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ReedN
Wizard
Joined: 04 Jan 2006
Posts: 1279
Location: Portland, Oregon
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 Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 3:34 pm
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| All I can say is thank goodness there exists Apple and Linux to keep Microsoft honest and competitive. |
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Zugg
MASTER
Joined: 25 Sep 2000
Posts: 23379
Location: Colorado, USA
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Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 5:45 pm
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| All I can say is thank goodness there exists Apple and Linux to keep Microsoft honest and competitive. |
I don't actually see them having any effect on Microsoft. Certainly not on the Windows pricing. And Apple makes their money with hardware and not their OS software.
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| Vista's price never fell, so I don't see Windows 7 falling either |
Yep, that's what I'm afraid of. They are perpetuating the business model that you really only get a new version of Windows when you get a new computer. I don't think they really care about customers with existing computers who want to upgrade. Upgrading probably causes them the most support issues, not that they actually provide any support.
It's probably all a big conspiracy plot. They probably get paid by the computer OEMs to keep the Windows prices high to encourage people to just buy a new computer.
I'm betting that companies who have Microsoft support contracts probably get a great deal on Windows upgrades. I remember the big contract we had at Los Alamos with Microsoft...it was sort of like the MSDN subscription and we got the latest versions of everything pretty cheap from a "per desktop" point of view.
I'd be interested in seeing a break-down of their Windows income: consumer upgrade vs OEM pre-installed vs Business contracts. |
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ReedN
Wizard
Joined: 04 Jan 2006
Posts: 1279
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 8:24 pm
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| So you don't see the Windows 7 family pack as Microsoft's answer to Apple's family pack? I do. |
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Zugg
MASTER
Joined: 25 Sep 2000
Posts: 23379
Location: Colorado, USA
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Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2009 5:16 am
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| Yes I do. Except for the major problem in that Microsoft has *discontinued* the family pack. Doesn't count anymore. If Microsoft offers the family pack again in the future, then I would be happy. |
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Zugg
MASTER
Joined: 25 Sep 2000
Posts: 23379
Location: Colorado, USA
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Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 5:33 pm
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| Quote: |
| Chiara's old computer still hasn't powered off, so I still suspect the card scanner for that. I'm going to leave our mail server running on the old computer and see how it goes. |
Well, Chiara's old computer powered off again last night. And it was just running the mail server. When I try to boot it now, it runs Windows but as soon as the mail server starts up, the computer reboots. I can run in Safe mode and I'm currently backing up the mail server files.
Looks like it wasn't the scanner after all. Something else is causing the power-off, and it's getting worse. Looks like I'll be spending the day messing with computers again. Since I know that the mail server software doesn't run well on Windows 7, I'm going to try and resurrect one of my old gaming machines that still have WinXP on them and see if I can get something that will just act as a standalone mail server for us.
It doesn't need to be a very fast computer and I have three or four partial old computers to mess with. As usual...not what I was planning to do today. Sigh. |
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Zugg
MASTER
Joined: 25 Sep 2000
Posts: 23379
Location: Colorado, USA
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Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 10:23 pm
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Looks like I'm not the only one annoyed that Microsoft ended their Family Pack for Windows 7 early:
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/12/why-microsoft-should-let-the-150-windows-7-family-pack-live.ars
http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=2699
From what I have been able to read, it appears that Microsoft specifically canceled the deal to try and get as much retail business during the holiday as possible. The article above examines the economics pretty well and agrees that Microsoft is making a dumb move by limiting the ability of consumers to get the upgrade at a reasonable price.
On the computer hardware news, I've got another WinXP computer up and running. It's my old Alienware computer from about 5 years ago, but it still runs great. I'm waiting for all of our mail files to transfer to the new computer and should have our email back up and running within another hour or so. |
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