Hi
I wrote this as a response to other thread, but I didn't want to hi-jack that thread. So I'm creating a new one just for the fun of the open discussion.
I had checked a couple of sites in the past that discussed the price of eComStation. Some OS enthusiast say they want to give it a try to eComStation. But when the see the $149 for Home and Student edition price they say that it is too much for just a "wild interest". $149 it is too much for an OS that gives you a 30% chance (am I being kind?) of not running on your computer and that may be incompatible with your hardware. So, for the OS enthusiast, there is a money breaking point of how much they want to spend/risk just to try out the experience of eComStation.
If we compare eCS 2.1 $149 price against Windows, it may sound competitive:
Check out Windows prices (from some sources on the internet)
- $69.99 for DVD upgrades from Windows XP, Vista, or 7 to Windows 8 Pro
- $69.99 for a downloadable upgrade key
- $99.99 for standalone OEM version of Windows 8 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- $139.99 for standalone OEM version of Windows 8 Pro
But that was OEM, let's check out Retail:
- Standard edition - $119.99
- Pro version - $199.99.
eCS 2.1 $149 even looks cheaper than Windows (or Windows may be overpriced), since eComStation costs more to be maintained, since it have less sales than Windows. eCS Home/Student gives you the right to be installed on 5 PCs and there is no crippled version of it, since it will be compared to the Pro version of Windows. I can put a lot more blah, blah, but the fact is that all of this arguments are non valid arguments, since the reality is that we don't have "new" people buying eCS for individual use, not even the OS enthusiast. (I can say this, because I don't see a grow in the community)
The facts are that:
- eCS does not have updated drivers and you may not have sound or network on your computer.
- Windows keeps selling on every new machine (at least the good thing is that the PC market is coming down with it)
- Linux is good enough for an OS and it is free.
- Other experimental OS (ReactOS, HaikuOS) are available for free.
I think that eComStation needs a more aggressive pricing for people that are new to the platform and that want it for individual use. Maybe limiting it more to an specific individual non-commercial use, but giving it cheaper.
Maybe giving a $30 non-commercial individual license, without any subscription or drivers updates, will be a good breaking point for people that wants to give it a try. who knows?
Of course that there is the limitation that IBM wants his OEM fee for each license, but we don't know that agreement. I don't know if IBM is asking $1 dollar of each license or $148

On the end, what is happening is that we do not have any users grow, and they will suck the money out of the legacy until the last one turn off the light.
So, I think that a money sacrifice needs to done on the license cost from Mensys/XEU. The other alternative is to continue with the same model until the last one of the corporate customer migrates to other platform and the last OS/2 user dies (For the moment no one has returned from the death to complain that eCS has no drivers - or is it that the nonliving does not use this forum?
Money is a resource that is required and needed, but it is useless if all the people leave and there is no one left to use the platform. eCS needs to try to move out from the "Legacy Market" because that market is focused to "squeeze money" while it is available and later dump it. It needs to move to a different market, which is hard, but at least it needs to be tried.
This is why I think that all efforts that we made today needs to be done in a way that allows derivative works to be done in the future without the control of only one person or company........ is it the open source solution showing up again?