“Hey Baby. Looking for a good time…?”

We’ve laughed, we’ve cried.  It’s been a rocky and tumultuous relationship.  Often times, we will go prancing hand in hand and others I strongly must resist the urge to smack her around a bit and leave her for another mistress.

I’m talking about Windows of course.

After this latest rumored betrayal, how can I learn to trust again?  As it is already, Microsoft is already overcharging the hell out of their products.  There, I said it.  I know others have said this before, but I always have sided on the defense of Microsoft.  “Development costs, support costs, value (examples like Office which have several functions built into one).”  But if I have to start shelling out for specific components of an operating system, especially media features that were standard… there will be no more forgiveness. 

The worst part about the whole thing is the idea of a subscription; the absence of actual ownership makes my skin crawl.  With the number of free, or relatively inexpensive alternatives, how dare they?  You can get just about any flavor of linux that you’d like with minimal effort; hell, even Apple’s OS X offers a full version of there product with every feature Apple offers for $129.  A 5-License “Family Pack” is available for $199.  To get five licenses of Vista Home Premium you would spend $1200.

To think that for one minute I’m going to shell out for an incomplete OS and then shell out even more (perhaps continuously) to flesh it out is absurd.  I know that this entire rant is on the premise that Microsoft will overcharge for all of this, but there has been precedent.

I’ll leave you with this:

-Gr00veMerchant

Why pay more?