Originally posted by BitWit
Windows service packs are FREE. Im talking about fixing bugs, not adding features. Can you image if Window2000 SP1, SP2, and SP3 were all $129 each?
Being a windows user... Those Service packs many network admins either hate or enjoy installing... the reason is with M$ products... there is a high turn over when you install an SP1 etc... Sometimes the computer that gets it does not react well at all... For instance... many of the networked computers may have different video cards, motherboards and processors... Sometimes the SP's... do not react well and crash one computer thus sometimes... not all the time... destroying the network... or better terms holding it up...
Windows won't dare charge for a SP yet... However the time is coming for it... Why you may ask? .NET... Yes... That one annoying plattform that Billy boy has his fingers crossed that will be highly secured... along with stability... he's counting on .NET to be a monthly charge...
Also rumored is Office 11... Once this version comes out... It is said there will be a pay option for any upgrades online and will start to highly incorporate the online/.NET apps... The beginning.
The days of free SP's from M$ are growing short... and I know some of you may be saying... "Wow, Sirtovin is on a rant..." but it is true... Bill doesn't want to keep giving 125mb downloads like SP1 was for XP... for free... Heck no... It makes him look bad... and it pisses people off who still use 56k modems... not to mention the fact he loses money for the bad publicity even though it's positive normally in the long one... SP1 for XP was a positive and negative for Bill...
Positive because for once it got the Justice Department off his back... because he made a program tool to disable IE, WMP, and a few other so called essentials for XP...
Negative because again it pissed people who work in the network field off due to the fact that if they had a Warez.. (which I do not condone...) They were sol... because they didn't have a proper 25 digit number to reacttivate windows...
I am glad Apple doesn't ask users to put in 25 digit combo codes to unlock their software... That they try to trust their user base against warez... etc... I again do not mind paying $125 for an upgrade that is FULL and not just a UPGRADE if you don't have a previous version of Mac OS whatever etc... as the example...
But Bill... Windows XP PRO FULL $299
Windows XP PRO UPGRADE $199
Windows XP HOME $199
Windows XP HOME UPGRADE $99
(Clearly anyone can see this man's making a monopolized version of money... for all his upgrade paths...) Apple... One Upgrade... One Price One Full Version normally $125.
This to me is smart...