Re: A9home

In message <fa0257314f.Paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Paul Stewart <paulstewart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In message <gemini.jpvdfe00sul6f01mc.ray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Ray Dawson <ray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Paul Stewart <paulstewart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<Snip>

WXP SP3 is due out (1st quarter, I think I read) next year.

And it will be free, like the previous ones :-)

No doubt if ROL had as much resources and money as Microsoft, they too
would be able to produce regular free updates to each major OS
revision. Howerver, as we all know, they do not and as such have to
charge for what users on other platforms have come to expect for free.

It's all part and parcel of being a niche platform.


Funnily enough, notwithstanding the commodity prices of PCs, the free
updates, and availability of free (or, theoretically, pirated) software, all
of my PC-owning friends have spent 3-10 times as much on computers and
software as I have. Were I a PC-owning type I'd expect to be in at about the
lower end of that range myself - that is, standing at about 3x my current
actual expenditure.

The Linux geek friend may have spent very little on commercial stuff except
for games, but he has spent a fortune on keeping his PCs at the leading edge
of what's available - he'll probably have something with quad processors in
it by the next time I go to visit him. The Windows-centric users have spent
roughly half as much on hardware, in comparison to him, but they have made
up the extra with software costs.

In the RISC OS world, I don't think I could match their expenditure on
hardware and software even if I had the money and set out to do so. There
aren't enough products available to spend that sort of money on, even if I
bought every Acorn widget and piece of software I've ever wanted.

Now, they do all have faster, far more games-capable PCs than my Iyo. But my
Iyonix still does everything I need it to do, at speeds that mostly compare
favorably to that available in PC-land, and at a third the total cost.
What's this about Acorns inevitably being dearer, again? With my (admittedly
unusually specialised) requirements, Acorns have easily saved me 3-5 grand
over what I'd have spent in PC or Mac land. Maybe as much as 8 grand. And I
still wouldn't have benefitted from a better or more relaxing computing
experience either; I speak reasonably fluent Windows, Linux and Mac, so I
know what I'm missing. And it sure ain't worth the 3-5 grand extra it would
have cost me to attain it. For me, going down that route would be more like
a negative value of -1-2k, I reckon.

This post was not intended to be advocacy; I was more interested in
highlighting the perceived cost differentials between the platforms, (at
least, my own perception of them, which certainly will not accord with
everyone else's). However, I have set follow-ups to csa.advocacy to be on
the safe side.


--
Simon Smith

When emailing me, please use my preferred email address, which is on my web
site at http://www.simon-smith.org
.

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