Why Windows 7 Costs so Much
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
I’ve had a couple days now with Windows 7 and it is certainly an improvement over both Vista and XP, requiring slightly less resources than either (significantly less than Vista), booting faster, and offering superior usability. Yeah, but why does it cost so much? I know why.
For a stark contrast, compare Windows 7 with OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, its would-be competitor. I won’t get into the argument over which OS sees the other as competition, maybe they both do. In the marketplace, however, the upgrade version of Snow Leopard costs $49.95 $29.95 ($99.95 $49.95 for a five-machine family pack) while there are twenty different versions of Windows 7 to choose from with the most popular (Windows 7 Home Premium) priced at $119.95.
Is Windows 7 really worth $70 $90 more than Snow Leopard?
(Obvious pricing brain fart above — Bob)
The better question to ask is why Microsoft decided to set the price point where they did? And the answer to that one is quite simple: Microsoft doesn’t actually want you to upgrade to Windows 7 at all.
Microsoft wants you to buy a new Windows 7 PC instead.
Setting the price at $119.95 is a brilliant move on Microsoft’s part. The company doesn’t want users to upgrade so by setting the price high Microsoft is essentially imposing a Windows 7 upgrade tax on users. Buy a new Windows 7 PC from Staples and the software price drops to $49.95, the same as Snow Leopard.
Microsoft likes to make money, hence the Windows 7 tax, but their main reason for setting the price so high is to get us all to buy new computers. That brings Microsoft less revenue per unit but more revenue overall as businesses, for example, decide to upgrade a whole office with new PC’s rather than pay $119.95 per desk just for new software. New PCs come with dramatically lower support costs for Microsoft than do retail upgrades. The pricing ploy makes Microsoft very popular, too with its Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) like HP, Dell, and hundreds of others.
Here’s another piece of evidence aiming in the same direction: have you actually done a Windows 7 upgrade? Mine took seven hours! It shouldn’t have to take that long unless part of the goal was simply to discourage upgrading. Snow Leopard took me 20 minutes to upgrade, but then Apple has no OEMs to please (this is key) and makes lots of money on upgrades even at $49.95.
When Windows 95 was introduced (I was there, shooting Triumph of the Nerds), part of the Bill Gates and Jay Leno performance that day was upgrading a 486/66 machine from Windows 3.1 to Win95. It took about half an hour. With more modern processors, memory, disk drives, and a new OS touted as being lean and mean, why should Windows 7 take significantly longer than that to upgrade?
It shouldn’t, unless speed-of-upgrading wasn’t on the feature list to begin with.
How could you get the prices for OS X so wrong? It would have taken literally 10 seconds to confirm. Pure laziness.
Again, OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard” actually costs US $29 for a single user and $49 for a five-user family pack—not $49/$99.
So much for credibility. You should, at least, correct the blatant error. Any good journalist would.
[...] http://www.cringely.com/2009/10/why-windows-7-costs-so-much/ a few seconds ago from web [...]
“Microsoft wants you to buy a new Windows 7 PC instead.”
That is correct. MS customers is not you or me, they are DELL and HP.
Make the system use resources, blink pretty lights, cause the public to buy bigger machines that use for web browsing.
We need mini OS that do not do every thing. And cut the power.
I totally agree. hence they are so entrenched in the “enterprise” model. Maybe MSFT even gets a kick back benefit in those ugly stocks that the manufacturer pastes on your laptop whenever you buy one. You already own it, what gives them the right to place advertisement stickies on your product. I once asked the store salesperson why those must be there. Some stupid reason about warranty etc. What BS ! Imagine your brand new BMW came with stickers of Michellin, Borsch, Alpine, Cow leather, Chinese carpeting, etc. all over the hood.
The “mini” OS already exists. Drum-roll…….. LINUX! That’s right Distros like DSL and Puppy already provide ultra light, super fast, web browsing goodness.
Win7 takes a lot longer to upgrade than Win95 simply because of the Windows Registry. Not only do you have to keep the software around, but you need to create a relatively _clean_ registry with all the software settings the user’s software expects to be there; and sadly, it is very strewn about – especially by companies that enforce license keys (like Microsoft) where one part of the key may be stored in one place in the registry, and another part in another place (repeat half a dozen times).
Of course, this is also probably why Microsoft has started (slowly, but started) to rescind from the registry and push a bit more for applications to do their own files. Now if they would just make an environment variable for where applications can do system-wide settings (e.g. a system version of %APPDATA%), or better yet a per application version (setup by the system program start functionality)…
I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft did want to push it to OEMs instead of doing upgrades. But consider this – that has always been the case with Microsoft. They’ve never really made upgrades easy – at least since Windows 95. They probably don’t understand how to, and the API stack they’ve promoted since Win95 doesn’t lend itself well to upgrades either. That may be changing some with Vista/Win2008/Win7 as they are starting to do more system maintenance stuff – e.g. storing a link to a specific version of a DLL and enabling applications to be able to differentiate between versions and select/load the correct version. But they still have a long ways to go, and you STILL have the whole registry issue to deal with, which doesn’t get any better.
agreed osx or whatever apple os costs less than win7. Considering I need to buy a mac book, the least one I get is 999) or a pc that I can get 1/3 of the mac price.
You need to consider the mac and pc cost also. The comparison is pure BS.
