Why Microsoft is a Ripoff | Hacker News Reader

Why Microsoft is a Ripoff

theanti9.blogspot.com

7 pointstheanti910 comments

This is really fluff. There is no "why" here, he just lists the prices and then says that's a rip-off.

Not really. Remember there are lots of people out there who are completely ignorant of anything outside of Windows. Their entire computing world revolves around it. Over the years they've learned a few tricks, they might know how to setup a printer or share a network drive, maybe they can even reinstall an OS by themselves. These people are basically paying Microsoft a premium for a familiar Windows experience. The value of this experience is their own choice to make. There is also a large industry of MSCE/MSCP/etc types who have built their careers on Microsoft products. For those people a new version of Windows that isn't immediately repulsive to consumers is money in the bank. In both cases the actual quality of the OS isn't relevant. It's all about predictability, familiarity, comfort, backwards compatibility, etc. Windows 7 is closer to what people actually want than Vista was.

Comparing Windows to OS X on a price basis is downright silly. The cost of OS X's development is 100% subsidized by hardware sales. Is Windows 7 a ripoff? Yes, but only because of the differences between the low-end and high-end versions. Talk of upgrades and all that misses the point completely.

The cheapest Dell with Windows 7 is 300 dollars. Everything other than Windows 7 is a ripoff.

Can we leave this kind of mindless 'content' off of HN? It's a valid point (I haven't purchased W7 yet for my Windows boxes because of the cost) but really just flamebait.

I don't think we needed Windows 7 to let us know Microsoft was a ripoff. Perhaps that's just me though. I'll take FOSS over Microsoft any day, but I also don't mind getting into the nitty gritty to make my *nix distro the way I want. I'm convinced that people only buy Microsoft products because they are unaware of FOSS. To them, the only other alternative is to buy a Mac (which is a step in the right direction, but imo, Apple reeks of Microsoft cologne these days)

[edit: my apologies for using 'M$'. no hate intended]

1) M$ on HN? Really? Come on, make your point without the silly name.

2) I buy MS products because I prefer them in many cases. I'm buying Windows 7 because it works great, and I want to move from Win2k8. I use free operating systems every day (and work on my own), but for day-to-day tasks on my local machines, I prefer Windows.

1) sorry, was habit/laziness. I fixed.

2) To each his own, but I think the community support for linux vastly outshines windows support because you're probably talking directly to some sort of developer on *nix forums. Also, I prefer linux from an ideological standpoint. If the machine on my desk is doing something, I want to know exactly why it's doing it. Attempts to do that in windows violate your EULA.

If Linux does what you need it to do, then that's all well and good, but saying "I'm convinced that people only buy Microsoft products because they are unaware of FOSS." is just silly. There are plenty of good reasons to use Windows just like there are plenty of good reasons to use Linux. Use the right tool for the job, and don't make it a religious issue.

Ok, you've certainly proven your wisdom to me, but I still don't agree. When it comes to most normal computers users - old people like my parents, kids that aren't computer geeks - they want internet and email and word processing. Windows does this. Linux does this. Mac does this. Windows - buy my OS. Mac - buy my shiny computer, we'll give you an OS for cheap. Linux - buy a cheap computer, install this free OS. ... Why on earth would you pay more for something? Any logical person would not. As a web dev, I find that MS does things their own way, regardless of what people want. IE writes their own standards, which is unacceptable. MS doesn't bother fixing things in a timely fashion because their friends at the AV companies like that MS is exploitable (could be FUD, but sounds right to me).

I'm just saying that, all things equal, people will choose the cheapest one, and they aren't doing this because they don't know any alternatives.

... Though I am pretty irritated that Adobe STILL won't make a good flash plugin for linux. sick of choppy video. Windows has me there.

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