Honestly this is an apples to oranges comparison…no pun intended but hey, I’ll take it.

He’s comparing a package with the media center functionality included for each system where Apple doesn’t really offer anything comparable…at least not yet.

Regardless though the point is made in how Apple can be cheaper than MS. I might wonder if Apple might continue their successful advertisement blitz with something like this when Vista or Leopard are ready to ship. That could be an eye opener for some to see how much more it would cost to upgrade a few systems in a family’s home. One must not forget those laptops as well.

BTW, Apple has yet to use activation…another win!

I can’t comment on the management features. I’ve yet to check out Vista and that’s one of the areas I’ve yet to check out on Macs. I *really* liked what MS did when Win2k shipped by adding gpo’s, wmi, and such so I don’t know where Apple compares there. I would think it can’t be too bad with unix at an admin’s fingertips but I don’t know that it would be too granular especially when talking about Apple’s own or 3rd party software.

Chuck, I’ve also read a lot of negative comments about Vista. I have been playing with it for sometime now and don’t like many things about it, myself. But, most of these things concern the whistles and bells. I don’t need a sidebar, gadgets or Aero, etc. on the desktops in my network. However, I didn’t read many negative reviews about Vista’s new management features. UAC is the only feature in this field which is a complete failure.

If we are talking about the corporate use of an OS on the desktop, there is no real alternative to Windows, and with Vista this gap definitely gets bigger. Since there is no alternative, almost any price is possible at least from an economic point of view. Even with a price of $699, Windows is still cheaper than any other OS if you consider the TCO.

I think, however, there is a high risk that Microsoft annoys too many people especially in the public sector. Many would probably switch to Linux mainly for ideological reasons. I also agree with you that with higher prices for Vista, companies like Apple might get greedy enough to change their strategy and finally develop an OS for the rest of us.

Your point regarding Microsoft just stamping a price on Windows (your example 699.00) would definitely do a couple things, if that were to happen.

1. It would price Windows out of a lot of people’s budgets (I’m using 699.00, not an oem price).

2. The good thing that would come out of that would be that other OS’s would become innovators and it would force people to USE the other operating systems out there and hence improve them (I’m thinking anyway). In my honest opinion, Apple’s OS is closest – price makes it even closer. See this article http://chris.pirillo.com/2006/09/06/windows-vista-needs-family-counseling/

I’ve heard a lot of bad things about Windows Vista so far – the price being so high, just adds to the list. We’ll have to see what actually comes out once the final release is done and stamped on a dvd (or cd) – then I might be able to say whether its really worth it or not – right now, definitely NOT.

If only Apple had the infrastructure and mentality to be an OS company so that they could deliver a version of OSX that could run on all Intel/AMD based systems. That is the only thing that could possibly challenge MS regarding value for the price paid.

These are all retail prices though so it’s yet to be seen where oem pricing will fall as well as volume licensing.