How can people moan about the price of vista.

[Johnnytoxic]

compared to other operating systems it costs money. But the operating system is the most important thing installed on your computer. Considering people pay £500 for a graphics package etc, operating systems are good value for money.

 

[Theguy]

...and the fact that if say u bought xp in 2001, thats a good 5 years worth of 150quid or there abouts.

 

[Immsy]

I dont think they are moaning at the actual price of the thing, its the fact that us in the UK are being ripped off compared to the US and everywhere else etc.

 

[Stonedofmoo]

I'm not moaning... but then I have an MSDN subscription

 

[Lister2020]

The EU in general isn't being ripped off. It is MS making back their money on the unfair fines that the bloody EU made against them ( and I don't care what the hell they say. WMP and IE are the SUPERIOR PRODUCTS, and they don't even charge for them. Techincally they are freeware, so they don't even compete with other products. Bloody EU!)

 

[danv]

This is the last OS before Microsoft starts "renting" out OS's as far as a chap who did my Windows 2003 course said about a month ago..

The next OS will apparently require yearly charges and activations so what were getting with Vista seems a bit better in comparison to that!

 

[Fr0dders]

because Apple can provide a viable alternative to it for £150 for 5 copies of a "retail" license

Microsoft want £350 or whatever for 1 license for vista "ultimate"

so 10 Copies of OSX for the price of 1 copy of Vista Ultimate

considering OSX comes with just as many bundled applications, and is ony lacking in driver and software development for its platform

its a pretty poor deal.

and i compare Vista Ultimate with OSX, because Apple can make do with 1 version of OSX, whereas MS need 4 Core Different versions, plus all the other "niche market" ones. Its a sham

 

[PardonTheWait]

because Apple can provide a viable alternative to it for £150 for 5 copies of a "retail" license

Microsoft want £350 or whatever for 1 license for vista "ultimate"

so 10 Copies of OSX for the price of 1 copy of Vista Ultimate

considering OSX comes with just as many bundled applications, and is ony lacking in driver and software development for its platform

its a pretty poor deal.

and i compare Vista Ultimate with OSX, because Apple can make do with 1 version of OSX, whereas MS need 4 Core Different versions, plus all the other "niche market" ones. Its a sham

And there's your answer.

 

[sid]

Yes but OS X doesn't work on all pcs (legally) you need to buy expensive macs for it,

Hardly a fair comparison. You can get xp to run on uber cheap pcs, not a chance with OSX which has fairly hefty requirements tbh

sid

 

[Fr0dders]

Yes but OS X doesn't work on all pcs (legally) you need to buy expensive macs for it,

Hardly a fair comparison. You can get xp to run on uber cheap pcs, not a chance with OSX which has fairly hefty requirements tbh

sid

No but OSX does however have drivers for modern PC components

whats the difference between a Modern Core 2 Duo Laptop and a Macbook ? other than a slight price premium for owning a designer brand. None

i would gladly sacrifice backwards compatibility for older hardware if i could legally license all 5 of my family's PCs for £150.

Its not as if OSX doesnt support games, it has Drivers for all the latest ATI cards etc.. its just nobody develops stuff for the platform.

I dont even own a mac, but you've gotta admit their marketing strategy is much better. £350 for a retail license of "ultimate" is taking the micky. Just scrap the retail pricing alltogether, just have the pricing the same as for OEM, and then introduce a discount scheme so you could buy 5 OEM Copies of Vista for say £180.

Would make much more sense. Why wont they ? because we're all forced onto the MS treadmill (me included) because nobody develops stuff for anything other windows. And while we're forced to MS, they can dictate what prices they want to charge.

 

[iCraig]

Vista is going to make or break Windows (see what I did?) Although XP is a decent OS, it's what? 6 years old now? It's not going to cut it as Microsoft's flagship software, and if Vista fails then Microsoft will look like complete fools.

Especially when you consider the above points about OSX. It's getting more and more tempting to move to Apple tbh

 

[Mr.Clark]

The EU in general isn't being ripped off. It is MS making back their money on the unfair fines that the bloody EU made against them ( and I don't care what the hell they say. WMP and IE are the SUPERIOR PRODUCTS, and they don't even charge for them. Techincally they are freeware, so they don't even compete with other products. Bloody EU!)

That's sarcasm?

WMP and IE are superior to... well, I don't know, actually. IE is the Devil's Armpit, with Firefox and Opera as superior alternatives. WMP could easily be replaced by Winamp and Media Player Classic.

The fact that part of my fee for Windows goes into these products makes me sad, as by choice, a web browser and media player tied into the OS is just a REALLY bad idea.

And I also disagree that EU fines make Vista twice as expensive over here as in the States. It's profiteering on someone's part, probably jointly MS and the TaxMan...

 

[Tute]

I don't like dropping £220 in one go, i'd rather Microsoft did it like a subscription based scheme, in that I pay per 6 or 12 months.

It's a lot of money to some you know!

 

[Fr0dders]

And I also disagree that EU fines make Vista twice as expensive over here as in the States. It's profiteering on someone's part, probably jointly MS and the TaxMan...

im no MS Hater

and totally agree with this one

The EU took MS to court for providing media player with windows.

