Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Introduces Pay-as-You-Go Computing
An anonymous reader writes "Geekzone is reporting that Microsoft is introducing a new business model for 'pay-as-you-go computing.' From the article: 'The pay-as-you-go computing model enabled by Microsoft's FlexGo technology allows customers to have a fully featured PC at home by paying only for the time as they use it through the purchase of prepaid activation cards or tokens. Microsoft has been running trials of the program in Brazil for more than a year and will soon be expanding to select markets in India, Russia, China and Mexico.'" This makes me giggle, because it's basically the return of time-sharing; in the past it was for for mainframe systems, but I suppose the same concept behind the mainframe idea would be true in developing countries today with PC systems.
It is a free market man, if this was cheaper and better then I guess everyone will do that instead and we don't need to be having this conversation, right?
Maybe the fact that Windows costs more than many of these people make in a month and they _still_ won't install free copies of Linux should be some kind of indication that mayby Linux is not the all singing, all dancing, solution to everything the people on Slashdot seem to think it is.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
One of these projects has been market tested for over a year.
The other has yet to demonstrate a working prototype, an OS or an application.
One is based on the privately financed, pay-as-you go, service model familiar to anyone using a cell phone in the third world.
The other depends on massive government subsidies (taxes or borrowing) to reach its theoretical $100 price point.
Can you guess which is which?
I'm sure I'm not the only person ever to have a PC so scrwed up that reinstalling XP home didn't fix it. Is pent over a year using my Linux box, before buying the ($200) copy of XP Pro, which installed and still did not fix it.
I can not afford to loose everything on it (not even the installs of programs that I have lost the discs to) so I mostly access it over a samba share, and occasionally switch the KVM over to it.
Result for MS: They got $200, and I've switched dozens of sections of "intro to computers with applications" that I teach to Knoppix Linux. Hundreds of students now use Knoppix every day instead of MS Windows.
They would do better to do the following:
The already licese that copy of MS Windows (or other s/w) to one processor. Why not allow me to download a new version of windows update that allows my pc to
(1) verify what I paid for (even giving me the date of purchase, the amount, etc.)
(2) scan every file for alterations, even using a bootable live CD that can get around any root kits (this disc would be $10 shipped, and would work with all versions of Windows, as it's only a bootstrap to get you on the web so you can run everything online)
(3) purchase any updates I need, a piece at a time. Let my buy NAT routing for $15, instead of holding out for me to spend $200 on XP Pro.
(4) remember my purchases, so that I can drop in that ubiquitous bootable CD any time, get online, and reinstall everything just as long as my processors serial number matches their records.
I know people are hesitant to allow MS to see who they are, but have you read the license agreement? They can eaves drop on everyhting you do, turn off you system if they want, and even delete all your files. They can commit fraud, theft, exthortion, and / or racketeering and you can not sue them. ( IT'S IN THE FUCKIN EULA!!! )
This would acutally help consmers. They would want to chagne the EULA to allow a license to be sold with the processor (not too bad) and to eliminate the absurd "5 component" rule.
Andy Out!