Microsoft’s pricing policy: A joke or a slap in the face?

Update: I owe Microsoft an apology. It looks as if this upgrade really does cost very little. See Windows Vista Alternate Media.

I bought a new computer a week ago and of course installed Windows Vista. I thought I'd give it a try and see how it went. If I liked it, I'd be willing to buy Vista. I do like it, but when I saw Microsoft's pricing policy, I couldn't tell if it was a joke or if they wanted to slap me in the face to bring me to my senses.

I'm not going to debate what the operating system itself costs. What really floored me was that there was no affordable way to upgrade within Vista. I have a 64-bit processor but I've installed the 32-bit version of the operating system. I chose the 32-bit version because the drivers weren't available and some programs wouldn't run on the 64-bit version.

Common sense told me the upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit would either be free or cost a small fee. I imagined Microsoft making life easier for users: Use 32-bit now, then in a year, when the drivers and programs are available and everything has settled down, you can move cheaply to a 64-bit version that makes full use of your hardware.

I got that wrong. Microsoft offers nothing of the kind. The money I spent on the 32-bit version with no future would be money down the drain, because I'd get no break when moving to the 64-bit version. The approach reminds me of the saying that you milk a cow as long as it gives milk. And that's before we get to the OEM version, which is tied to the motherboard and leaves you out of luck if you upgrade.

To give a real-life analogy, Microsoft is acting like a dealer who sells me a car with an engine that only runs on low-octane fuel. If I wanted to switch to higher-octane fuel later on, I'd have to buy a whole new car instead of paying to upgrade the engine, for example.

From my point of view, Microsoft's pricing policy for Windows Vista is a big disappointment. I'd been thinking about buying Vista, but I've given up on the idea now. The outrageous cost of moving from 32-bit to 64-bit made me angry, to put it mildly. I'm not going to be Microsoft's cash cow. I'll let the trial run out and then switch to Ubuntu.