Its like taking Ford to court for including sony radio's in its cars. Its anti competitive to the aftermarket HU market if cars already come with one ....

The law suit is just daft, and was nothing more than EU bigwigs getting all hot under the collar about the ammount of market power a big american software player had, and sweet FA to do with "unfairness" to realplayer. If realplayer was better than media player, people would have ditched media player and installed real player long ago. But it wasnt, so nobody bothered.

 

[sid]

No but OSX does however have drivers for modern PC components

whats the difference between a Modern Core 2 Duo Laptop and a Macbook ? other than a slight price premium for owning a designer brand. None

i would gladly sacrifice backwards compatibility for older hardware if i could legally license all 5 of my family's PCs for £150.

Its not as if OSX doesnt support games, it has Drivers for all the latest ATI cards etc.. its just nobody develops stuff for the platform.

I dont even own a mac, but you've gotta admit their marketing strategy is much better. £350 for a retail license of "ultimate" is taking the micky. Just scrap the retail pricing alltogether, just have the pricing the same as for OEM, and then introduce a discount scheme so you could buy 5 OEM Copies of Vista for say £180.

Would make much more sense. Why wont they ? because we're all forced onto the MS treadmill (me included) because nobody develops stuff for anything other windows. And while we're forced to MS, they can dictate what prices they want to charge.

Agreed but the fact of the matter is you still can't buy OS X for any pcs. I doubt they would give OS X for that cheap if it could be used so widely. Lets not forgot how apple have monopolised the mp3 market with itunes, ipod and DRM to keep out competitors.

sid

 

[Fr0dders]

Agreed but the fact of the matter is you still can't buy OS X for any pcs. I doubt they would give OS X for that cheap if it could be used so widely. Lets not forgot how apple have monopolised the mp3 market with itunes, ipod and DRM to keep out competitors.

sid

no but the fact that OSX has the same functionality as XP is what kills it

it drives the same hardware and the only reason you cant get OSX for PC is Apple dont want to start a war with MS they probably wont win. And OSX isnt cheaper through any reduced functionality. It powers apple mac Core 2 Duo Systems, the same way XP Does. Only difference is it will only run on apple mac's hardware, Dual booting via bootcamp with OSX is much better marketing tactic imho. Apple isnt big and isnt going to bite off more than it can chew.

And lets not forget, OSX will run on PCs, just only apple ones. Much the same way ipods will only play itunes DRM files, and not others. But then how many others do ?

And the fact that apple can make a quite substantial profit while selling OSX for the price it does, speaks volume. The only thing that would push prices up when it was pushed to mass market, would be greed. lets face it, if your volume of sales goes up, you can lower prices due to increased profit. Not the other way round

and thats exactly what MS has done, everybody has to use MS, so everybody has to pay the prices.

 

[Lister2020]

That's sarcasm?

WMP and IE are superior to... well, I don't know, actually. IE is the Devil's Armpit, with Firefox and Opera as superior alternatives. WMP could easily be replaced by Winamp and Media Player Classic.

The fact that part of my fee for Windows goes into these products makes me sad, as by choice, a web browser and media player tied into the OS is just a REALLY bad idea.

And I also disagree that EU fines make Vista twice as expensive over here as in the States. It's profiteering on someone's part, probably jointly MS and the TaxMan...

I absolutely hated firefox 1.5 firefox 2 makes my laptop look like a 486. Opera I tried years ago and didn't like. I've had a cpl of external codecs on my computer and always used wmp and it worked fine.

And the EU fined Microsoft £1million every day last year, and I think they want to continue the fines.

 

[Macro]

And lets not forget, OSX will run on PCs, just only apple ones. Much the same way ipods will only play itunes DRM files, and not others. But then how many others do ?

I'm sure MS would cut the price of the OS if you had to buy their own proprietry and expensive hardware to run it on.

Price up a good midrange or high end Dell PC including Vista home premium against a Apple PC of similar spec with OSX. Now that's a lot of extra money just to have an apple logo and a supposedly "cheap" OS

 

[Mr.Clark]

The law suit is just daft, and was nothing more than EU bigwigs getting all hot under the collar about the ammount of market power a big american software player had, and sweet FA to do with "unfairness" to realplayer.

Actually, I quite agree with the lawsuit.

Rather than a fine, they should have been forced to simply not include Internet Explorer or WMP with Windows (or make them PROPERLY uninstallable).

Maybe I'm just idealistic... it's just that I loathe IE with a passion.

 

[Fr0dders]

I'm sure MS would cut the price of the OS if you had to buy their own proprietry and expensive hardware to run it on.

Price up a good midrange or high end Dell PC including Vista home premium against a Apple PC of similar spec with OSX. Now that's a lot of extra money just to have an apple logo and a supposedly "cheap" OS

that argument doesnt wash

MS controls 90 % percent of the OS market

whatever extra Apple earn from selling their own hardware, pales into insignificance compared to what MS earns from windows

with MS, its not about how much the product costs + a reasonable margin on top for profit. Its about how much they can get away with.

I'm not saying they are different to any other person in the same postiion of controlling a monopoly. Just pointing out why people complain.

if OSX became a competitor to Windows, windows could reduce their prices and still make money. but because there is no competitor, they haven no need to reduces prices.