and before I finished laughing I noticed on the shelf below it:
I sometimes forget in addition to Windows itself being costly, most people get conned into spending further money on "protection" software.
While open source software is not free, it is very much free of monetary cost. I just have to step back and remember to count my lucky charms at the end of the day that so many devoted developers are committed to the world of Open Source software. It has easily saved me thousands of dollars in closed source software across the piles of computers I have laying around my house.
I'd just like to say thank you to all the developers out there that spend their time hacking away at code for everyone to use and share. Many are grateful for your time and dedication.
Cheers,
~Jeff Hoogland
Open Source software saves millions of people millions of dollars. And it usually works better than Closed Source too.
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Add the Facebook "like" button to your blog posts.
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A Windows license comes with almost all new computers, and Microsoft AV is free. This isn't really anything, as no-one really buys Windows "full retail" versions unless they build their own hardware, because there is no need.
ReplyDeleteEven in the one case I listed, you can buy Windows at a deep discount.
The only reason you see Windows product on retail shelves is because it helps sell new computers pre-loaded with Windows. It is just another Microsoft marketing gimmick.
I don't know anybody who has paid crazy for an ultimate license of win7.
ReplyDeleteMicrosoft security essentials is also free...
Given that, I am typing this from mint10
"The only reason you see Windows product on retail shelves is because it helps sell new computers pre-loaded with Windows. It is just another Microsoft marketing gimmick."
ReplyDeleteAhhhh....so retailers world wide like wasting expensive valuable shelf space on products no one buys or needs so Microsoft can have a "marketing gimmick".
Makes perfect cents to me!
I also find myself chuckling whenever (on rare occasion) I find myself walking through a store that sells such products. What baffles me most is these products' prevalence in schools. Let's pay the teacher more, hmm?
ReplyDelete@March 15, 2011 9:30 PM
ReplyDeleteSomeone simply desperately has to convince himself that Windows costs nothing at all - especially when you pirate it - and all closed source software is inherently superior to all FOSS equivalents, so he is not stupid and the rest of the world is.
Familiar territory, click the link..
In my country, windows and microsoft office are free because everyone pirates them.
ReplyDeleteHowever, time spent cleaning viruses, trying to recover and often losing files, is certainly not free for anyone. That's why I use linux.
Of course, those prices are relative; you neglected to show prices for new computers with 'Starter' or 'Home' editions pre-installed as comparisons, which perhaps, does warrant 'wasted' shelf space. (Let's assume MS pays for that space; is the retailer going to complain?) I've looked @ prices for Win7 versions in retailers in my country (just for a chuckle), & seen stickered values (sic) of $600+. If Mr/Mrs Average-Consumer was interested for whatever reason behove them to look (updating a PC running XP, so they can use Word vers 'X', for example), what would their next thought be? To enquire about Fedora, Mint, Suse, or Ubuntu or whatever flavour that retailer gets money for promoting? Mention any of those names to 99% of retailers here, & they'll probably think they all are sweet flavours!
ReplyDeleteWhatever your thoughts on Microsoft, the post is right on target - thank you so very much to all the fine developers that have made my completely free desktop a possibility. I shudder to think where I'd be without it. Maybe here with a borked SP1:
ReplyDeletehttp://support.microsoft.com/KB/975484
Same reaction. Since I've used been using Linux for so long, I view these products as wasteful. Waste of money, and packaging.
ReplyDeleteA hearty agreement with the sentiments of this post. Very well said.
ReplyDeleteWhat are these things in these photos? I never heard of these companies before.
ReplyDeleteI need to pick up a copy of windows 7 for testing ie9 compatibility in a VM and was pricing it but it's actaully cheaper to buy a HP Mini for $299, install Ubuntu on it and then use the key for your VM install.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Bohdi is looking really good, nice work, going to fire it up and take it for a spin soon
My work has 4 mint10 netbooks that origianlly were xp home, and 1 redhat linux server. The other of the 76 computers are windows, each with a copy of Kaspersky enterprise, with 32 of them with deepfreeze. Each runs windows xp professional, which raised the initial purchase price.
ReplyDelete32 public computers cost 992 per year for deepfreeze
Then there are 71 copies of kaspersky enterprise. That is another 1200 dollars per year, after discount.
Also each has a copy of microsoft office 2007. I have no idea what we paid for that.
People seem to wave the risk of viruses (and cost of antivirus) around as a big reason to not use Windows. I use Windows very frequently (I also use Linux just as frequently) and I'm perfectly pleased with Windows. It is a more refined system, works smoother (albeit not quite as light) and is more visually appealing. I use the internet about 90% of the time that I'm on my computer, given the nature of my job, and despite that, I almost never get a virus. I have never had a virus that caused me any pain beyond having to scan and annihilate it. All in all, Linux is free, but you do get what you pay for. It's more difficult to set up and fix when things get misconfigured, etc. Both are great systems, but I think Windows does plenty and does it well enough that we should give it more credit than we tend to in the Linux community. So they charge a few bucks for it...they provide a lot more jobs in our economy than Linux dev has. I'm just saying...
ReplyDelete