Mac OS X version 10.1, code named Puma, was the second major release of Apple Computer's Mac OS X operating system. It superseded Mac OS X v10.0 and preceded Mac OS X v10.2. It was released on 2001-09-25, as a 'free update', due to the heavy criticism of the last version of Mac OS X. Starting with version 10.1.2, Apple made it the default operating system on new Macs.
Mac OS X version 10.2 "Jaguar" was the third major release of Apple Computer's Mac OS X operating system. It superseded Mac OS X v10.1 code name Puma and preceded Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther." The operating system was initially available on August 24, 2002 for a price of US$129,
Mac OS X version 10.3 "Panther" is the fourth major release of Apple Computer's Mac OS X operating system. It follows Mac OS X v10.2 "Jaguar" and precedes Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger". Apple released Panther on October 24, 2003. The cost from Apple was US$129.00
Not sure about "Tiger" or cost...
So $387.99+ whatever Tiger Costs...
WinXP Service Pack 2 and Soon to be 3 are free...
and your point is?
This article has NOTHING to say about the costs of these various OSes... it is about HOW WELL THEY DO THE JOB.
For the unnumbered time, Echo, OS X is the name of the Operating System... not the revision number. The .x numbers are not just updates or service packs... they are NEW releases.
OS X.0, OS X.1, OS X.2, OS X.3 and OS X.4 offer as much increase in functionality and features, if not more, as the jump from Windows 95 to Windows 98 to Windows 2000 to WindowsXP did. Apple is just capable of doing proper development in a reasonable amount of time.
Tiger costs $129 for a single license, or $199 for a 5-member 'Family' License. That's retail, from the Apple Store.
It can be purchased for as low as $89 from Other World Computing ( www.macsales.com )
As to your costing, I think you've made an error. You're stopping one decimal point early. That is to say, I would compare a service pack to a 10.4.x revision (also free, by the way). So, I'm running 10.4.8, aka, Tiger with benefits (more drivers, plugged security issues, etc., but no change to the underlying functionality of the system, nor the features thereof).
Oh, and a full version of Windows XP (home edition), off the MS website, retails at $199 (vs. $129). The Professional version goes for $299 (vs $129, again).
And SP2/3 are nothing close to the advances in any one of the OS X updates. Definitely, the upgrades since 10.1 would have cost you some money over the years. But then each of those upgrades has been at least the equivalent of an upgrade from Windows 2000 to Windows XP. And, yes, each upgrade actually ran faster on the same hardware.
Apple still releases minor updates for all of their systems in much the same way MS still releases minor updates for windows 2000. And just like may choose 2k over XP some still use 10.1 or 10.2 over 10.4 or 10.5