Originally Posted by
directhex
it's the other way round, really
the high price and silly terms come from over 20 years of people taking the pee and pirating the software. competition is what drives down prices, and microsoft have no competition because people have been pirating the MS product rather than using a cheaper competitor - ensuring that the competitors go out of business, and the microsoft option becomes a de-facto standard that everybody needs to work with (usually by buying the microsoft option, since there are no viable alternatives)
the high price and silly terms on vista are microsoft tightening their grip, now that almost every computer user has built up a dependence on their products - you *have* to use windows and office to work with everyone else, and you *have* to spend silly money on them due to the brutal new anti-piracy measures
at this point, i have an urge to say something about cake, and eating thereof