I'm guessing it's actually going to be a bit more expensive than $129. If Leopard is more than just your ordinary "upgrade," that is-- and that's how Steve has presented it. Or, suggested, at least.
Doesn't he suggest that every time? That's what keeps us shelling out for it.
why is apple operating system so much cheaper than micro$ofts. i like it but am just curious becasue i may not be able to wait till leopard to come on to buy a mac and hope it is as cheap as the others.
First, no one pays full price for Windows: you get it at a DEEP discount with new units, or you get it cheap on a corprate agreement, and end-users can buy OEM upgrades (the same way that your neighborhood computer shop buys Windows, not near the discounts that Dell or Sony get.), which are usually half the price of the retail boxed OS. Although Vista OEM pricing is yet to be released, I expect OEM ultimate upgrade to be between $140-$170, keep in mind, OSX is upgrades, never a new license, since you cant run it without the worlds most expensive dongle. a Mac!
How confident are you that you're not overestimating the number of people who get the OEM? Stores wouldn't keep Windows retail boxes in stock if no one bought them.
Also note that with the OEM versions, you're supposedly only able to use them with one machine, ever. Bad if your configuration changes.
MS doesn't really have that much work to do either. After all, they already did most of the work when they came out with DOS
MS bought the company that came out with DOS. It used to be called QDOS, which stood for "quick and dirty operating system." If you take a minute to think about it, that little factoid is strikingly consistent with the last twenty years of Microsoft. They have never made great software. Microsoft's success is a case study of business and marketing shrewdness, but now even that is fading.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Celemourn
How confident are you that you're not overestimating the number of people who get the OEM? Stores wouldn't keep Windows retail boxes in stock if no one bought them.
If you buy a power cord from Newegg, you're eligible for the OEM price. At least that's how it has worked: maybe for Vista they've changed the rules, and we shall see.
....If you buy a power cord from Newegg, you're eligible for the OEM price. At least that's how it has worked: maybe for Vista they've changed the rules, and we shall see.
ROFLMAO... Serious about the power cord? Man, that's such an easy workaround for OEM pricing of Windoze. Damn, wish they had that for Australiaiah.
one thing about the OSX licenses which is really nice is they give you the family option for 199$ to get 5 licenses or you can buy one for 129 and install it on all your machines if you don't mind breaking the license agreement.
If you buy the 5 license version, then it's actually ~40$ per license instead of 300$ for windows XP/vista.
That's what I generally do. But it's a really nice feature of OSX that they don't go crazy trying to keep you from installing on multiple machines with the same Key. I can't tell you how many times, i've had to use someone else's disks to fix a machine, which just wouldn't have worked with windows because of the restrictive and annoying license crap.
I hate to rain on the Windows bashing, but Windows upgrade prices are generally about the same as OS X. I think the original poster was comparing the prices of boxed retail copies, which cost much more. OEM/upgrade prices have typically been between 90-120 dollars. Even Vista's OEM pricing on Newegg is only $130 for Home Premium (what most people will want) and $200 for Ultimate (which adds in many business related and advanced features).
But as freakboy pointed out, for multiple licenses OS X is a much better deal.
Yah...Apple seems to view software as a means to the end to sell hardware. Which is why they offer great software at very competitive prices including the oft cited iTunes ecosystem. OSX is just another example.
I hate to rain on the Windows bashing, but Windows upgrade prices are generally about the same as OS X. I think the original poster was comparing the prices of boxed retail copies, which cost much more. OEM/upgrade prices have typically been between 90-120 dollars. Even Vista's OEM pricing on Newegg is only $130 for Home Premium (what most people will want) and $200 for Ultimate (which adds in many business related and advanced features).
But as freakboy pointed out, for multiple licenses OS X is a much better deal.
That's a good point. And while the OEM versions have more restrictive licenses, they can be a good deal. Plus, because MS only releases every 5 years or so, any computer that is capable of running the new OS will by default be an upgrade. In other words, if it's so old that it's running ME, you're screwed anyway. That compares with the fact that adding a new version of OSX is always an upgrade from a relatively recent version of the OS (no II SIs running tiger).
