4 ms·

> Wouldn't the license cost more than the hardware? That's an odd argument. Software has to cost less than the hardware that runs it? When you can get computer

> Wouldn't the license cost more than the hardware? That's an odd argument. Software has to cost less than the hardware that runs it? When you can get computers for $35 or less, that doesn't leave much of a margin.

michaelmrose 8y ago
The user ought to be interested in a term Microsoft has loved in the past. Total cost of ownership. If a user is looking at paying $35 for hardware + $119 for software and doesn't have a desire to pay for real support, as opposed to the imaginary support you get as an oem pc buyer, and we aren't interested in calculating the cost of power and net connectivity etc then the TCO is $154. For $154 you can get a lot more computer with linux. The implication is that for cheap hardware only very cheap software is competitive because people willing to pay that much money would be better spending it on a better computer. The unit cost of duplicating software is so close to zero that it might as well be zero and people are willing to give away great software so selling it becomes a challenge.
- technofiend 8y ago
  >For $154 you can get a lot more computer with linux. Although I totally agree with you for that price you can get also get far more computer with Windows! Refurbished Intel machines with a windows 10 home license can be had all day long for $89+.
  - michaelmrose 8y ago
    If you want a relatively expensive to run space heater slower than the rasberry pi with a 6 year old hard drive which will eat all data not backed up within 1 year. Also note that some of what you backed up will probably be silently corrupted.
    - tasty_freeze 8y ago
      You missed the opportunity to spell Microsoft with a "$". Seriously, you are quoting 90's tribal chants. I'm sitting in front of an 8 year old PC with a quad core, 2.4GHz intel cpu with 8GHz of RAM. It will run rings around any raspberry pi. I use linux machines for work all day long and my home pc for all my personal use. I had one hard drive die a couple years back, but that has nothing to do with the OS. That is all the data loss I've had in 25 years of using PCs. No viruses, and BSOD's are a distant memory (BTW, the linux machines at work crash sometimes too).
      - a1369209993 8y ago
        And you're willing to sell that computer for 89-154 USD?
        mcbits 8y ago
        There are (heavily used) PCs with those specs in that price range on eBay, but they'd be pretty hard to mount on a quadcopter or whatever.
        AnimalMuppet 8y ago
        Maybe tasty_freeze isn't. (Maybe technofiend isn't, either.) But if technofiend is right, then somebody is. That somebody doesn't need to be tasty_freeze. And tasty_freeze isn't the one who made the $89-154 claim. tasty_freeze's claim is that 8-year-old machines work fine, and don't lose data (much).
        michaelmrose 8y ago
        This is what I find on craigslist for $80 System: Window 10 Pro Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU G840 @ 2.80 GHz Memory: 4GB Storage: 250GB It's 6 years old dual core slow hard drive and runs like a dog. You could use the extra money to buy a small ssd instad...
      - saghm 8y ago
        > 8GHz of RAM I assume you mean GB, right?
    - kalleboo 8y ago
      My experience with SD cards suggests the raspberry pi is just as likely to eat your data as an old harddisk
  - AnimalMuppet 8y ago
    > Refurbished Intel machines with a windows 10 home license can be had all day long for $89+. From where? Honestly curious. (I don't need state-of-the-art, and I'm a cheapskate, so...)
    - petecox 8y ago
      Check your local pawnshop. I bought a C2 Duo laptop in 2015 for $AU50 with a 3 month warranty and did the Windows 7 -> 10 upgrade. Earmuffs if you can't stand the fan noise. :)
    - technofiend 8y ago
      Microcenter! This link should work, but if not: microcenter.com -> products -> refurbished deals -> desktops. Select "sort by price, lowest first" and click search. https://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.aspx?N=4294967292+519&NTX=&NR=&filterProperty=&NTT=&NTK=all&page=1&sortby=pricelow&SortNow=Go https://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.aspx?N=429...
bdcravens 8y ago
SQL Server Enterprise costs about $7000 per core, and Adobe Creative Suite (pre-subscription model) was $2600, both oft run on computers that cost less. And those aren't even that expensive overall.

