On 5/23/06, Dinesh Joshi dinesh.a.joshi@gmail.com wrote:

We all would be using this...

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/flexgo/payasyougo.mspx

It's now official. Microsoft has gone I.N.S.A.N.E. >:(

:)

I'd rather prefer they paying me some money for using their OS.

Sometime Today, DJ cobbled together some glyphs to say:

I feel these people rather use GNU/Linux, which is not only *free*, but you get to _own_ it unlike M$ Windoze which you pay for but _you_ dont _own_ it :/

Umm, you don't own linux. You own a licence to use, modify, redistribute it, just like you own a licence to use windows.

On Tuesday 23 May 2006 02:14, Nikhil Marathe wrote:

Unfortunately flexgo was mentioned in today's mumbai mirror, this may have a lot of takers in rural areas, where linux could provide better features

ROTFL...AFAIK flexgo requires an active internet connection. I dont think there is good rural internet connectivity in India which is affordable at the rural level. Besides, I dont know who is going to bear the maintenence costs ( of the PC and all ).

Ahem...one more practical difficulty is that rural India has electricity for like 4-8 hours daily in which people will be more interested in their work rather than "waste" their time in using the computer... And even if they do use the computer during that time we really can't say of the quality of electricity (fluctuations, surges???) ;)

I feel these people rather use GNU/Linux, which is not only *free*, but you get to _own_ it unlike M$ Windoze which you pay for but _you_ dont _own_ it :/

On Tue, May 23, 2006 at 04:56:12PM +0530, Anurag wrote:

Sometime on Tue, May 23, 2006 at 03:19:50PM +0000, Dinesh Joshi said:

...

Yes, thats what I meant. And no...this new flexgo thingy means you "hire" windows and not own it :P

You always `hire' windows. Normally its like an unlimited period offer. This one looks like prepaid.

Are there any dealers in rural areas, that supply legal versions of softwares? And why would the rural population suddenly decide to buy software?

However, this is a very good marketing strategey from M$. It keeps full tabs on the lower end users and the other softwares they could be using in their systems.

Regards,

Rony.

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On 23/05/06 23:30 +0530, Siddhesh Poyarekar wrote: <snip>

something worth paying for. I still don't understand the value of paying Rs. 500 per month forever instead of buying the OS outright for Rs. 10,000.

Because the immediate value of 10000 units of currency is far higher than the cost of 500 units of currency over a few years. This is the same reason why people take loans.

Devdas Bhagat

On Friday 26 May 2006 11:45, Warren Noronha wrote:

No. Flexgo is more like a hire purchase scheme. You pay in installments, and after a bunch of installments you own the license.

It's still _lame_.

Its nice to read up on this before you slam things.

I did. They call it the prepaid PC. I "slammed" it because the idea sounds lame [to me].

[quote]

"Prepaid computers give the consumer access. The consumer only pays for the prepaid computer when he uses it. And from the retailer's point of view, it's an intelligent solution because the consumer can't use the computer unless he pays. So we see a win-win situation. It reduces the cost for the consumer, because he pays the installments only when he is effectively using the machine, and it's a better financing option for the retailer..."

[/quote]

800 hours is insane... but thats _my_ POW :)

Dear Terrence,

Pay in installements for a licence which prevents you from doing anything with your comp. HA

This is what you THINK... 90% people do think otherwise. :-)

-- Rgds JTD

With regards,

On Tuesday 30 May 2006 03:15 am, Dinesh Joshi wrote:

On Monday 29 May 2006 16:01, Dinesh Shah wrote:

...

This is what you THINK... 90% people do think otherwise. :-)

Umm...actually its 95% and we are happy being among the retarded 5% :).

I am seriously considering palming off that XP clone distro as "XP++ SP secret" for $$$.