The High Cost of Windows

Now that my son has a much larger hard disk on his MacBook, he can put more stuff on his computer. One of his classes at school requires a program that only runs on Windows. I suggested he pick up a copy of Parallels which will allow him to run Windows at the same time as MacOS X. The only problem is that he would also have to purchase a copy of Microsoft Windows.

In full disclosure, I gave up on Windows many years ago. When I buy a new computer that isn't a Mac, the first thing I do is repartition the disk so that a small portion is devoted to Windows and then install Linux on the rest of it. I find Windows to be slow, boated, buggy, and susceptible to malware. On my latest computer, I haven't even tried to boot into Windows and I have had the computer for over a year. When my son informed me that he needed a Windows program, I wanted to help him find the best way to get it running without screwing up the rest of his computer and that is why Parallels makes sense.

In the process of upgrading his hard disk, my son decided to buy a new copy of Mac OS X. It cost him $30 and was well worth the price. The latest version doesn't take up as much space as the previous version and also seems to run faster. As a full-time student, my son can get a copy of Parallels for $30, which isn't too expensive. Then came the shocker: the high price of Windows 7. Since my son doesn't have an existing license for a copy of Windows, it will cost him $199. If he wants to upgrade a copy from one of my machines where I don't use Windows, it will still cost him $119. I guess Microsoft has to pay a lot of money to all those people who think Windows 7 was their idea.

My son is a pretty smart kid and decided that $119 is just too much money and will opt to use the computer lab at school. Sure it isn't as convenient as working on his homework in his apartment, but $119 buys a lot of pizzas.