Yearly pricing?

[Asher_N]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in @g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

It is a new concept. You pay a fee for a license to use the software. The
Software Assurance was instituted for corporate customers. It doesn't
work well for OS because of the OEM license. But there is nothing topping
me from buying my hardware with no OS, and buing the OS through my VLP
and adding on SA. The initial cost is the full price of the OS. The
yearly cost is a portion depending on what MS thinks is a reasonable
update cycle. If they update faster I win, if not, I lose. The numbers
are pretty good though.

One of the reason it makes less sense with an OS is also because with
each new OS comes an ever greater hardware requirement. Your typical home
user updates their OS when they get a new machine.

 

[Bob I]

There is the OEM version which would seem to fulfill your wishes. I
suppose you could start a "Operating System Club" like the "Christmas
Club" they used to do for folks that couldn't seem to set aside money on
their own.

 

[edavid3001]

XP PRO SP2 is $299 for full, $199 for upgrade.

OEM can be found full for $140, but it was my understanding that this
license is for sell only with a new computer and can not be used to
upgrade a computer.

The topic is specifically pointed to upgrading existing hardware.
While your typical user may upgrade OS only at time of hardware
purchase, this is the opposite of my experience.

We are in the process of upgrading around 400 workstations as I write
this. I just did 5 machines today. I have customers that want to
upgrade older machines.

I'll dig into the SA license.
This is a matter of opinion, I guess. IMHO it is not new. I've been
doing this for many years with software. I've been paying yearly fees
for over a decade on some of my mission critical software including
some OSes. I get the latest CD's to install the OS as new versions
become available. I can upgrade when I want, but support for the older
OSes drops after 3 to 5 years. Sometimes I am forced to upgrade
hardware in this process. About 6 years ago this upgrade entailed us
going from a 32BIT OS to a 64BIT OS which was pretty simple, regardless
of our concerns. We obviously upgraded to 64bit hardware at this
time. (Yea, I know, XP is just now going 64bit.... I am accurate in
saying 6 years ago..)

So to me, the concept doesn't seem new.

Enough's been said on this. It's not for everyone, I understand.
Just speaking my mind. Thank you for listening.