[Tfug] [OT] Microsoft Windows 7: Upgrade or just buy a pizza?

[Bexley Hall]

--- On Mon, 4/13/09, keith smith <klsmith2020 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Please do not flame me however there is some validity to
> this strategy.  Look around the Internet.  A lot
> of products have a free version and a paid for version.

I think the difference is that MS is a practical monopoly.
Those products that you allude to are things you can *elect*
to have.  Most folks buying a PC with (slimmed-down-windows)
installed will be surprised when they discover that they
don't really have the computer that they *thought* they bought.
(since most folks think of the OS as part of the computer :< )
 
> I'd have to upgrade because right now I have 6 things
> open and will probably have 10 before long.
> 
> Only allowing 3 task open at once is like saying you can
> only have 3 potato chips.  It's never going to be enough.

The more insidious problem is things that provide some core
functionality yet happen to be implemented in userland (for
whatever reason).  E.g., does a screen capture program count as
a "running application"?  If you open two copies of a web browser,
is that two apps or one?  Etc.

It invites a slew of redesigns as people try to repackage things
to LOOK LIKE a single application (gee, I'll put Word, Access,
PowerPoint, Money, ... into a single "crunch()-ed" executable
and the user can have all of those "applets" running simultaneously
whilst only counting as a single "application" in the ledger!)

<frown>

This sure sounds like MS is having some problems with their
business model!