Discussion of WMC & Windows Versions (& pickles)

[foxwood]

No, "Buy one get one free at McDonalds" isn't free.

Humpty Dumpty, meet Mr Murdock.

Mr Murdock, meet Humpty Dumpty.

[hmmurdock]

1) Just because the cost and the price aren't directly coupled, doesn't mean that the price isn't affected by the cost. If adding a $0.10 piece of cheese to a burger only raises the price of the burger $0.05, does that mean the cheese was free? From where I stand, it doesn't really matter what the increase is, if there is an increase, it isn't free.

FFS, will you give over with the cheese thing!!! Cheese has a fixed unit cost - it has no relevance in a discussion about software.

WMC is more correctly viewed as an overhead. It's not the difference between an 89 cent hamburger and a 99 cent cheeseburger, it's the difference between a 99 cent cheeseburger in an air conditioned McDs and a 99 cent cheeseburger at an outdoor food truck on a 95 degree day - is the air conditioning free?

I don't care if you think that's a hypothetical example - the point is that it's a relevant example, and your cheeseburger example isn't.

Even Richard admitted that the reason for the cost of the Media Center Pack in Win 8 wasn't to pay for WMC itself, it was to pay for the 3rd party codecs that Microsoft decided were no longer a fundamental requirement for a Windows machine in 2012.

Settle down chief.

Just because you want to distinguish between a fixed coast and a floating one doesn't mean it has any relevance to the discussion. What difference does it make if your purchase of Windows covers .000001% of the development cost or if it is covering 100% of the packaging cost. The cost is still included. Fixed, or floating, it is still part of the equation. Is there a difference between fixed and floating cost? Absolutely! Does it have any bearing on this discussion? Not in the least.

And yes, ultimately you're paying for the cheese, the burger, the pickle, the air conditioning, the toilet paper, the ketchup, the catsup, the DVD, the packaging, the freight, and yes, even WMC.

[hmmurdock]

Well, actually yes. But to be fair, I was offering to agree that you were right about one point, if you'd agree to being wrong about a different point, so it's not as silly as you make it seem.

No, it's fundamentally the same point. You just tried to dress it up as two different points to make you look more reasonable.

No it is two quite distinct points.

I was offering to agree that the distinction between "free" and "included in the price" was meaningless. That's a language issue.

I was asking you to agree that in all likelihood Microsoft included WMC in the price for Vista and 7. That's an accounting issue.

Two very different things.

But since you're arguing so vehemently about the cost of WMC not being included in Windows, I think I'm going to withdraw that offer. I don't think I'd believe you even if you said it at this point.

I also find you anticheeseburger rhetoric borderline offensive.

[staknhalo]

[hmmurdock]

Credit where credit is due. Well played, sir.