News New Vista and Office have ultimate pricepoint

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/05/30/vista_office_ultimate_price/

 

***Me hugs my gentoo destkop environment***

Paying for an OS, phew

No seriously... Is $450 exessive for a program you run day in day out? Ok, it's a bit bite out of the budget, but like it or not, a good OS is 90% of the computer experience... Some people spend thousands of dollars / euros /pounds on uber graphic cards and gigabytes of RAM, just to play that one game? Why not pay $450 for the base of your computer?

 

Any of the Bit staff willing to put up an anoymous poll to c how many of the Bit readers have simply 'obtained' their copy of windows for free....would be intresting, i'd guess in the region of 60-70%

 

Plus the OS does last a long time... it's not like you have to buy a new one every 6 months (actually, the new MS EULA probably states you do)

Same with Office, it's an investment.

The Home/Student version is only $149 which is all most people are going to need. After playing with the latest version I'd be happy to pay that much for it.

You don't hear people complaining about the price of Photoshop when GIMP is free, why should we complain about Office?

 

I did, but not illegal... I got a cd-key for XP Pro (and I emphasise this, LEGALLY) from my highschool. And I could buy MS Office 2003 for €75 from there too...

 

I'd guess more than that

How many people do you know?
How many of those have legal copies of Windows?

Probably closer to 90%

 

Have to say, quite a lot...

On their main pc's (not just for testing/messing about)? All of them, or very close to it...

 

wow

seriously, are they suprised their software gets pirated for that price

 

What can they possibly say to justify those prices? Theres the argument that you use it all the time so it pays for itself but then if you don't have an OS you can't do anything with a computer which makes it useless. Its like how some essiential items don't have any VAT on them. I only got a legal version of windows because my uncle had a licence for 1000 copies for his business and I'm on that (I work for him occasioanlly as well so that helps the legality) otherwise I might not even bothered getting a new computer considering my budget constraints. That or I would have downloaded it from BT but I'm not allowed to say that am I...

 

This is the 'ultimate' OS remember. It's targeted at enthusiasts like us and early adopters, people who do pay a few hundred quid every couple of years to change their graphics cards. Other versions will be a lto cheaper that 90% of people will use and probably even less given they'll probably do an upgrade pack from XP. Also you can bet it will be a lot less than that year after release when they've ironed out the worst of the bugs so ti will actually be worth getting .

 

If you don't have a processor you can't do anything with a computer either... And look how much you pay for that... And an OS outlives a processor...

 

interesting... it's not value for money for me, the only reason to have it would be driectx games without emulation/wine and games arn't worht $450 to me, thats the price of my entire pc

 

Fair enough.

The only people I know will legit copies are those that bought ready built systems. The popularity of P2P programs and the widespread use of DC++ over the campus network doesn't seem to make people want to buy things.

Maybe it this says something about the kind of people I hang around with

 

well i'm guessing 450 is the retail version and what idiots buy those? i actually don't know who buys those. I'll guess the oem could be had for half that price with a piece of "hardware", just like windowsxp. I have two legal oem copies of xppro w/sp2. they were worth the investment as they will last me years as home server plus laptop os. I plan to purchase two copies of vista ultimate as well, one for my media center and one for game pc. these will last me even longer plus virtualization will allow me to work with linux and, if he// freezes over, osx if they release it for pc. these two copies may be my last purchased OSes as I fully expect linux to have fully matured before ms next os and we can all tell ms to shove it

i have no prob using unregistered versions of winxp for testing and such but i am not a crook (sorry always wanted to say that). i'm not rich either, i struggle to keep the electricity on and pay rent while still trying to further my education.

as for office, i havent used it since i took a computer apps class in high school, like 9 years ago. a copy of msworks from like 12 years ago always did what I needed untill openoffice was released and now that does all I need. maybe some people think they need some of its features, i dont think its necessary though.

my girlfriend is an art student and gimp simply does not work for her. she needs photoshop, and its worth the price for her as its integral to her career path.

 

you can't compare the price you pay for a CPU and an OS for one thing when was the last time your CPU crashed on a fault with the CPU? now think about an OS?
paying $450 for an OS is ludicrus in my opinion... specially with microsoft's record of bug after bug after bug... I'm happy with my Linux system, it runs everything I want it to run, even the ocasional game so Mr Gates your not getting my money yet again.

 

450 is just crazy...I could buy an entire PC for that....

ARRRRRR Matey cast the sails, and man the starboard bow...

 

Read my first post, I run linux too... But the OS is, just like the CPU, part of a pc system, and wetter you like it or not, you have to have both for it to work. And most people don't have the time/knowledge to go linux, so windows is here to stay.

True there are cheaper alternatives, but I don't think the price is exessive... I find it so weird, people are willing to spend 500+ on a CPU, 500+ on a GFX card (or set), 300+ on RAM, but the price for the OS just too much. I find that hard to understand... Certainly in a community like Bit. Because your CPU will eventually fail, your GFX will die, but your OS is there to stay...

 

Aww, $450..that's cute.

I intend on switching over to linux for all my functions except for games by the time Vista is required. I may even consider using Cedega and switching entirely.

Anyway, I'd be very intrested in seeing an anonymous poll regarding numbers of bit techers who actually use legal versions of windows.

 

I think this price is silly - whilst I can see the arguments presented here I just don't agree. This is profiteering on a collossal scale. I don't have a problem with Bill Gates making money - that's captialism and I'm a fan. However, for the richest man in the world to charge some of the poorest people in the world this much money is just not right. MS could easily shave money off that figure and still generate a healthy profit and have money for R&D. Furthermore, the monopoly over which MS presides seems to fall outside of the best economic model - we have legislation do deal with monopolies for a reason, and I somewhat feel that the state should step in to reduce prices like these. Whilst I appreciate that the R&D cost is enormous, the marginal cost of producing another copy/license is near zero, and they would make a profit at a tiny fraction of the price.

 

Some folks have already mentioned these points, but:

1) This is the "Ultimate Version" -- that includes "Media Center Capabilities," so in a way it may be like having all the features of both XP and XP MCE. I remember long ago MS was saying their basic version of Vista would be at a good price point to detract from piracy -- and I think they said that if they detected a pirated version on your system, you would be rolled back to this basic version (ie: the basic version is OK to pirate, in a sense) -- so perhaps the basic version will be free, or nearly so (just including the costs of packaging and some markup -- maybe less than $50 is my hope). How many versions live between the "basic" and the "Ultimate"? Each of those needs a distinct price, thus the huge price of the ultimate version that less than 1/200 people will probably really need.

2) Yah, big versions of office have more features than most people need too. I think somebody above mentioned the "Student Version" -- at my school, I can get an academic version of Office (including Word, Excel, and Powerpoint) for $150 -- and that comes with THREE LICENSES -- so $50 each if you have two friends. What percentage of folks need more than Word, Excel and Powerpoint?

3) How much are the current "ultimate" versions of these programs? XP Pro is at least $300 unless you're bright enough to get it OEM for less than $150. The supreme versions of office also run in the several hundred dollar range if you pay for full versions too. Things aren't really changing by much, and we'll likely still have the OEM and Student versions to deal with...along with the cheaper options of using the non-ultimate versions of Vista.