So a $350 pc laptop is comparable to a MacBook?!?!? You are not a intellectually honest person and if you have to add the cost of the hardware, then you have to add the cost of maintenance and life cycle and longevity and at that point the Mac easily comes out ahead and has a smaller cost of ownership.
So go buy your Dell netbook and eat at McDonalds and purchase your socks at Big K by the bushel and pretend you are not forcing the race to the bottom.
MacGregor What world are you living in. Sorry I forgot there are three worlds out there. The Controlled Apple Mac World. The Controlled Microsoft World, and The FOSS World,
You are not being intellectually honest with yourself. Come on wake up, wake up, it’s day break the sun is rising, As I remember it in my religious teachings Adam and Eve where in the Garden of Eden when Adam went to pick a apple from the forbidden tree, when god said thou shouldn’t pick from this tree, Eve then persuaded Adam to pick the apple and take a bite from it, saying that he would become greater than God, it happens that was not the truth for which he soon found out,
For those that picked and took a bite from Mac’s Apple have and will pay dearly for their wrong choice, Like Adam believed Eve, it is not the truth, when all was revealed, they became powerless had no choice they was lead down the slippery slop, of being conned into the glitz and glamor of eye candy, what they thought it might be,
The morel of this story is proprietary hardware is worse than proprietary software, but when you get both proprietary hardware and software in the same package then that package you purchased does not belong to you, You have no control what so ever with what you bought and thought you owned, For that bite of the Mac Apple you are under Mac’s control, they tell you where you can have your Mac repaired, they tell you that you have to buy all their overpriced accessories, you have to buy all Mac over priced application software from them, and you can’t run their software on a none Mac System,
Yes we will go buy our Dell Netbooks, Notebooks, Laptops and Desktops and eat at McDonalds and purchase our socks at Big K by the bushel and save money in the bargain, and know we are not facing the race to the bottom. Because we know it’s not that far to the top and that last hill is not that steep, though it is steep enough that Mac and MS are sliding down it fast and furious. All because of FOSS, One day in the future you may thank us free thinking people
Hmm, if Apple is so much more expensive, how come virtually all the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) studies of Macs versus PCs have always come out in favor of Apple?
Sure, the initial outlay is more for a Mac. Undeniably. But, it will last longer (since Apple doesn’t peddle low-end crap), and will give less troublesome service. Isn’t less troublesome worth SOMETHING?
The thing missing from your comment is choice.
What apple gives you in stability is because of limited choice, limited freedom. Which to me is the reason i will never buy a mac.
What would you rather have? A os that i can use on any system (netbook to super computer) or a couple of fixed PC’s so its “less troublesome”
Personally i like my freedom. I also believe this is why Windows won the fight. It in my mind is a far better product.
Also realize that Apple does not make there own hardware anymore, its the same equipment we have in our Windows PC’s today and quite a lot of the hardware Apple uses is actually, cheap. This is why Apple is making a huge profit.
Carling, Your religious teaching has Adam picking an Apple from a tree? Sounds more like a made up tale. Check your reference (Bible). Blogs are interesting but not very useful as an accurate source of information. ….. I have a friend who’s brothers friend ……..
Who cares if he got the price of OS X slightly wrong? It doesn’t change the point of the article. People shouldn’t be so nit-picky.
The people who nit-pick on this error are probably horrible bosses.
“Did you get the memo about the new cover sheet for the TPS reports?”
Am I the only one who finds it amusing that all the people piling on Bob for not doing his homework on Snow Leopard pricing obviously didn’t bother to do their homework, by checking the posts to see that this had already been pointed out ad nauseum?
Hey Apple Fanbois…do some fact checking yourselves…that $29 upgrade ONLY
applies if you have already upgraded to Leopard or purchased a Mac w/Leopard. If you haven’t, then you’ll have to purchase the “boxed set”…$169!
One other item that has been COMPLETELY overlooked…
With Windows, even if you purchase a boxed edition of the latest offering, you can
download Service Packs for free for the support life of that operating system…ie.
Windows XP…I run SP2, if I want I can download and install SP3 for free.
Compare that to Mac OSX…Apple has been charging over $100 for what basically
amounts to “service packs”, and the latest “service pack”, code name Snow Leopard
“only costs $29″, if you’ve already applied prior patches to OSX 10.5.
Hopefully, Microsoft will NOT take a page from the “How To Screw Your Fanbois and
GET THEM TO PAY FOR IT!” book by Steve Jobs!
Ha, talk about being overlooked. Lets see, Microsoft puts out Vista, which everyone will agree is crap. How much did all those Vista users pay? Now, Microsoft corrects Vista, calls it 7 and charges you full price. Everyone knows 7 is what Vista was supposed to be. You don’t actually think Microshaft started over do you, haha. So, all these Wintards say, wow! we got ourselves a new OS, yippie. Really, 7 should have been offered as an SP to Vista cause that is all they did is clean it up, add a few touches and re-sell it to the tards. How genious. This is all a product of the herd effect. Wintards are so blind they don’t even see how they are getting taken. On top of that, they actually defend the act despite the fact you put it in their face to read, lol. Microshaft knows exactly what they are doing cause they know their customers, know their customers spending habits and their inability to look past their wallets when making purchases. And the herd moves on. Lol.
I’m not sure what the point is here.
Most people know that MS have iteratively developed every OS they’ve released and that a lot of the core code goes back many years. Why would they start again? That would be pointless, but it doesn’t mean it’s the same OS by any stretch.
