of Home should be $100 and it'll do upgrades. Allowing easy clean reinstalls when the user NEEDS to do it.

Windows7 Pro should be $150~200 retail, NOT $300. And Ultimate should be $250.
 
I think the general pricing is just slightly overpriced, the limited discount Microsoft is offering only works for the upgrade options, not the full versions, and I think that should be revised and a preorder discount should also be open for the full versions, and I think the full versions shouldn't be $100 more than the upgrades, $50 would be more than enough.
 
I am not sure what 'fair' is? Does it come down to value for money? Compared to the cost of the hardware (say $700) is it fair to charge 20% to 40% more for the software that makes all of the pieces magically work together, allowing you to run the majority of software?

It could be argued that the OS is as valuable as any other major component, and then it does not seem so bad.

Then again, you could argue that you get 90% of this result in a Linux distro, for free. (sorry, Linux is just not quite as convenient as Windows 90% is fair).

That would make Windows 7 terrible value by comparison.

Unless you really need it.
 
Getting a pirated one if not stick with my XP (pirated).

You pay for windows, you are part of the monopoly. Come on, better prices and more people will buy your OS Microsoft. ¿Is it that hard to understand?

Here in latinamerica the % of pirated Win is like 95%.

Example:
W7 HP --> $19
W7 Pro --> $39
W7 Ultimate $69

= Money printing machine.

And when you see their fiscal years they have a hell of revenue ripping you users off. Way more than they will use in "R&D", don't forget that W7 is a patched Vista, is not like the second coming of Jesus or like working in Win 3.1 (93) and the next year (94) getting W7 + DX11 + HD5870X2 + Crisys 3 + 1080p in the era of Sega Rally.
 
Here is how the pricing should be. Upgrade of Home Premium should be $49 and Pro $99, that should be the every day price. The full version should be $119 for Home Premium and $219 for Pro. People who have vista should get a cheap price while people who stuck with XP, they can pay full price.
 
I love how people suggest pricing schemes for Microsoft, pretty dam sure their price is to maximize profits between vista, windows 7 and pirated copies.

Face it most people who pirate shit don't care what price it is even it's at 20 dollars a pop they still don't want to pay money for things they can steal, it's just easier for them to justify stealing it by the large price for it, face it they are just cheap people with low moral standards.

Hell most people would be good with OEM retail only counts for enthusiasts who reactive windows 2-5 times a year for various reasons, formats and new parts etc.

The prices are good enough for me, not necessarily happy but when i see a torrent for windows xp and vista downloaded over 10k times i see where they need to make up money.
 
[citation][nom]YouKnowTheyWill[/nom]Of course, if they need to force Linux out of a particular market(like netbooks), they'll drop the price to $1 if they have to. The joys of having a monopoly...[/citation]

srsly who in their right mind visits this forum and pays full retail price for MS OS? who in this forum does not build their own PC?
 
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