Microsoft: We're not gouging Europe on Windows 7 pricing

InfoWorld ^ | June 30, 2009 | Gregg Keizer

[Paleo Conservative]

Hey EU, be careful what you ask for.

[dayglored]

> Hey EU, be careful what you ask for.

I don't get why Microsoft is being so disingenuous, claiming it doesn't cost more in Europer. OF COURSE they're going to charge more in Europe -- the EU forced MS to make some pretty large changes to the product, and actions have consequences.

Microsoft should grow a pair, and tell the EU, "Okay you got what you asked for. Here's what it costs. Done."

[TommyDale]

Microsoft could charge $1.00 and I would think they are gouging.

[TommyDale]

"Microsoft should grow a pair..."

Maybe the EU should develop their own O/S.

[Publius6961]

Internet explorer 8?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

I tried IE8 last week. What a joke!

It was removed within 24 hours; so fast it left speed burns.

The good news... I was able to install IE7, and so far so good. Sort of.

[BfloGuy]

I agree with the point of your post, but a link to the actual article would have been nice.

[lilylangtree]

I like Mozilla Firefox.

[dayglored]

>> "Microsoft should grow a pair..."

> Maybe the EU should develop their own O/S.

Oh, the the EU has Linux to play with if they want an alternative OS. And if Microsoft keeps screwing around long enough, maybe somebody will figure out how to make Linux useful to Ma and Pa AverageUser. Maybe. But that's a different discussion.

What I meant was, Microsoft should stop apologizing. They don't need the European market that much. They've still got the American business and consumer markets by the balls and know how to squeeze those.

Win7 is a solid product and will sell well.

BTW, with regard to the OS wars, I don't have a dog in that fight.

[dayglored]

> Microsoft could charge $1.00 and I would think they are gouging.

Why? They've got a good product (Win7 Ultimate) that's easily worth, say, $100. I'd pay that happily. $400, no.

I paid Apple $200 for a 5-pack of 10.5 Leopard and felt good about it -- that's $40 a copy. But Apple makes its money on its hardware, not software. That's why they can drop 10.6 Snow Leopard down to $30 or whatever it is.

Microsoft doesn't have that option. $100 for a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate is entirely reasonable. Of course, I'll see that pricing when pigs fly...

[TommyDale]

"Win7 is a solid product and will sell well."

Windows 7 could be the greatest product ever made, but most of us have been burned my Microsoft so many times that we will hang on to XP Pro as long as we can. I doubt Microsoft ever sells like it once did. They really cooked their own goose with Vista, and nearly killed the personal computer industry by trying to force hardware manufacturers to install Vista.

[taxtruth]

I wish I got an apple.

[taxtruth]

Yep,you got it down.I had windows 2000 corp.version and it was great.Now I have vista and it totally stinks.

[TomServo]

Screw th EU...I’d gouge ‘em...

[The Duke]

The good news... I was able to install IE7, and so far so good. Sort of.

I've tried all the browsers on Windows and Linux - and my favorite, by far, is Opera. I particularly love their "speed dial" feature (a special page of favorites that are presented as thumbnail screenshots).

[Paleo Conservative]

I've tried all the browsers on Windows and Linux - and my favorite, by far, is Opera. I particularly love their "speed dial" feature (a special page of favorites that are presented as thumbnail screenshots).

It's the browser I prefer for Free Republic due to the ease of managing multiple open pages. The speed dial is much faster than the default MSNBC.com home page for Internet Exploder.

[Paleo Conservative]

I agree with the point of your post, but a link to the actual article would have been nice.

Try it now. The Admin Moderator fixed it.

[mamelukesabre]

If MS doesn’t gouge europe, then americans are getting ripped off. There’s no reason why I should pay the same for windows as a euro does.

[Cicero]

FWIW, I had a lot of trouble with IE7 on Windows XP. It was very slow to load, often froze on loading, and I frequently had to close it several times using Task Manager before I could get it to function. I stripped it down as much as possible, but it was still almost non-functional.

When I installed IE8, it was also slow at first. But it stopped IE7’s habit of freezing when loaded. And when I did the security upgrades last month, it started loading nice and fast. Now it’s working at least as fast as IE6, yet it has the tabs and other functions that are useful.

[catbertz]

FF 3.5 is out now and its much faster than 3.0

Bear in mind many extensions/addons have not updated, so wait a bit of you use lots. If your experienced then nightly tester tools addon can make them compatible.

[Glenn]

I tried IE8 last week. What a joke!

You sound like a real baseball fan.