The cost of an outdated OS

[preacher]

I went to the local computer store looking around, and I saw that they still sold the full version of Windows 98SE for $189, while Windows XP Home is $199. This is ridiculous. This wasnt nearly as surprising as when I saw that they still sols Windows NT 4.0 for $300. Im not sure if MS is trying to

A. Promote use of XP over 98SE
B. Cheat people out of their money on an outdated product
C. Prove that upgrading to XP home from 98SE, and XP Pro from NT 4.0 will have no true benefits
D. Force people to consider using the nwer product.
E. All of the above

Whatever they're trying to do, charging the same price for a 4 year old product as a new one is unfair to consumers. After all would you pay the same price for a four year old 300 mhz CPU as you would for a new 2.4 ghz CPU?

[Heru]

All of the above.

I would never pay 300 dollars for an OS.

Hell, I downloaded every 32 bit Windows just to spite them...

The prices for old outdated versions of Windows is more proof that Ms want money money and more money and doesn't give a shit about the consumer.
This also brought something to mind, have any of you ever actually tried to get tech support from MS?  It's like talking to a tree, they constantly reccomend you reinstall the OS, but half the time that doesn't help.

[Vincent]

Buying your software and hardware from a retail computer store is probably the worst possible place you can get it. The best place to buy hardware and software online at significantly discounted prices is at places like Yahoo Shooping and Pricewatch. Through pricewatch, I've seen full OEMs of Win98 SE go for as low as $80 and XP Home go for as low as $95 (both being full versions).

[Master of Reality]

i dont think i would ever buy an OS.
Whats the point of buying a crapy OS when i can just dl Linux for free. I even downloaded Linux when i had a 28.8 dial up connection.

[Vincent]

Windows XP is my primary OS, but I have to admit that I do pirate all of my OSes an software most of the time. When it's sitting only a few clicks away, spending $95 or more on it isn't easy... especially with the realization that the $95 could be an extra stick of RAM in my system, a new hard drive, or a new 256MB CompactFlash card for my camera. Since most of the software companies are huge corporations that overcharge for their software it's not as if I'll loose any sleep over it either...

[alied_perez]

quote:Originally posted by Vincent:
Windows XP is my primary OS, but I have to admit that I do pirate all of my OSes an software most of the time. When it's sitting only a few clicks away, spending $95 or more on it isn't easy... especially with the realization that the $95 could be an extra stick of RAM in my system, a new hard drive, or a new 256MB CompactFlash card for my camera. Since most of the software companies are huge corporations that overcharge for their software it's not as if I'll loose any sleep over it either...

Well, if you would like ANY FREE FULL M$ product, U should come to Cuba. NOBODY pays a shit to M$ for their products here(at least that I know) and I beleive that NOBODY knows that software should be paid

[Chrono]

I think paying for software is stupid. Most of the good softwares are free and/or not made by huge corporations. I'd rather spend my money on hardwares.

[badkarma]

I think paying for software eventually brings me some bread on my table .... wake up people

[otto]

If you want this Microshit software come to China it sells in all shops for US$1, for the full version of XP Professional and the same price for the full version of Office XP or Office 2000, anybody want the shit I will be happy to send it to you - me personlly I will not even look at it, before I was about many times to jump out of the window, and I live on the 28th floor, 1 year on Linux and I'm much more relaxed, FUCK MICROSOFT, but for the Price in China it is OK for some, for the Real Price well.
I always say it is like buying a new Television set, and just imagine you where watching a program and for no reason it would stop change programs, and the a frequent intervals you will have to re-install the inside, then a sign would pop up " and undisclosed error has happened " the television will will shut down , please restart, and when you want to watch another channel a pop up box will appear saying sorry to watch this channel you must upgrade to TV-XP or TV-NT, you would all be down at the consumer council, to get your money back, how microshit get away with this sort of thing I never know, Price for Windoze XP pro and a television set is more or less the same.

[Calum]

hear that, guys? get a TV instead of windows!

hello again, Otto, btw what did you think of KDE 3? i know it's off topic, but i never got to see yr answer elsewhere...

[Calum]

back on topic, the point is *not* "to pay or not to pay". the point is, if you are forced to pay $xxx and you are not satisfied that you got a good deal, then you are fucked. Give me a choice, about how much to pay based on what i can afford, and how much the product is worth.

in the case of M$, nothing.

AND to reiterate, there is no point in copying yrself a version of windows. The end result is that you end up using windows. that is a big step backwards.

Just because it costs doesn't mean it's worth anything.........

[ May 24, 2002: Message edited by: Calum ]

[otto]

Hi Calum,

KDE 3.0 well not impressed, so I unisntalled it and I'm back with KDE 2.2

I will wait for the next KDE 3.1..

No What I was saying was in England and Denmark the consumer council are very strict, and gives a lot of shops big shit specialy with regard to television sets, so I was saying why do they not give Microshit a deserved hard time for their defective and half finished products ?

[Master of Reality]

quote:Originally posted by otto:
Hi Calum,

KDE 3.0 well not impressed, so I unisntalled it and I'm back with KDE 2.2

I will wait for the next KDE 3.1..

No What I was saying was in England and Denmark the consumer council are very strict, and gives a lot of shops big shit specialy with regard to television sets, so I was saying why do they not give Microshit a deserved hard time for their defective and half finished products ?

how could you possible not be impressed by KDE3????
Its way better than 2.2, KDE 3.0.1 is out now

[ May 24, 2002: Message edited by: Master of Reality ]

[jtpenrod]

quote:I went to the local computer store looking around, and I saw that they still sold the full version of Windows 98SE for $189, while Windows XP Home is $199. This is ridiculous. This wasnt nearly as surprising as when I saw that they still sols Windows NT 4.0 for $300. Im not sure if MS is trying to

A. Promote use of XP over 98SE
B. Cheat people out of their money on an outdated product
C. Prove that upgrading to XP home from 98SE, and XP Pro from NT 4.0 will have no true benefits
D. Force people to consider using the nwer product.
E. All of the above

This isn't a new phenomonon here. And, really, M$ has nothing to do with it. It seems that, not too long after Win XP went retail, the demand for earlier iterations of Windows, in particular Win 98, has picked up greatly. When XP was released, you couldn't find any Win 98 boxed sets in the stores. Now it's everywhere. It's pretty obvious isn't it? There are a lot of folks out there who don't want XP - and its WPA, spyware, nagware, security holes, the endless patching. Unfortunately, they can't seem to make a clean break with all things M$, and so they're driving up demand for Win 98, 98SE, and Win2K.

Also, I went to a Best Buy last week, and guess what? Right there in the computer dept. boxed sets of Linux, Mandrake, SuSE, and Red Hat were featured prominently on the racks.   :eek:  Win XP boxed sets were located off to one side, and on the lowest shelves. Usually, it was always Linux that was kept on those out-of-the-way shelves. Nice turn around there    
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[jtpenrod]

quote:KDE 3.0 well not impressed, so I unisntalled it and I'm back with KDE 2.2

I just got done installing KDE3.0 on Slackware. That wasn't easy considering that this required unloading over a dozen "tarballs", and hunting for a couple of libraries that it needed to run up to its best. But I think it was worth it.    Purrrrrrrrdy slick, I'd say. Not only that, but it also comes with an updated version of Qt that's so much better. Installing just for that alone would make it well worth it. They did a helluva job with KDE3.0
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