Windows still sucks. After you get past the compulsion that we all have to compare price, you get to compare usability, stability, and preservation of sanity.
Comments
I'm guessing it's actually going to be a bit more expensive than $129. If Leopard is more than just your ordinary "upgrade," that is-- and that's how Steve has presented it. Or, suggested, at least.
Doesn't he suggest that every time? That's what keeps us shelling out for it.
MS doesn't really have that much work to do either. After all, they already did most of the work when they came out with DOS
Not really; didn't they just buy DOS of someone? haha
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www.macubed.blogspot.com
why is apple operating system so much cheaper than micro$ofts. i like it but am just curious becasue i may not be able to wait till leopard to come on to buy a mac and hope it is as cheap as the others.
First, no one pays full price for Windows: you get it at a DEEP discount with new units, or you get it cheap on a corprate agreement, and end-users can buy OEM upgrades (the same way that your neighborhood computer shop buys Windows, not near the discounts that Dell or Sony get.), which are usually half the price of the retail boxed OS. Although Vista OEM pricing is yet to be released, I expect OEM ultimate upgrade to be between $140-$170, keep in mind, OSX is upgrades, never a new license, since you cant run it without the worlds most expensive dongle. a Mac!
First, no one pays full price for Windows...
How confident are you that you're not overestimating the number of people who get the OEM? Stores wouldn't keep Windows retail boxes in stock if no one bought them.
Also note that with the OEM versions, you're supposedly only able to use them with one machine, ever. Bad if your configuration changes.
MS doesn't really have that much work to do either. After all, they already did most of the work when they came out with DOS
MS bought the company that came out with DOS. It used to be called QDOS, which stood for "quick and dirty operating system." If you take a minute to think about it, that little factoid is strikingly consistent with the last twenty years of Microsoft. They have never made great software. Microsoft's success is a case study of business and marketing shrewdness, but now even that is fading.
How confident are you that you're not overestimating the number of people who get the OEM? Stores wouldn't keep Windows retail boxes in stock if no one bought them.
If you buy a power cord from Newegg, you're eligible for the OEM price. At least that's how it has worked: maybe for Vista they've changed the rules, and we shall see.
Not really; didn't they just buy DOS of someone? haha
Yes, but PC-DOS 2.0 was a rewrite of virtually all code, so that's not a fair assessment.
....If you buy a power cord from Newegg, you're eligible for the OEM price. At least that's how it has worked: maybe for Vista they've changed the rules, and we shall see.
ROFLMAO... Serious about the power cord? Man, that's such an easy workaround for OEM pricing of Windoze. Damn, wish they had that for Australiaiah.
If you buy the 5 license version, then it's actually ~40$ per license instead of 300$ for windows XP/vista.
That's what I generally do. But it's a really nice feature of OSX that they don't go crazy trying to keep you from installing on multiple machines with the same Key. I can't tell you how many times, i've had to use someone else's disks to fix a machine, which just wouldn't have worked with windows because of the restrictive and annoying license crap.
But as freakboy pointed out, for multiple licenses OS X is a much better deal.
Vinea
I hate to rain on the Windows bashing, but Windows upgrade prices are generally about the same as OS X. I think the original poster was comparing the prices of boxed retail copies, which cost much more. OEM/upgrade prices have typically been between 90-120 dollars. Even Vista's OEM pricing on Newegg is only $130 for Home Premium (what most people will want) and $200 for Ultimate (which adds in many business related and advanced features).
But as freakboy pointed out, for multiple licenses OS X is a much better deal.
That's a good point. And while the OEM versions have more restrictive licenses, they can be a good deal. Plus, because MS only releases every 5 years or so, any computer that is capable of running the new OS will by default be an upgrade. In other words, if it's so old that it's running ME, you're screwed anyway. That compares with the fact that adding a new version of OSX is always an upgrade from a relatively recent version of the OS (no II SIs running tiger).
Windows still sucks. After you get past the compulsion that we all have to compare price, you get to compare usability, stability, and preservation of sanity.