As you say, Vista was largely viewed as a spectacular failure, and so releasing Windows 7 as a Vista SP would have been just about the dumbest move they could have made, since everyone hanging back on XP would not have upgraded and the development man hours gone into the numerous changes they made (which for the most part people agree is a substantial improvement) would have a smaller user base, and generated very little comparative income.
No releasing this as Windows 7 was a smart move, since they could put the disaster that Vista is behind them, and with so much positive spin on Windows 7 they’ll probably succeed in getting a lot of XPs base migrated off. Bobs article is especially interesting, because most people who have Vista have recently purchased new PCs, and I would think THAT would be the user base MS would be keen to get moved.
I’m not a MS fan by any stretch, but just bashing the company for anything it does without weighing the pro’s and con’s of what they’ve actually achieved is more than a little pathetic.
I for one am waiting for the dust to settle on the initial launch and see how the OS stands up over time.
PS: You managed to spell ‘genius’ wrong. Oops.
Greg, you were doing fine until you tried to play proofreader. (Something about people in glass houses not throwing stones.) Pointing out the misspelling of “genius” was irrelevant to your rebuttal, bordering on smug. One shouldn’t chide others’ misspellings, however, when one misuses possessive apostrophes, e.g., “pro’s” and “con’s.” Neither of those words are possessives, and should have appeared as “pros” and “cons.” You might also brush up on comma usage, e.g., your “I for one…” should be “I, for one,…”
On a more positive note, this Windows vs. Mac version of the Hatfields and McCoys feud illustrates that both companies have accomplished what all brands aspire to: fierce loyalty.
You can download Microsoft service packs until such time as Microsoft determines that your copy of XP/Vista/7 is bootleg. Then you have to purchase a new copy.
Glenn you have no clue about Mac OSX.
Those every other year upgrades are not service packs. They are upgrades with 100′s of new items, not fixing of mistakes. Those come with free upgrades that take little time and never producing problems or kernel crashes.
I managed a computer lab with half pc’s and half macs and the pc’s always cost more to upgrade, maintain, staff to answer questions and time to troubleshoot. And the public gravitated to the macs.
That is simply the facts, no fanboyness.
Glenn -
Have to not criticize your perception of the “upgrade vs. service pack” model.
But I have to call you out on the “Apple Fanboiz” statement.
There are also a lot of Apple Fangurls that also don’t really care, because the minimal dollars that are spent to keep our “Toy Machines” up to date keep us gainfully employed in jobs where creativity and efficiency are necessary. It is difficult for our employers to outsource creativity.
The days of the “Windows Registry Wizards” are gone … Dell, etc. ,have outsourced support to people who read from scripts, etc. – Plenty of stories on those situations ..
I may see you sometime in a WalMart with a sign saying “Will Tweak Windows Registry Settings for Game Speed for Food” -
I might just toss you a couple of dollars to clear the tears from your eyes.
Windows are meant to be closed sometimes … Good luck – hope you enjoy endless hours of …
Hehe…BHP, you make me laugh! Actually, I’m very much employed, but not in any sort
of I.T. field. You don’t know me, so I don’t expect you to know my profession. I’ll keep an
eye out for you with the sign around your neck “Will unlock your iPhone so you can use
whatever network you desire for food”! <{;-)
Had to do it …
Made my day – I hope whatever you do is successful for you -
I’m eating also, but a lot of people aren’t.
If we couldn’t exchange comments and observations, it would be a boring world.
Let’s find another blog ( Apple vs. Microsoft is a totally fun diversion ) – but there are more important things in the world to debate.
See you in the “Blogosphere” -
Take Care -
Hehe…yeah, I know! We sometimes take life too seriously! And I really did laugh! Your
comment was funny…except for some personal feelings about Walmart, but this is NOT
the time or place.
I’ll give you a hint of my profession…it’s one that I hope you never really need, BUT the
vast majority of people do at some point. I interact with others in similar fields to
hopefully benefit people. Some people think those in my profession know how to read
ancient Egyptian heiroglyphics due to some of the things we decipher…
C U L8R!
Glenn aka Wiz <{;-)
Why would any rational human want to unlock their iPhone just to use another SIM card (in the same country) AFTER signing a 2 year contract. Aren’t you doubling up your monthly cost? If you do not want to sign a contract, then go to France, Singapore or HK and buy a contract free iPhone and pay the “full price”, and then insert you T Mobile SIM card (still can’t be use in Verizon’s weird non GSM system and hope you are happy. And when you get tired of T Mobile, you can then switch to AT&T. But wait, you could have started with AT&T in the first place and pay a much lower up front cost in the first place !
@Glenn G & BHP: glad you guys did that “chummy” thing – but I do want to point out something that was glossed over. With Windows you get the Service Packs free; and Glenn incorrectly likens those to the OS X revisions 10, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, etc. Actually Glenn – OS X has service packs (some “just” bug fixes) too. For example, Tiger went to 10.4.11. Again, some of those 11 revisions were very small bug fixes, but some were noteworthy fixes / improvements just as Windows SPs are intended to be. Oh – and they’re all free. 10.1 was free too; of course it really was necessary to make 10 a fully functional OS.
I do like that the two of you didn’t devolve into trolls though.
Oh, BHP, forgot to mention…I do sometimes close the windows! I don’t feel the need
to promote my old website, so I don’t have a link to it, most of it is getting way old now.
