>>>>>It's wrong. Flatly wrong. It's an agenda, not a service response.
>>>Almost everybody here would have known....
>>
>>
>>It is why I hate Microsoft, and everything they stand for.
>>
>
>How much did you pay for XP in the first place? Not more than $400, probably a lot less. Why should Microsoft be obliged to provide fixes forever for a cheap product? Does your car manufacturer fix your car for free? If your refrigerator breaks down after 12 years, will the manufacturer or the folks you bought it from fix it for free? It's only in the computer world that we expect stuff to be fixed for free for years and years.
>
>Tamar


I think Microsoft should offer to charge a certain amount for ongoing Windows XP maintenance, as this relates to ongoing labor. But it should not be a lot given the large user base which, when distributed among them, would be only a few dollars per year each (if that).

This is the part you don't get, Tamar: software is different than other things, such as repairing cars. Each car must be fixed individually by a hands-on effort. Software does not require such a thing. Once you've made one working copy with software, everyone on the entire planet can get a copy and use it using nothing more than the effort required to download through the hardware infrastructure which exists, and of which they're already paying for.

I pray that someday you understand that software is not like tangible goods which must be administered one-by-one, and therefore should be charged for one-by-one. Software is different, and operates on the create-once, replicate-infinitely model.

There is nothing else that comes close to that aspect, except for those which are the invisible aspects of Godly gifts: knowledge, ideas, and the like. These things, as would be shared in a teaching environment, can go out infinitely as well, and without a loss to the first one who spoke, nor to any of the speakers. It simply continues on, though with people, something is added at each stage (as parts of the individual are conveyed through the continuation of the source, though with software it is a continuous copy).