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Microsoft Asks Open Source Not to Focus On Price
Microsoft's supposed open-source guru Sam Ramji has asked open-source vendors to focus on "value" instead of "cost" with respect to competition with Microsoft products. This is especially funny given the Redmond giant's recent "Apple Tax" message. "While I'm sure Ramji meant well, I'm equally certain that Microsoft would like nothing more than to not be reminded of how expensive its products can be compared with open-source solutions. After all, Microsoft was the company that turned the software industry on its head by introducing lower-cost solutions years ago to undermine the Unix businesses of IBM and Hewlett-Packard, and the database businesses of Oracle and IBM."
You can always find a better quality solution if you're willing to pay enough, but as value is roughly modeled as utility/cost
Allow me to translate.
If you have enough money to be on a first name basis with Bill Gates and ask him as a favor to have a few of the top architects personally spend time on your problem... yeah, "paying enough" can get you that sort of support.
However, for most of us peons who make far less than 300-500,000 dollars a year, we have to settle with spending a lot of money to listen to some guy in India who thinks he can speak english read off a screen stuff he probably doesn't understand. Not only that, his ability to actually do anything about your problem? Nil.
You spend a great deal of money, for Nil. Mr. Nil, Dr. Nil... no matter what, you get nothing.
With Open Source, I can try to tackle the problem myself, or let someone else tackle it. Or, if I'm not that savvy at all, there are forums I can go to for help that don't require me to register or have bought a product or some other crap.
Sorry, "pay enough" is an excuse capitalists use to try to get "consumers" to play along more with their system.