In previous comment I mentioned my old P166…many a time I use it running in just
plain old DOS to access the web, do my email, telnet to a couple of BBSes.
Anyhow, I don’t really care what computer a person uses…I’ve used a multitude of OSes
myself…I don’t see a need to proselytize and evangelize the rest of the internet to use
some perceived “best OS in the world”…if it works for me, cool…if it works for you,
that’s cool! If not, maybe we can try something else. At this moment, I’m using
Opera 9.64 on WinXP SP2…in a few minutes, it might be AIX, or MS DOS 6.22, or
Windows 3.1. My operating system is not a religious object to be worshipped, prayed
to nor sacrificed for.
<{;-)
“My operating system is not a religious object to be worshipped, prayed
to nor sacrificed for.”
Amen – seems like you’ve seen as many as I have -
Too many people get worked up over the “quality” or “cost” of the tools they use …
Wait another five years – same conversations on something we will not have conceived of.
Thanks for your comments -
RE: “Hey Apple Fanbois…do some fact checking yourselves…that $29 upgrade ONLY
applies if you have already upgraded to Leopard or purchased a Mac w/Leopard. If you haven’t, then you’ll have to purchase the “boxed set”…$169!”
WRONG! The Mac OS X Snow Leopard disc will upgrade Tiger (Mac OS X v10.4.x) to Snow Leopard v10.6 WITHOUT the need to upgrade to Leopard first. The cost is only $29, not $169.
Walt Mossberg first mentioned this in his initial review of Snow Leopard.
Well, technically, it will work, but legally, you’re in violation of Apple’s EULA. If you need support, they’ll certainly let you know that!
If you have a Leopard machine, or you upgraded from Tiger to Leopard, you’re legally allowed to get Snow Leopard for $29.
The $169 price adds iLife ’09 (iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, iPhoto, iTunes, Garage Band) and iWork ’09 (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) suites of apps to the OS, which, if you have ever used them, you’ll know are VERY much worth the price. Most home users can get by without a whole lot else, since Mail and iCal are in the OS.
Yeah, Glenn G is a liar … even with his chummy nature … just as I’m sure Lou Dobbs is a very nice person to his daughters immigrant horse trainers.
I don’t know if its even worth it for me to get an upgrade. I need to look into what Windows 7 has to offer before taking the plunge. In terms of buying a new PC, my Toshiba laptop is pretty new (less than a year old) so I’m not going to toss this out anytime soon. I love Mac but they are too rich for my blood. I paid $400 or so for this laptop where a Mac would be four times the price.
The upfront cost of a Mac can be more than a PC, but the long term cost of ownership can be a LOT lower.
Add a virus protection app, an anti-spyware app, an anti-adware app, a decent productivity package like Office, and suddenly the price goes up. Then, figure in costs of your TIME as well as the actual cost to get the PC troubleshot and repaired when it fails with some cryptic user-proof error message.
I have a house full of old G4 and G5 Macs from 1999, 2004, and 2005 that still work fine, and I’ve never had to pay to have them serviced. I’ve been able to troubleshoot them easily, with Apple’s great phone support. Oh, and since OS X came out, we have never had any viruses, malware, or other crapware on any of our four Macs, even though none of them runs any anti-anything stuff.
The PC on the same home net, behind the same firewall, has been attacked several times, despite running SAV and a couple of other anti-attack bastard slow-it-downware apps. And we’ve probably spent enough at the tech support counter getting it fixed to pay for another Mac…
I’ve used Macs and PCs since the mid-1980s, and I can tell you I use the Mac because I want to, but I (only) use the PC because I have to.
“Add a virus protection app, an anti-spyware app, an anti-adware app, a decent productivity package like Office, and suddenly the price goes up. Then, figure in costs of your TIME as well as the actual cost to get the PC troubleshot and repaired when it fails with some cryptic user-proof error message. ”
http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/ – Brilliant and FREE.
“I have a house full of old G4 and G5 Macs from 1999, 2004, and 2005 that still work fine”
Just like my PC has had no issues, the key is understanding. Look around you can still get a working 486 no problem.
“since OS X came out, we have never had any viruses, malware, or other crapware on any of our four Macs, even though none of them runs any anti-anything stuff.”
How would you know if you have nothing to detect it? Also do you realize that Apple officially tells you to get anti virus software.
“The PC on the same home net, behind the same firewall, has been attacked several times, despite running SAV and a couple of other anti-attack bastard slow-it-downware apps. And we’ve probably spent enough at the tech support counter getting it fixed to pay for another Mac…”
Common sense goes a long way. Don’t download anything that you didn’t ask to be downloaded. The most common way malicious software is installed is by the user downloading it and running it. This can happen just as easily on a mac. The only difference is the PC has the biggest market share meaning they are targeted the most.
Id be willing to bet if all the Virus makes in the world wrote a equivalent virus for a mac that they’d be far worse off, at least Microsoft has had the experience and time to learn.
I’m currently typing this from my custom built PC running Windows 7 which i think is absolutely brilliant. If you spend more time using it you’ll realize that a huge amount of work has been done. For instance when you plug in a new device it will quite probably already have its driver! I had to install no motherboard drivers.
Also, when i was using the beta i had a couple of issues, it pop’d up with a window explaining the problem and asking me if it could find a solution to save me the hassle. This is in Windows 7.
[...] [...]
