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Near enough... from a mate whom got it on employee purchase Cheesecake
ie <£20

However id still feel it would be worth purchasing the os at normal retail or possibly oem if i had to, as Glider correctly says, the OS is as important as the hardware inside the machine, so something to always factor in.

 

I bought the OEM for £60 and project it to last 2-3 years which is £20-£30 per year for an operating system. My alternative is linux. It doesn't seem that much to pay for a years use of Windows which is much better for my needs than linux, especially when I'm forking out £30 every month or two for a single computer game which I probably wont be playing consistently for 2-3 months let alone 2-3 years.

I think its a shame though, I think microsoft turning off the bit that disabled your system in the WGA was a good move - yes notify users that it's a copy, but don't break the whole PC. Now they're going one step backwards. They want to force people to buy it, but die hard pirates never will and those in the margins aren't going to be endeared to Microsoft if they are crippling their software, it's just going to annoy people who will get a fix that will no doubt be on torrent sites a few days after the update.

It's like terrorism in a sense. You can't defeat an ideology by chucking bombs at it until they go 'oh, ok, we give up now and will play by your rules', you need to go through the route of looking at the issue, understanding the motives and finally trying to come to some kind of compromise so that all parties are satisfied.

 

My mate (honest i'm still on XP) runs a pirated version of Vista and XP and has never had an issue with WGA he just doesn't let it install in the updates. Have they changed it?

 

I've recently been forced to use a pirated copy of Windows, because all three of my genuine disks would fail at some point during the installation. I got pissed, downloaded the 500mb file, and it worked fine, but I ended up buying a new DVD drive to get the real ones to work.

I wouldn't call it dodgy, it installed quicker than the genuine copies... Also, nlite is a godsend.

 

If you're thinking that Vista is too expensive, think of it like a game

You want a game to have a good play time, right? Don't want it to be over too quickly, and get good re-playability factor. Games are roughly £30 for the premium decent games, some offering up to 60-100hrs of play time.

Think how long you spend using the core OS, then compare the cost of the OS with the cost of the aforementioned example game. Good value? Of course it is. Nay-sayers shut the hell up.

I personally think that Vista is good value for what you get. I like Vista, it runs more stabily for me than XP and my PC is 4 years old! I've been running Vista for over a year now and never had any form of BSoD, and only twice has it siezed up requiring a restart.

What i do object to, however, is the price difference between Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate. I just don't think that the extras included with Ultimate is worth that price difference - even including Ultimate Extras which pretty much just allows you to use videos as wallpapers, and VLC can do that anyway! Even saying that, though, If I was building a PC from scratch (which I will be doing soon) I would still gladly pay for Ultimate x64 as I do believe that the cost is worth it when compared to the cost of the hardware!

 

yes. university Cheesecake! 2 years down, 2 years to go, don't want the good times to end.

that argument on game prices actually stand up very well. well said.

 

There's more satisfaction needed then having a valid license key, being able to use your OS properly, and getting Updates and support from Microsoft?

 

pirates? ****!

pretty much everyone i know uses pirate copys of windows. its not comparable to hardware atall. nor is the argument "you spend 100+ on a CPU pr GFX card why not OS???!" valid,.

downloading a illegal OS is easy, extremely accessible, and it saves £60-100. thats why people do it. and thats why people will NEVER stop. alot of people have a mentality of if its free why pay?

to say i/you/he/she or we spend money on a GPU but not OS is a poor example... the oppurtunity to download/obtain or... steal for a more accurate term a GTX280 is not given to us in the same easy way, so therefore, we do no not. risks are higher, and for a start we have to leave the comfort of our chair.

you cant stop the pirates, and am i being simple? or can you just opt not to install this piece of annoying software called a update, and carry on installing updates from else where? i know ive seen a few places that hold microsft updates with out the need to check you've you a legit copy.

oh! and people download games too, for free, like a dirty pirate.

