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Comment by noonespecial | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft has become the "Office and Exchange" company. They should just stop trying to sell OS's altogether and try to get Office onto as many platforms as possible as fast as possible.

If I were MS, I'd be giving away an XP like OS for free just so I'd have a way to get Office out there easier.

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If I were MS, I'd be giving away an XP like OS for free just so I'd have a way to get Office out there easier.

One wonders if this is the strategy Apple has taken with OS.X. The value is in all the iTunes seats not so much the OS seats for them.

It's not that hard to make money giving away an OS when you're the one selling the hardware it runs on.

Apple has always sold the hardware and they never gave the OS away, until the new OS came bundled with an App Store which gives apple a 30% cut on each sale.

Few people did, as there were few Mac users when the OS fit on on one or two floppies and enough Mac users to copy from others when it no longer did, but In the 80's, you could walk into a dealer with a bundle of floppies and get a copy of the latest OS release.

Actually, they cut the price to 29 prior to creating the mac app store. They sold snow leopard for $29 as well, citing its focus on performance/stability rather than new features, and the faster upgrade cycle. I believe the price change had more to do with switching to annual releases

It might not be hard to make money giving away Windows if you're the one selling Office.

It does seem that Microsoft could still be massively profitable if they nearly gave away Windows for desktop while still charging for Office and Windows Server.

There'd be little incentive to pirate Windows if it only cost $25. If you want to monetize that further, sell support packages, offer a Backblaze-like backup service for a monthly subscription fee, and so on.

I think this is what they're leaning toward with their next iteration of Windows in Windows 9/Windows Blue or whatever they're going to call it. Desktop operating systems have become a commodity, but Microsoft still prices theirs like it's the mid 90s.

Agreed. The price in Australia of upgrading from Win7 Pro to Win8 Pro as of now is AU$399 (approx US$420).

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-AU/windows/buy

ouch... the price for US customers is US$199 (AU$189). Don't know what's happening there - its one of the worst price differentials I've ever seen.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/buy

Strange. I am in AU and I upgraded from Win7 - Win8 last year and I only paid ~$30. Maybe that was a short term deal?

There was an upgrade for $39 deal, but it expired on the 31st of January.

Talk on ozbargains is that the deal still works.

That's in infamous Australia tax that is put on everything down here. Expect to pay double for any software, even if it's download only.

Haha this made me laugh :) First the notion that someone would pay to upgrade to Win8, then the price :D Even $40 would have been too much... Apparently they really want everyone switch to Linux.

Emphasis on XP-like. XP itself isn't all that viable anymore, enough time goes by and it is like you are trying to stop the Titanic from going down with duct-tape.

They have several distinct profitable products areas that give good diversity.

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