[Previous entry: "Mrs. Betty Bowers"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "AVN"]

08/02/2005 Archived Entry: "Microsoft price increases"

All you unfortunates who remain locked into Windows will soon be paying more. Microsoft is raising prices for Office, Windows, and server software. Supposedly this is worth it, according to Steve Ballmer, for "all of the premium work that we're doing in management, and security and e-mail".

Security? Is this the same Microsoft that just tried to block pirated copies of Windows from software updates, only to have their security cracked four days later?

This isn't about premium products. This is about shrinking revenues. Next you can expect that Microsoft will get more aggressive about cutting off support for older products.

This would be a great time to start switching your Windows document processing to OpenOffice, or, if you simply must have vendor support, the compatible StarOffice. Not only will you save money, it will be that much easier to move to Linux when you need to.  —brad