Microsoft says we need $100 PCs in order to end piracy

[Deja Q]

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5419179.html

Yeah, but they'll still sell their buggy bloatware operating system for $300.

We already have $500 entry-level crap PCs; with clearance models of reasonably powered systems at the same price, some of which also include a CRT monitor. :wow: (WalMart of all places had a rather decent eMachines box, clearance, new in box, with monitor for $499...)

Uh, Microsoft, lower the price of your jackass software. High prices encourage piracy, nothing else. Forcing hardware vendors to essentially lose money to give away machines won't do them any good.

Hell, in a socialist society where everyone shares, we'd all benefit from each other. (and we could still have our own personal freedoms and privacy, there CAN be a middle ground. Besides, money is the root of all evil. Even the Bible says so.)

[MsUnderstood]

1. Software is the key to ending piracy

Amen to microsoft fixing their prices!

How does microsoft explain the fact that I have to pay $100 retail for xp home and they want $100 PCs? Part of the money I'm paying to dell/gateway for a $500 machine is for the OS supplied by microsoft.

maybe they should get their software price down.

[Deja Q]

2. Dell, et al, get HUGE discounts (and a very brief Microsoft history):

WinXP Pro license (non-upgrade) is $300. (upgrade ed. is $200; upgrade from NT or 2000 only, naturally.)

WinXP Pro OEM (which is what Dell gets) is ~$100.

WinXP Home (non-upgrade) is $200 (upgrade ed. is $100)

Now imagine how much less Dell pays for a XP Home license.

Dell would have to basically give away PCs with XP Pro on them. Uh-huh.

Microsoft needs to put its money where its big loud mouth is and drop their prices big-time.

In the late 1970s, Microsoft made a BASIC compiler for a different hardware product (pre-PC era). The cost of the computer was $300. The BASIC compiler was $300. And people complained and, as a result, either pirated M$'s copy - or wrote their own (which did not make M$ happy.)

Since day 1, Microsoft used every trick (ethical or otherwise) to gain marketshare. (Apple isn't perfect either, but that's another story.)

[Zech Marquis]

3. $100 PC?

I don't think so--the current el cheapo PCS aren't worth more than a normal paperweight.

Besides, the software will still blow chuncks...

[Madrone]

4. Gates should THANK piracy

for helping to give Windows it's marketshare. If not for individuals installing their copies of win95-98 on their friend's and family's computers MS wouldn't have nearly the stranglehold they do now. If those people had to go out and spend 100's of dollars on windows it's unlikely they would have.

[jmowreader]

5. These $100 PCs are for the Third World

In Korea, one old barracks joke was that prices were so low and prostitution so rampant, you could get a shirt, a pair of pants, a beer and a short time for $20.

Well, now you can get Windows XP, Microsoft Office, a beer and a short time for $20.

When a $500 Microsoft program sells for less than the price of a case of VD if you buy the software from odishee who'll burn you a copy in 20 minutes, "guaranteed to work perfect, sir," who is going to buy one in a box with a Microsoft Certificate of Authenticity? Especially since there's no copyright law in a lot of those countries.

[Deja Q]

6. If there's no copyright law, how can they call it piracy?

No law = no crime to commit against. :shrug:

[jmowreader]

7. Microsoft's the ones calling it piracy

In Korea, at least last time I checked, there was no copyright law, hence all the software sellers operated openly.

I got news for 'em: if they're so upset about their wares being copied and resold, they fucking need to quit writing Korean, Chinese, Hindu and Arabic versions of the programs. Those people have done business this way ever since the Apple II was the bad-ass box. They will not stop no matter what Microsoft tries. If you tell some guy in Shenzhen he's got to pay $1200 for a legal copy of Microsoft Office, that guy is going to look at him with a patentable "I only made $1100 all last year; I am NOT giving you people more than a year's pay for a box with a CD in it that I can buy at Krazy Kwan's for 3000 yuan" expression on his face.

[qnr]

8. What's Microsoft?

Oh, nevermind, I vaguely remember hearing of them over the years.