[i do not support pirates, as developers need money and credit like any other professional. but you cant stop them]

 

support from microsoft? for what reason would anyone ever need support from them?
remember.. its not hardware, so it cant fail, oem version costs a whole lot less, sure you wont get support from ms, but what could they help you with anyway?

back to topic, whats the point of telling pirates that they have a illegal copy of the software they are using? like they woudnt know allready, microsoft should grow some brain, if someone decides he doesnt care about the people who loose their job due to piracy then no stupid message on the screen is going to change their opinion.

 

So as long as it's easy it's ok? There is a thing called morals... There are FREE alternatives, but that would require YOU to change your attitude, but we don't want to do that do we?

I just wish MS would enforce their EULA's a bit more, and I'm all in favor of constant online activation (like Steam). Those freeloaders ruin everything for legit users. Like game downloaders, regardless of the fact that anti piracy rootkits don't work, they are there because smartasses steal software.

 

Havent checked Prices in a long time:

Hmmm, the OEM version of:

Vista Business 64 100€ Retail 260€
Vista Ultimate 64 125€ Retail 240€

XP Professional 64 110€ Retail 230€

might buy it.

 

Morals are something thats severly lacking these days imo, I blame the parents and the government for allowing chavs to breed for benifits..

 

I get all my software liscences from Uni, I got 3 seats of xp a few years back for $15, and I just got a seat of vista and xp for free this year.

not pirating cause the school is paying for it
but I'm glad I don't have to buy windows

in terms of the whole graphics card/os thing.
I think it's mostly psychological.

hardware of a computer is A) tangible and differen't priced and types of hardware offer differen't user features if you want a media pc or a gaming rig you'll buy special hardware and don't mind paying the price premium for the performance you want. on Pc's an Os is a very universal and basic function of the computer so while yes OS's do have a real cost and should be paid for its sort of like buying a car and then having to pay extra for the dashboard and stearing wheel.
Every PC needs an os and the vast majority run windows and it's really not that special, I think pyschologically it's just taken for granted that the os will be there and people aren't willing to pay extra for it. I know I hate paying for windows I feel like I've already bought it once why do i need to buy it again? luckily I have many legit and legal liscences but still

 

So you've never broken your OS by doing some silly edit of a file/setting and made everything crash, or gotten some BSOD you cannot figure out how to fix? Have you actually ever called Microsoft?

Their support is pretty good and worthwhile.


Also, the point of telling them they are using an illegal copy is to make them get a legit copy by inconveniencing the person with the illegal copy. There are also many shops that install illegal copies of an OS onto an unknowing customer's computer and tells them they got a "free upgrade" and the customer, being potentially computer illiterate, doesn't think much of it, until they get that message.

 

I think this is perfectly excusable, if you run legit vista you've got nothing to worry about, if you aren't, then you deserve it.

 

When I was building my new pc, I'll be honest and say i seriously considered the possibility of pirating windows vista. The reason I use Windows is not one purely of choice, but a fact of life that we are locked-in to this system, good or bad, primarily when talking about software like games. In the end I took the approach many of you have suggested... thinking of it as an investment.

I ended up paying for the OEM copy of Vista x64 to ensure I have a secure, up to date system, that I know some pirate hasnt inserted some malicious code onto or that microoft wont be bullying me to 'upgrade' to a full copy.

In fairness its a good argument that you cant expect to shed all your cash on a top of the line computer, then start pirating the OS purely because "its too expensive". If you can afford a quadcore, you can afford Vista, simple as that.

 

I agree except.... what happens to the poor sod that somehow triggers a false-positive.

 

Leopard may be £85, and using a pirate copy is still bad, but if you do, there's no validations or WGA stylee crap with it. One disc does ALL Macs. Only the bundles ones are machine specific, but that's down to drivers, where the full version holds everything.

As for Windows:

Home Premium OEM @ £62.26 (32/64 Bit)
XP Home @ £58.74

That's bugger all to shell out for an OS. How many here play a subscription based game such as EVE or WoW, or subscribe to XBox Live? All of which cost more per year to use than shelling out for an OS.

 

Oooooo, OEM Vista for only £60?

Yeah, enjoy attempting to upgrade your motherboard.

 

What upgrade, phone MS, get a new key, enjoy, whats difficult there?