Re: User Linux

Bennett, Patrick wrote:

-----Original Message-----
From: fedora-list-admin@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:fedora-list-admin@xxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Brent Fox
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 11:54 AM
To: fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: User Linux

Also, just to make it fair, the $99 price for Windows XP Home is for

the upgrade version. The retail price for the full version of Windows
XP Home is $199:

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=316255

Then add Office 2003 to that at $369 for the full version:
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=539386

$199 + $369 = $568

Well, to make it *really* fair you can't count Office in the price
calculations since OpenOffice is available for Windows as well.
The same could be said for a fair number of packages that are being
considered part of the Linux bundle/price-advantage comparison.

But you are still missing the point.
He was complaining about the effort to upgrade everything. Do you --really-- think he (or most Windows users) would take the idea that software is available for free and really use it.
In my experience most feel that FREE IS BAD as far as quality is concerned. They would rather pay $300 - $500 for an application that is FREE for the open source community (MS Office vs OpenOffice, Photoshop vs Gimp, etc), than try and obtain/install/use something that is free as far as cost but is perceived as low quality or just plain dangerous.

This is a case where perception makes the decision rather than a free spirit and willingness to try something new.