I said START at $99 USD. That means the Starter edition will be that much. The Starter Edition will not be readily available as the rest since M$ wants you to spend more $$. So the version compariable to XP Home will be about $150 and upwards. Also XP is that low. I have found XP Pro for $50-$80 depending on the rebates and sales the some webites are offering at the time. Apparently you dont know all the sites to look at to find the best deals.blake67t said:Vista @ 99 USD, omg what are you thinking? I will bet you a million dollars its much higher than that, XPP isnt even that low.
As for your comments aobut people being left behind. Tyler is right and wrong on that aspect. The new Office "12" that is being designed will NOT run on anything less than 2000. It has been stated as such by the developers. (I know i am an official tester and have asked this question on the newsgroups already) Most of hte new software that M$ is developing: MSN Live Messenger, OneCare Live, Office Live, pretty much anything to do with the new Live.com site will not run on anything less than 2000. M$ doesnt support 98 anymore and therefor are not making the software compatable to run on it. 2000 will not be supported past (i believe) 2007, and XP will not be supported past 2008. M$ is trying to force everyone to update their software. Not saying that they will succeed but they are gonna try to force everyone to update.
M$ doesnt have to make ALL their software compatable with ALL of their OS's. 95 and 98 are now considered abandonware. They are no longer supported and therefor they do not have to make software compatable with it. So if you do decide to run some of the new software you might be left out. I am not saying that everyone should go out and upgrade. Heck i dont even plan on getting Vista till 2008 myself. My point is that in time companies phase out the support and products that work with older software to force people to upgrade to newer versions. It is the same in all fields. Car manufactorer do the same thing. Can you just walk into a store and find parts to a Ford Model T? Dont think so why. Cause it is no longer manufactored.
I also speak from experience. I am a tech supprt person myself. I have built over 3 dozen PC's for people (on my own time) and fully support them. That is along with my job where i fix all the problems that people make for themselves. So in the end the software developers can force a person to upgrade by not supporting older versions of a OS. Just like game developers dont support Linux or OS X heavily.