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Microsoft vies for budget laptop market with XP price cuts (ars technica)Microsoft vies for budget laptop market with XP price cuts (ars technica)Posted May 12, 2008 19:33 UTC (Mon) by stijn (subscriber, #570)Parent article: Microsoft vies for budget laptop market with XP price cuts (ars technica) It continues to amaze me that so many sellers of propietary and/or closed source software are erecting completely artificial barriers. Student versions, versions that are limited to one core, demo programs with expiration dates, and the list of crippleware goes a lot further even without help from the Pandora's box that is the EULA. From both the mathematical and the ethical point of view this is completely absurd. I think that from the economic point of view it only makes sense by taking into account things like market inertia, monopolist practices, and seeking legislative support for entirely novel theories of property. To finish an incoherent rant, the "cry piracy" approach surely must start to backfire even worse than it already does.
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Microsoft vies for budget laptop market with XP price cuts (ars technica) Posted May 12, 2008 21:00 UTC (Mon) by chromatic (subscriber, #26207) [Link] It continues to amaze me that so many sellers of propietary and/or closed source software are erecting completely artificial barriers. Almost everything about proprietary software is an artificial barrier; duplication costs are almost irrelevant.
Microsoft vies for budget laptop market with XP price cuts (ars technica) Posted May 12, 2008 22:25 UTC (Mon) by stijn (subscriber, #570) [Link] True. Still, crippleware brings to mind the phrase adding insult to injury.
Microsoft vies for budget laptop market with XP price cuts (ars technica) Posted May 12, 2008 22:56 UTC (Mon) by zotz (guest, #26117) [Link] "True. Still, crippleware brings to mind the phrase adding insult to injury." Yep except I think they might be multiplying by instead of adding to. ~;-) all the best, drew
Microsoft vies for budget laptop market with XP price cuts (ars technica) Posted May 13, 2008 20:18 UTC (Tue) by jmansion (guest, #36515) [Link] So? The cost of providing the implied support that is provided with it is non-zero. Nor is (r&d cost)*(1/probability-of-success)*(1/number-of-units)*(inflation-factor)*(reward-for-risk-factor). ie the required capital return for an investor to bankroll the development. Its very difficult to make a business case for an investment in free software development that isn't essentially monetising something already done by wrapping it up in fancy pants. (If you know how to, please do let on!) Try it, and bear in mind that providing services has a high cost of sales, a high service provider cost, a delay in revenue (so there is a time decay in the effective value), and a problem with competition from low-cost outfits who didn't foot any r&d bill. Lets NOT sneer at pay-for-ware, until we actually have a coherent answer that doesn't see software developed as a hobby, as a side effect of hardware sales, or as a P&R exercise by insurance salesmen (sorry, 'enterprise support providers').
Microsoft vies for budget laptop market with XP price cuts (ars technica) Posted May 12, 2008 23:29 UTC (Mon) by wilreichert (subscriber, #17680) [Link] I disagree with nothing you've said, but try explaining all that to your grandmother.
Microsoft vies for budget laptop market with XP price cuts (ars technica) Posted May 12, 2008 23:42 UTC (Mon) by dmaxwell (guest, #14010) [Link] Well, there's the ever reliable car analogies. Grandmother may remember GM buying up all the streetcar lines just so they could shut them down. She may even remember the sad case of one Preston Tucker. Go from there.
Microsoft vies for budget laptop market with XP price cuts (ars technica) Posted May 13, 2008 2:10 UTC (Tue) by rogblake (guest, #18258) [Link] Bad examples. The "GM streetcar conspiracy" is a myth. For example, see: http://1134.org/stan/ul/GM-et-al.html Likewise in the case of Preston Tucker it is not at all clear that the "Big Three" were behind the SEC investigation that killed the company. (Though of course that conspiracy theory is what was portrayed in the 1989 film, "Tucker: The Man and His Dream.")
Microsoft vies for budget laptop market with XP price cuts (ars technica) Posted May 13, 2008 20:17 UTC (Tue) by martinfick (subscriber, #4455) [Link] Perhaps a more encompassing link that includes several sides of the story would be useful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_Streetcar_Sca...
Microsoft vies for budget laptop market with XP price cuts (ars technica) Posted May 13, 2008 6:14 UTC (Tue) by bojan (subscriber, #14302) [Link] It's all about market segmentation, apparently: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CamelsandRubberDuc...
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