Actually any Mac user with an Intel machine can upgrade to 10.6 for $29, as Apple itself has admitted. The concept of controls on upgrading is Windows-only. There is only one Snow Leopard disc package available, not eight (four times two for upgrade/non-upgrade) as there are for Windows.
Sini…better read this page before you try to upgrade Tiger!!
http://www.apple.com/macosx/specs.html
Have you even tried it? Regardless of what the page at Apple.com says, the Snow Leopard “upgrade” DVD is actually a full installer.
Glenn’s point is still valid and you’re technically violating the EULA if you upgrade wiht the $29 package from Tiger to Snow Leopard…. But, yeah – you can do it (if your hardware supports it) and it will work great.
The same is true about the Win 7 “upgrade” disk. Check out how to do a clean install to a blank hard drive using upgrade media: http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp
So you wanna make me believe that if I update my old AMD Semprom from XP to 7 it’ll free more resources for app’s to run. Really? I doubt it.
Do you have any experiment to fund your affirmations?
Actually, having run 7 on my own old AMD Sempron (2500+, 1.4GHz), it WAS slightly snappier than XP, the only problem I encountered is the ancient ATi Radeon 9250 video card wasn’t supported. It wasn’t supported by Vista either. And that was with just 1GB of RAM.
With much older machines, checking hardware compatibility (hey! Just like linux!) is important.
Hey people! You know, NONE of us have answered Bob’s question about why it took him longer to upgrade to Win 7 from XP compared to upgrading Win31 to Win95! So…I’ll answer him! Don’t know, maybe I’m one of the few that actually used Win31 and Win95 on the same machine!
Bob, the answer is quite simple…it takes longer because we as computer users expect Microsoft to still support all those old legacy hardware addons, software, peripherals, etc.!
Not only the old stuff that may still be attached via some long forgotten serial or parallel port, but any new stuff running via USB, infrared, WIFI, etc.! Having to sniff the system to detect all possible hardware combinations in the “pc” world takes time. Plus, we as users typically have a lot more “stuff” attached to and communicating with our “pc” now compared to 1995. Hardware has also increased exponentially in capacity…when Win95 arrived, it was typical to be running on a hard drive under 525 megabytes, not gigabytes. Many pcs possessed 8 to 16 megabytes of RAM, not 2 to 8 gigabytes.
There…that should answer Bob’s parting question!
<{;-)
That makes no sense. The current crop of 2.4Ghz Dual-Core chips are much faster than a 66mhz 486. I bet in the Microsoft demo they even swapped 12 floppies to load Win ’95.
Have you actually tried a fresh install of Vista + Service Pack 1 + Service Pack 2 + Misc. ‘updates’ on a new box?
Its actually VERY snappy. It tells you something when the ‘updates’ within the first six months of release are larger then the initial installer.
Microsoft was playing catch-up and Windows 7, aside from new window-manager effects is just Vista repackaged with all the aforementioned ‘updates’ minus more dollars from your pocket.
Vista’s initial release was practically unusable on my system, not to mention the registry bloat one gets over time. I challenge you to wipe, reinstall Vista, then hook up to the net and get gigabytes of ‘updates’ and compare that to Windows 7. Tom’s hardware review clearly showed (although not comparing Vista SP2, but rather SP1 to Windows7) the comparison is marginal at best.
I agree with Robert, in that it is true, however, that with Apple its about the software (its about the software stupid!) and that is the reason why the resale value of a dated mac mini PPC still beats the pants off a WinTel of the same era (you’d have to pay to actually get rid of the WinTel -or just run *nix on it and stick it in a closet).
How else could Apple justify marginally-decent hardware specs? Its because unlike the cutting-edge, brand new WinTel box, the drivers and hardware have been vetted.
So take your choice, have last year’s hardware with software that ‘just works’ or the cutting-edge paperweight that may eventually work when joe-schmoe OEM gets around to updating the drivers and by then will have no market value what-so-ever. Just make sure you have a few bottles of aspirin handy…
Gad, what a bunch of morons!! Oh my, oh my, Windows 7 cost more than Snow Leopard!! Apple HW cost more then Windows HW. Upgrades take soooo long…
For heaven sake. For the cost of a download (that would be $0 for those of you from California) I’ve got a more stable, less virus prone OS with more applications than any of you for however many dollars you spend. Oh and, by the way, it’ll run on MAC or PC or ARM or Coldfire or PIC or anyone of a dozen types of hardware. Last MB I bought had it in the BIOS!!
Save your money and make your life easy. Get a Penguin and toss your big cat out the windows….
It is ALL about getting things done with a painless, worry-free user experience.
I want to do my computing without thinking about the computer. That’s why I’ll pay more for a Mac. It’s worth it to me not to have to think about what I’m doing, and what’s in the way of it.
Maybe the hardware isn’t “bleeding edge,” but I’m okay with that. I’d rather have a Toyota on the turnpike than a Chevy in the shop.
I’ve watched some friends try to upgrade their three-year-old PCs from XP Pro SP3 to Win 7, and it has not been pretty. One guy’s wife told him to go down to the Apple store and buy a Mac after he spent his entire Saturday trying to get their PCs running stably with the new OS. They still can’t print from their PCs to their old HP printer, but their new iMac can! The guy was amazed when he told me it took all of about 20 minutes to get his iMac configured, and about an hour to move all his data over.
Dude, don’t make fun of my Chevy – it stays on the highway just fine, not in the shop. No turnpikes around here though……. ; – )
More importantly: the “approved” automotive metaphor for Apple’s Mac is a BMW not a Toyota. Were talking driving / computing “machine” here!