michaelmrose 8y ago

The user ought to be interested in a term Microsoft has loved in the past. Total cost of ownership. If a user is looking at paying $35 for hardware + $119 for software and doesn't have a desire to pay for real support, as opposed to the imaginary support you get as an oem pc buyer, and we aren't interested in calculating the cost of power and net connectivity etc then the TCO is $154. For $154 you can get a lot more computer with linux. The implication is that for cheap hardware only very cheap software is competitive because people willing to pay that much money would be better spending it on a better computer. The unit cost of duplicating software is so close to zero that it might as well be zero and people are willing to give away great software so selling it becomes a challenge.

technofiend 8y ago
>For $154 you can get a lot more computer with linux. Although I totally agree with you for that price you can get also get far more computer with Windows! Refurbished Intel machines with a windows 10 home license can be had all day long for $89+.
- michaelmrose 8y ago
  If you want a relatively expensive to run space heater slower than the rasberry pi with a 6 year old hard drive which will eat all data not backed up within 1 year. Also note that some of what you backed up will probably be silently corrupted.
  - tasty_freeze 8y ago
    You missed the opportunity to spell Microsoft with a "$". Seriously, you are quoting 90's tribal chants. I'm sitting in front of an 8 year old PC with a quad core, 2.4GHz intel cpu with 8GHz of RAM. It will run rings around any raspberry pi. I use linux machines for work all day long and my home pc for all my personal use. I had one hard drive die a couple years back, but that has nothing to do with the OS. That is all the data loss I've had in 25 years of using PCs. No viruses, and BSOD's are a distant memory (BTW, the linux machines at work crash sometimes too).
    - a1369209993 8y ago
      And you're willing to sell that computer for 89-154 USD?
      - mcbits 8y ago
        There are (heavily used) PCs with those specs in that price range on eBay, but they'd be pretty hard to mount on a quadcopter or whatever.
      - AnimalMuppet 8y ago
        Maybe tasty_freeze isn't. (Maybe technofiend isn't, either.) But if technofiend is right, then somebody is. That somebody doesn't need to be tasty_freeze. And tasty_freeze isn't the one who made the $89-154 claim. tasty_freeze's claim is that 8-year-old machines work fine, and don't lose data (much).
        michaelmrose 8y ago
        This is what I find on craigslist for $80 System: Window 10 Pro Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU G840 @ 2.80 GHz Memory: 4GB Storage: 250GB It's 6 years old dual core slow hard drive and runs like a dog. You could use the extra money to buy a small ssd instad...
    - saghm 8y ago
      > 8GHz of RAM I assume you mean GB, right?
  - kalleboo 8y ago
    My experience with SD cards suggests the raspberry pi is just as likely to eat your data as an old harddisk
- AnimalMuppet 8y ago
  > Refurbished Intel machines with a windows 10 home license can be had all day long for $89+. From where? Honestly curious. (I don't need state-of-the-art, and I'm a cheapskate, so...)
  - petecox 8y ago
    Check your local pawnshop. I bought a C2 Duo laptop in 2015 for $AU50 with a 3 month warranty and did the Windows 7 -> 10 upgrade. Earmuffs if you can't stand the fan noise. :)
  - technofiend 8y ago
    Microcenter! This link should work, but if not: microcenter.com -> products -> refurbished deals -> desktops. Select "sort by price, lowest first" and click search. https://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.aspx?N=4294967292+519&NTX=&NR=&filterProperty=&NTT=&NTK=all&page=1&sortby=pricelow&SortNow=Go https://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.aspx?N=429...

bdcravens 8y ago

SQL Server Enterprise costs about $7000 per core, and Adobe Creative Suite (pre-subscription model) was $2600, both oft run on computers that cost less. And those aren't even that expensive overall.