D&C GLug - Home Page

[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]

Re: [LUG] Microsoft announce 6 versions of Windows 7

 

On Wed, 4 Feb 2009, Neil Williams wrote:

> The number of applications a user can run at a time is only limited by 
> the amount of memory (real and virtual). I don't see the point of MS 
> restricting things like that - it's completely machine-specific. Must be 
> shome mistake.

Never underestimate the greed of the corporate engine.

I come across this all the time in the PBX "industry". Traditionally 
*everything* is licensed and somewhat artificially restricted. Sometimes 
it is a hardware issue, but mostly not.

So you have a PBX, would you like extensions with that? That'll be XXX for 
each license and YYY per month maintenance. Oh, you want voicemail? 
That'll be ZZZ, etc.

I have had resellers of my PBX kit ask me to put in limitations so they 
could impose such conditions themselves - then sell their clients 
additional extensions, voicemail, features like call & hunt groups and so 
on. (I refused - primarily because I couldn't be bothered to write the 
code to artificially reduce the capabilities!)

Now I do have offerings with different capabilities, but they're due to 
hardware constraints rather than arbitrary software impositions.

Microsoft are just being greedy, but it could be seen as a good marketing 
ploy from their point of view (and I've seen similar in other places) Not 
that I'm a fan of MS, but seen from their point of view - Sell the entry 
level for way under the going rate, then when the clients outgrow it, they 
can have the full-whack for an additional payment.

A bit like getting kids in 3rd world countries hooked on tobacco...

Gordon

-- 
The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG
http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list
FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html