Last I heard, there is no upgrade path from XP to 7, you have to do a clean install, or XP to Vista to 7, which would be insane. A fresh install of 7 is a breeze, took me an hour or so on a four year old box, and most of that was unattended, didn’t have to babysit it like an XP install. If it took your buddy all day to configure 7 and install his apps, that’s hardly Microsoft’s fault.
I’ve had a scanner quit working after installing the latest flavor of OS-X. Even though Apple was still selling that model on their website, there were no updated drivers for it. Compatibility with old hardware is always a crapshoot, regardless of OS.
Ha, talk about being overlooked. Lets see, Microsoft puts out Vista, which everyone will agree is crap. How much did all those Vista users pay? Now, Microsoft corrects Vista, calls it 7 and charges you full price. Everyone knows 7 is what Vista was supposed to be. You don’t actually think Microshaft started over do you, haha. So, all these Wintards say, wow! we got ourselves a new OS, yippie. Really, 7 should have been offered as an SP to Vista cause that is all they did is clean it up, add a few touches and re-sell it to the tards. How genious. This is all a product of the herd effect. Wintards are so blind they don’t even see how they are getting taken. On top of that, they actually defend the act despite the fact you put it in their face to read, lol. Microshaft knows exactly what they are doing cause they know their customers, know their customers spending habits and their inability to look past their wallets when making purchases. And the herd moves on. Lol.
[...] the original: I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Why Windows 7 Costs so Much … This entry was posted by Andrianq and posted on October 27, 2009 at 4:25 am and filed under [...]
I remember the pain involved installing windows 95 from DOS and the added pain of trying to find drivers for your sound, graphics and modem… those were the days!
I love the multi-touch on windows 7 and the split screen view to compare to documents, very nice.
Install time as a marketing tactic? I dunno about that one, although I do agree about the upgrading PC point–I noticed a lot of offers for a free upgrade to Windows 7 with the purchase of a new PC, like Lenovo for example
While it also took me 7 (maybe that’s why it’s called Windows 7
) hours to make a clean install, whenever I finally made it to the desktop, my PC was *incredibly* slow. Since I had been running Windows XP (32-bit) on my Core 2 Duo, I hadn’t bothered to flash my BIOS. As soon as I flashed my BIOS, everything was blazing. I’m not positive but I feel pretty sure that if I were to do another install of Windows 7 with this updated BIOS, it’d take me half the time.
Nonetheless, how long did it take everyone else to install?
[...] I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Why Windows 7 Costs so Much … [...]
Windows Registry, Updated BIOS, DLL diarrhea, Bloated OS for day long hang-over.
No thanks.
[...] I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Why Windows 7 Costs so Much … [...]
Students can buy a windows 7 upgrade for $30 in USA, $40 in Canada. So if the point is to make consumers buy new computers, and students make up a big part of the customer base, why are they exempt?
I’ve got a simpler explanation: the windows OS has always been expensive to buy, because Microsoft charges what they can make off it. To my recollection the Vista upgrade was about the same price when it came out. Furthermore, Microsoft has a huge marketing operation to feed off the work of the handful of programmers actually responsible for the OS. So I imagine that defines a pretty lofty floor price.
Microsoft didn’t advertise that there is no upgrade path from Vista to the 64 bit version of Windows 7. To get to 64 bit, you need to perform a complete reinstall of all of your applications and a reconfiguration of the entire system.
Though I would have preferred to run the 64 bit version on my dual core Dell D630, I was in a hurry to get a stable system. So I choose the easier route to run the multi-hour upgrade to the 32 bit version of Windows 7 Professional. That was a mistake.
I’m guessing that Vista baggage (probably registry) was carried into the Windows 7 installation. Every few hours, the computer freezes (sometimes even the mouse will freeze). If the mouse can still move and I wait two to ten minutes the computer may come back to life (about 50% of time). But when I give up and crash it via the power button, it takes a LOT more time to boot than the typical slow.
Yesterday, I discovered an error message that stated that it crashed upon trying to recover from hibernate (which is interesting because I had left it in “sleep”). It took over 30 minutes to get a desktop.
And yes, the entire OS has also crashed (vs freeze) while using the new IE.
Needless to say, I’m giving up on this upgrade. This weekend I’ll wipe it, and create a fresh install of the 64 bit version and a reinstall/reconfigure everything.
That failing, I’m sure glad that I have a spare license for Windows XP professional.
Choose the “custom install” option. That’s the best way to install a new OS. Of course you need to backup your data and reinstall your apps but it will be a “clean install” in the end.
[...] agrees that “Windows 7 costs so much,” to quote his latest headline. Here is a new Vista 7 cartoon which promotes GNU/Linux and here is a [...]
Still wrong. It’s $29.00 and $49.00, not $29.95 and $49.95, respectively.
Apple’s prices are usually round figures. They don’t play the “tack on .99 or .95 to try to fool the customer out of another dollar” game. They respect their customers (unlike Microsoft).
By that reasoning they should have made it $30 and $50.
[...] costo di Windows 7 // Cringley spiega secondo lui perchè Windows 7 costa così tanto, più di Snow Leopard (anche se bisognerebbe far distinzione tra due modelli diversi, [...]
[...] I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Why Windows 7 Costs so Much … [...]
[...] I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Why Windows 7 Costs so Much … [...]
