I was at Costco the other day, and Microsoft Windows XP upgrades were $185. Why should an upgrade to the OS cost so much? The full version, if you can find it, lists at $299. While Microsoft Windows XP offers users an agreeable standard platform, when you can get a barebones computer for less than the OS, spending this much money is hard to rationalize.
Steve Ballmer is behind these prices. He's a high-price maven. When Microsoft was developing OS/2, he was talking about these sorts of prices. He has all sorts of rationales for such schemes, usually revolving around development costs. The problem is that on the day of release, the development costs are paid off. The rest is gravy.
Needed: A Warload to Free the Slaves
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Source: ABC News