[citation][nom]lowguppy[/nom]I really dislike the concept of paying for an OS. More often than not people pay for them behind the scenes in the price of a retail computer, or they pirate them. MS has actually taken a pretty soft stance on Windows piracy, as they understand how much of their business is based on market share, and a windows user is a windows user, legal or not. Apple gets props for only charging $50, but really, if you price out the parts in a Mac, you're paying a lot more for OSX than any version of Windows. Netbooks is a good place to start, but I'm interested to see how much they're able to scale it up.[/citation]
Not so much... I mean, if you look at what MS charges OEMs for a license, and compare it to the retail cost of Windows... Microsoft has just accepted that for every paid copy of Windows, you are really paying for about, what, 8 other people to pirate it? No other way the ridiculous retail price tag (as compared to the OEM license) makes sense... Just an agreement with OEMs that essentially encourages people to buy entirely new computers, while covering the 'cost' of the pirates.
At least there's Linux...