“…requiring slightly less resources…”
E tu, Bob? Is there NO ONE left who knows the word “fewer”?
I haven’t done the upgrade yet, but my clean installs have all been reasonably fast. Oh, and I paid $29.99 for mine with the student discount.
The main reason why WIndows is so expensive: Because Microsoft cannot get the idea that good software can be cheap or even free. If Windows 7 is so good, it must be expensive.
I was just reading an article on Microsoft’s reaction to the success of Android. They don’t get it. They’re absolutely confused. As former Windows mobile partner after partner abandons Windows Mobile for Android, Microsoft’s reaction is of complete perplexment. “But, the OS is free!”, they keep saying, “It can’t be any good. How is Google making money on it? That means Google will not support it.”
You can see it in their sneery Linux comments. “Linux isn’t a real operating system because it’s free.”
Windows will always be the dominant desktop OS. The absolute worst case scenario is Apple seizing about 15% of the desktop market with Linux Distros seizing another 5%. That’ll leave the Windows monopoly with a nice 80% share which is bigger than Apple’s share of the MP3 market.
Unfortunately, it is the mobile market place where the action is, and Microsoft is simply AWOL. Windows Mobile is fourth behind Mac OS X (iPhone/iPod Touch), Symbian, and RIM’s BlackBerry. By the end of next year, they’ll be fifth behind Andriod. If Palm get’s its act together — sixth place.
Microsoft’s three prong attack on the mobile market: Windows Mobile 7, Project Pink, and the “Zune Phone” have all fallen due to corporate infighting and simply not understanding that people no longer care about Windows. Even Internet Explorer, the weapon Microsoft once used to almost successfully take over the Internet has become irrelevant. WebKit is the dominant browser technology on the mobile scene (used by Android, iPhone, and PalmPre), and becoming HTML5 compatible is more important than being able to run .NET, Silverlight, or even old ActiveX websites.
Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, users of Netscape saw thousands of Websites with the message “This site viewed best with Internet Explorer”. Now, it is the IE users who are seeing this message.
Studabaker was one of the top horse carriage makers in the 19th century marketplace. IBM was the dominant computer maker for the mainframe world for the last half of the 20th century. Microsoft Windows is now the proud owner of the dominant desktop operating system for the first decade of the 21st century. The question is whether that means anything when the next decade comes rolling around.
“Now, it is the IE users who are seeing this message.” Could you provide a link to an example? And which browser do they say “viewed best with…”?
Triumph of the Nerds: I remember you signing off at the end, something about “see you again in 10 years”. Isn’t it time for another video? =) Thanks again for that excellent piece! I love the video and share it with many!
It seems that you will have to implement captcha to avoid the spam link as commenter names.
Great idea. I vote for that. Or just give some mods the power to delete spam posts and the word “fanboi”
My upgrade from Vista to 7 took me 30-45min – not sure why it took you 7 hours.
You can also get the Windows 7 Family Pack for 149.99. That brings the price back down to $50 each. If you’re going to use the Family Pack price for OS X you have to use it for Win7. But we all know that, looking strictly at cost per copy, linux beats them both.
sheesh. you PC vs Mac guys are like nascar rednecks i grew up with in the south who are still arguin’ ford vs chevy. or like phobes afraid to work around non-hets. or just angry whiners.
as dir of IT for large ad agency, pls note:
- we have a 75/25 Mac/PC split. our creatives use Macs, the execs use PCs.
- we pay an avg 33% more for Macs than we do PCs. mainly due to better Apple monitors to enable/ensure color calibration/matching, + fast processors and 16 gigs of ram to render graphics.
- in last 6 yrs, 86% of our IT support time was devoted to supporting those 25% PCs. but hardly ever due to hardware problems; it’s what we call the “software wars”. MS vs Adobe vs whatever. plus virus protection, which we call the “valley of tears”.
- our creatives do most of their own updates and upkeep on their Macs. they are paid way less than my MCSEs.
- i do not allow vista in our company. not after 2 disastrous Dells with Vista print spooler dilemmas and a general creeping machine malaise. win 7 is thus years away for us.
- my 10-yr old son just updated his iMac to Snow Leopard. i watched.
When it comes to the Mac guys, I can’t help but think “Thou doest protest too much.” It’s like they are continually trying to justify their decision to themselves.
No, not a 75/25 Split:
It’s a 75/20/5 Split.
Windows/Mac/Linux
Execs= Windows, Creatives= Macs, IT-Proffesionals=Linux (with a desktop, not this console linux versions)
and on Server market i thing much more Linux
[...] I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Why Windows 7 Costs so Much … [...]
Not gonna work on me. My copy of Windows 7 is on its way!
[...] I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Why Windows 7 Costs so Much … [...]
[...] I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Why Windows 7 Costs so Much … [...]
[...] I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Why Windows 7 Costs so Much – Cringely on technology [...]
I was debating whether I should buy a new desktop 2 years ago when Vista came out since we had 5 computers in the house but none would work well with Vista.
Then my 15 yr old neighbour gave me a Linux CD. I had tried it a few years ago and thought the UI was still lacking but this time around was a different story.
Short story, forward to Vista 7′s release and we have added two netbooks to the familys loot since then and ALL the machines now run Linux. We keep a copy of XP virtualized for the few PC games that the kids still want to play (Chessmaster, David Douillet Judo, Spore).
ive used every Windows OS since DOS and even Mac at work (Mac 8 and 9 were absolute garbage)
and the switch wasnt very difficult. DIfferent but not difficult.
