Windows 7 - Should Microsoft Windows 7 be free of charge?

Microsoft’s' newest operating system, Windows 7, has a new campaign out. The advertisements follow certain people around, and they end up showing how "I'm a PC and Windows 7 was my idea".

Of course Microsoft's new operating system was someone else's idea. They haven't had an original idea in any of their operating systems. They have all been stolen from other companies or people. For example, their last operating system Vista was blatantly stolen from Apple's Mac OS X. There were so many similarities, that you cannot chalk it up to coincidence.

But since Microsoft is finally openly admitting to stealing other people's creative ideas, perhaps the entire PC user world should create a class action suit demanding their cut of the profits. Microsoft isn't providing their new product "free of charge" to all of these users that contributed to the new operating system, are they? Did these people receive a paycheck to show that they were under the employment of Microsoft and therefore they own those ideas? Nope. But Microsoft is charging anywhere between $119.99 and $319.99 USD for a license to run the software (you still can't own your own copy; you can only buy rights to use it).

It just seems to be illicit in my opinion. What do you think?

I think that every company steals ideas from its competitor, usually makes improvements on them. Nothing new there, nothing will change there.

For the paycheck part, eh. Have no real comment on that, at this time.

The price is a bit high but no one is making you upgrade to the latest. Its YOUR money, spend it how YOU want to.

You are apparently not aware what it costs to develop a program, let alone an operating system. If you were chipping in part of the cost, then maybe you should get a free copy.

I am sure that everyone would like it to be free of charge, but from a business stand point, it should not be. MS is in the business of developing and selling the software. If it were free we would still be using Windows 98. It may have a different name, but it would not be anything like the great OS that we are using now.

You have the option of buying one version of an OS, may it be, Window 98 or ME, and use it for life, for no extra cost. Original cost 150 use it for 30 years, the cost is now 5 dollars a year. Don't laugh, if MS made if free that is what we would be using. Now how about security updates. That is not free, I know that I am willing to pay, to protect my valuable computer and the programs that I have purchased.

Companies always borrow ideas and concepts from one another. Not to mention, as technology increases...they have more to work with and thus new things are available which weren't possible 15 years ago. So as this marketspace changes....new and emerging trends will develop and companies will have to adapt their products to use them.

I think the key is

• Which company provides the best implementation of the functionality
• Which company provides the most compatibility with hardware and other software
• Which company can provide that functionality at the best price point.

I think the upgrade prices and such for Windows 7 are fair. And they are more or less in line with OS X which has charged around $120 for the major upgrades to their OS's...from Panther, to Tiger to Leopard, etc. And unlike OS X..you aren't tied into having to use Apple's own proprietary hardware and pay hand over fist for the physical machine to run it.

And if you aren't satisfied with your experience and the purchase price of Windows...there are tons of Linux distros which are available free of charge that you can try and evaluate. Microsoft in no way has me over a barrel. I'm perfectly functional in other OS's.

Nothing to see here...time to move along....

LOL, my $500 toy.

xolo: there are so many holes in your post I'm not even going to bother quoting them all. This entire thread is rediculus. And I think your trolling, that is what I think.

eh...

That is debatable. No, no one is standing right next to me physically forcing me to however indirectly I am being forced to. Support for XP is going to fall off (it already has) by Microsoft and third party developers, Vista is pointless with 7 out, and thus if I want to keep my system secure and compatible I need to upgrade to Windows 7.

Example. Directx 10/11 is not supported under Windows XP for no other reason then... Microsoft does't want to. So in order to take advantage of these API's (many reasons to want/need to) I have to upgrade to at least Vista which is pointless thus Windows 7.

I had two more but now lost my train of thought... anyway you get the point.

As far as the contribution of ideas and getting paid for it... I as well am not going to comment on this matter.

However I will say I do beleive that Windows 7 should be significantly cheaper then it is. Personally I think for $300 Ultimate should come with a 3 computer license and lesser versions should not cost more then $100 for a single license. Basically what the OEM discs cost is what I think retail should cost and OEM less then that. Or make OEM considerably cheaper for its rediculous constraint that if I build a new computer (decomissioning the old one) that I have to purchase a new license.

Incase you missed the point of the "I'm a PC and Windows 7 was my idea" ad campaign, it's not based on Microsoft stealing the ideas of others. It's based on user feedback. We spoke. Microsoft listened. Thus Windows 7 was our idea.

Oh, for for just in case you didn't know: Apple is just as guilty of stealing other peoples odeas as you claim Microsoft is (and Microsoft DIDN'T steal anything): Apple stole the concept of the GUI from Xerox, and Steve Jobs was too stupid to let a fledgling Micro Soft have access to the GUI of the first Apple computers. Micro Soft perfected it, and today (many years later) we have Windows 7. Microsoft didn't steal from Apple. The modern GUI was given to them by Apple.