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Is the day of the paid OS over?

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wraith808:
In general, as time has gone on, the number of paid OSes has dropped.  From BeOS, AmigaOS, and OS/2, as MS Windows proliferation killed off the aspirants to the throne, they also had a side effect- that there were more free OSes, and less paid ones, as it became clear that Microsoft was the only OS that could make money off of this basic functionality.  The only other paid OS out there for a long time has been OS X.

Then, with Lion, they moved to a digital distribution, and with Mountain Lion, they dropped the price to $19.99.  Now, OS X 10.9 Mavericks has been released - for free.

This leaves MS as the only paid OS provider, and they have been making missteps left and right it seems.

Are the days of MS using Windows for a large revenue sink over?  Or will they prevail against the winds of change, continuing on as they have been?

As an aside, it is very apparent also that this is where the walled garden gets us- the vertical integration path where the profits can be made from other parts of the revenue stream rather than an up front cost.

References:
http://www.wired.com/business/2013/10/apple-ends-paid-oses/
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/10/23/apple_kills_paid_os_upgrades.html

Carol Haynes:
Probably - especially if they don't start listening to users.

I certainly think Office (the old cash cow) is on the skids - can't say I have met anyone yet who is paying for an annual subscription to 2013 and precious few who have purchased a copy of it. I am still meeting people on a daily basis who are buying 2010 in preference on DVD (even at highly inflated prices), others just moving to OpenOffice or LibreOffice rather than shell out for any version of 2013.

I currently have a MAPs subscription (probably won't renew next May when it comes time to pay again) so I get latest versions as they are released but must admit even with free access to Windows 8 all my machines (apart from one laptop) are still on Windows 7/Office 2010 and I can't see me upgrading any more.

I need to start thinking about decamping to another system. Trouble is I am not sure what to move to - I don't want to lose my entire catalogue of applications and start from scratch. Linux doesn't seem to have the quality of apps I need for photo/video editing and digital recording/mixing/effects type software and moving to Apple would just feel like more of the same.

Really depressing.

wraith808:
I've started with Apple a bit... it's depressing, but I just haven't had good experience with Linux when I tried it before.  I'm past the point of wanting to learn how to use something... I just want it to work.

rgdot:
The Apple hype machine is way too strong. Mavericks is not far from a SP or an upgrade like 8.1, both free. I have checked many "what's new" articles (because admittedly I am not a user) and if you have paid for 10.6+ (for example), why should this NOT be free?

wraith808:
The Apple hype machine is way too strong. Mavericks is not far from a SP or an upgrade like 8.1, both free. I have checked many "what's new" articles (because admittedly I am not a user) and if you have paid for 10.6+ (for example), why should this NOT be free?
-rgdot (October 23, 2013, 06:35 PM)
--- End quote ---

Actually, there's a lot new over mountain lion.

A good overview - http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/10/os-x-10-9/

24 pages.  And it's not fluff.

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