The big difference is the desktops (Linux offers more than one) have matured and the one I use called KDE (which is more familiar to Windows converts) is as good as both the OS 10 and Vista7.
And while I use Mandriva2009 with KDE4.3 desktop, I also use lighter desktop for my 8-10 year old desktop and Thinkpad so not only do I have a top notch OS which gets updated/bug fixed every day, I also get a new OS version every 6 months.. for FREE and I am also very green since I dont have to buy a new computer when I can extend the lives of the ones I have.
With the economy, kids and so on, free is nice but free that works well and gives me piece of mind, that’s priceless.
So Windows 7 can be half the price and I still see no reason to switch back (ive installed the RC7) since Vista made me realize that it is now possible to have a great desktop for no money down and no payment. Just like I realized earlier that Firefox was as good/better than IE and that paying for Word was silly since Open Office did everything I needed.
My father has been a penguinista since last year and my mom received her first computer ever this spring, a 2nd hand Acer laptop/tank i bought online for 150$ (it has no battery but mom doesnt travel and this thing is too heavy for her to lug around anyways). Dad had been an XP user since he retired about 8-9 years ago but mom is in her 70s and never touched a computer before.
She now surfs the net, emails, listens to music while she cooks and IM her friends and Skype’s all the time and KDE’s configurability is perfect for bad vision…
It truly is easy enough for people from 7 to 77 to use.
Why would we go back to paying and me spending my time doing the virus/malware upgrade/clean. dance again?
Heck, Im willing to pay so I never have to do that ever gain.
Thanks Vista, you made me realize that I dont need you anymore.
You are right.
I’m using since 4 years on my Laptop only Linux. In the past Mandriva(because of support) but now i’m switched to Ubuntu. And i’m really happy with it.
On my Standart PC is Windows 7 installed, but i get it for free, and need it for some games or when I have to support people at home in Win7. Normally i’m even there using Linux.
There is only one thing i’m missing on Linux (and the reason why win7 is installed), better Game Support trough WINE or good native Linux games.
[...] I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Why Windows 7 Costs so Much … [...]
How does a tech writer, who expects to have ANY cred, screw up the prices that bad? Lazy ass moron.
Microsoft’s strategy does seem to work. From my experience, even if you try to invoke the “refund the OS” clause of the Microsoft EULA to get rid of Windows (and install something useful like Linux), you have to fight tooth and nail just to get a paltry sum back. Microsoft knows how to make its customers very happy (as long as those customers remain Dell, HP, etc.). Unfortunately, Microsoft’s misinformation campaigns and massive advertising budget keep end-users from realizing they do have other viable options. Microsoft will continue to rake in the massive profits as long as end-users are never presented with something else that’s “good enough”.
I’m guessing that another reason is the profusion of VM installs. I’m not going to buy a new computer just to get windows. But I do run XP in Virtualbox on my sidux (Linux) install and in Parallels on my employer’s Macbook. At some point I might have to upgrade the VMs, but I’m hoping the client that I need to have windows for will stay on XP for a long time. I really don’t like the idea of changing over to windows “L”. (Great comment there, Bob.)
What Microsoft needs is a feature in their OS that is linked to a software library that is validated by peer review of the source code featured in said library. This way, if I need a free app or shareware or whatever for a project due tomorrow, I don’t accidentally download a spyware/virus riddled software. If it’s not in the library, I don’t download it. They could call it a Microsoft Software Suppository, or Suppo for short.
Basta con echar una mirada en OfficeDepot para darse cuenta que la mayoria de las computadoras, que ahora vienen con Windows Vista 7, subieron de precio: entre doscientos y quinientos dolares, segun la marca y el modelo.
Es una verdadera tontería pagar por Windows Vista Service Pack 7, entre 220 y 450 dls (en Mexico), cuando puedes bajar la distribución que más te guste de tu pinguinux favorito. No cuesta un centavo y funciona en casi todo tipo de hardware.
Y además puedes prestar el disco de instalacion, o regalarlo a quien quieras sin problemas de licencias. Las actualizaciones son gratuitas y por lo general no crean problemas en el sistema operativo o las aplicaciones instaladas.
Desde luego que algunas cosas se manejan de manera diferente que en Windows o en Mac, pero una vez que dominas el entorno te das cuenta de que trabajas tan bien o mucho mejor que con otros sistemas.
Y tambien tu cartera se siente mejor: mas llena.
Saludines!!!
[...] Micro$oft in fact innovates — in everything except tech. Like tax cheating and other dishonest behavior. And look, the leader in innovation just discovered what kind of show “Family Guy” is! This, after spending millions for a special Win7-selling episode. Genius! More about that here. The truth about Win 7 is here. [...]
SWITCH TO LINUX! Unless your gaming (3-d intensive like COD 4, TF2, ect) or using highly specialized engineering/scientific software, then just go LINUX. The cost to you is no more than $3 for bandwidth, hard drive space, a blank Dvd-R\W, and time spent installing (unless your Bill Gates or Steve Jobs/Ballmer). Most people claim that’s too complicated, but that’s just a lazy excuse. If you need help, there are way better forums, tutorials, and guides for any major Linux distro as compared to “main stream” operating systems. Ubuntu is easy, faster, and more secure than either Windows or OS X. So the real question is – can you afford to be lazy?