Forget everything you have ever learned about free market
dynamics and the notion of economies of scale. Never mind what those
naive book worms taught you in Economics 101. Furthermore, get rid
of all that useless basic math knowledge from elementary school.
Finally, disregard everything that your parents have told you about
honesty and honor. After all, the new millennium is coming and the
old rules no longer apply. Welcome to the real world where Microsoft
reigns supreme!
You are now ready to listen to Mark Murray, a Microsoft
spokesman. "[Microsoft] has consistently driven prices
downward," he claimed yesterday in response to
"groundless" allegations that his company has been using its
monopoly position to artificially maintain high prices. Better yet,
he was pleased to inform us that "Microsoft's prices are
generally lower than [those of all their] operating system
competitors."
I guess fighting (and losing) legal battles is tough,
particularly when the well being of a five hundred billion dollar
corporation is at stake. That, however, should not have prevented
Mr. Murray from doing a little research just to double check if his
angry claims have any resemblance to reality. But, then again, the
folks who work on One Microsoft Way don't have the time for such
nonsense. The issue here is trying to uphold the status of the most
"innovative" company, particularly when it comes to press
releases.
Anyway, below you will find a list of some of the more-or-less
mainstream commercial operating system clients and productivity
software suites. This up-to-date information, including the
projected cost of Windows 2000, was compiled based on the current
price quotes from Buy.com and a few other discount software
resellers. I'm sure that, if you search hard enough, you could
stumble upon some better deals. However, I don't think that you will
be able to locate any legal sub-$50 copies of Windows NT.
On the other hand, if you are one of those chosen people who are
allowed to shop at the computer store on Microsoft campus (where any
piece of their software can be had for a nominal fee of $20 or
less), you might find the cost of BeOS prohibitively high. Perhaps,
that is where Mr. Murray got the misconception about the
affordability of Microsoft products…
And now, I am pleased to bring to your attention my own rather
simple version of "findings of fact:"
|
Upgrade |
Full |
|
List |
Retail |
List |
Retail |
Caldera
Linux 2.3 |
--- |
--- |
$49.95 |
$27.95 |
SuSE Linux
6.2 |
--- |
--- |
$49.95 |
$29.99 |
BeOS 4.5
(Intel/PowerPC) |
$25.00 |
--- |
$69.95 |
$35.95 |
IBM PC-DOS
2000 |
--- |
--- |
$65.00 |
$48.86 |
Red Hat
Linux Deluxe 6.1 |
--- |
--- |
$79.95 |
$63.95 |
MacOS
9.0 |
$79.00 |
$56.95 |
$99.00 |
$76.95 |
MS Windows
98 Second Edition |
$109.00 |
$79.95 |
$209.00 |
$151.95 |
IBM OS/2
Warp 4.0 |
$189.00 |
$143.95 |
$299.00 |
$174.95 |
MS Windows
NT 4.0 Workstation |
--- |
$125.95 |
$319.00 |
$192.95 |
MS Windows
Pro 2000 |
--- |
$186.95 |
$319.00 |
$268.95 |
|
|
|
|
|
AppleWorks Office
5.0 |
--- |
--- |
$99.00 |
$74.95 |
Corel WP
Office 2000 |
$109.00 |
$90.95 |
$399.00 |
$261.95 |
Corel WP
Office 2000/w Dragon |
$159.00 |
$130.95 |
$449.00 |
$280.95 |
Corel WP
Office 2000 Pro |
$209.00 |
$174.95 |
$499.00 |
$325.95 |
Lotus
SmartSuite Millennium |
$173.00 |
$130.95 |
$472.00 |
$357.95 |
MS Office
2000 Standard |
$249.00 |
$185.95 |
$499.00 |
$419.95 |
MS Office
2000 SBE |
$249.00 |
$208.95 |
$499.00 |
$419.95 |
MS Office
2000 Pro |
$349.00 |
$248.95 |
$599.00 |
$473.95 |
MS Office
2000 Premium |
$449.00 |
$309.95 |
$799.00 |
$588.95 |
MS Office
2000 Developer |
$649.00 |
$546.95 |
$999.00 |
$842.95 |
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