On Fri, 8 Apr 2005 00:09:21 +0100
Stephen Boddy
On Wednesday 06 April 2005 20:46, John Andersen wrote:
Its SO cheap compared to windows (any flavor).
I'm going to be controversial here and disagree with you. Time between Windows XP and Longhorn is going to be roughly 5 years at least. Price of an upgrade will be somewhere in the range of $125 dollars. In that time SuSE will have released ten releases (6 month release cycle). At a cost of $60 for each upgrade you're looking at $600.
I appreciate the significant differences between a Windows release and a SuSE release, and I do like SuSE, but I do wonder about this continuous upgrade path. If anything I'd be happier with a yearly release on the grounds of actually having the OS installed for a reasonable amount of time.
BTW I'm not a Yank, just using dollars coz it was simple math ;-) -- Steve Boddy
Others have pointed out other problems with this simplistic view. Please remember also that there is no obligation to take up every upgrade every six months. I quite often skip one and look at the changes on an annual basis - change of kernel or major upgrade to desktop manager might prompt money outlay. In between, broadband connection and great community of users keeps me up-to-date. In any case, you can upgrade by ftp to a new release. You can make the math come out anywhere you are happy with, whereas Mickey$oft upgrades are effectively compulsory in my experience. I know my wallet is much better off having made the move. Paul.