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Would You Want To Buy Longhorn Now?

Overhype

from the who-would-want-such-a-thing dept

Mon, Dec 1st 2003 12:24pm — Mike Masnick
It's no secret that plenty of bootleg software shows up in various marketplaces in Asia. Thus, while I'm not at all surprised to hear that Malaysian street vendors are apparently selling bootleg copies of Microsoft's Longhorn OS, I have to wonder who would buy such a thing? Microsoft, of course, isn't known for getting things right on the first shot, but this isn't even the first release of Longhorn, but something that is so far in pre-release mode that I'd be surprised if it really works at all. Longhorn isn't expected to hit the market for a couple of years (note the plural), so I imagine anyone who actually spends money on it at this point is getting something that isn't anywhere near ready for prime time use.
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5 Comments

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  1. identicon
    John Dowdell, 1 Dec 2003 @ 12:52pm

    price as signal

    I don't know who would invest a nominal sum in buying such suspect wares, but if the production costs are minimal then there's little expense in trying to find a buyer. It's like the spam situation... you may not buy Vicondin through email, but it costs little to send you a thousand or so invitations to do so.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    aNonMooseCowherd, 1 Dec 2003 @ 4:05pm

    leak?

    Maybe MS leaked it intentionally to try to track down people who deal in such things.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    karateka, 2 Dec 2003 @ 5:29am

    who would buy Loghorn

    People very nature is as we say in Marketing, " a sucker is born every minute." Who would spend a weeks salary for something that is just an upgraded and not very well designed Windows XP is not to far fetch. Most don't know better they think if its new its better, which of course is not always the case. As for Microsoft putting it out there, no need since anything that a company gives out at any convetion will find its way to the Internet. And the copies that are been sold probably came from the internet downloads. But why you say would any company want their software on the Internet, its simple marketing, if enough people use it at home, what do you think companies who are the real customer that any company should always stride to get will do. They will move to it once it comes out since already there are plenty of indivisual who know how to use it. Or what do you think when loghor comes out in 2 year or so, that we are all going to run out buy it and learn how to use it in a flash. No, we will have to learn how it works. Since Microsoft is not fool they probably have kill dates which will make that version of the OS dead after a year or so. Smart companies do this all the time. I know I would.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    AMetamorphosis, 2 Dec 2003 @ 8:12am

    Just an idea

    I wonder if the spammers & hackers would be interested in getting a copy so they can get a couple of years jump on all the security loopholes that Microsoft is notorious for ...

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    kent, 3 Dec 2003 @ 12:11am

    longhorn

    well i perchance happened upon a link to a link to a link to a link which pointed me at a irc where i got an email describing a p2p file, which i downloaded and installed on my spare HD. Longhorn is still not ready to be used as a primary operating system. my guess is people are buying and installing out of curiosity (as i did), and to one up their friends. Microsoft handed hundreds of Longhorn CDs out to developers at a recent convention to give developers a headstart on creating new applications for the final release. someone obviously got a hold of that version and... maybe the best point made is that this prerelease release will probably aid hackers and virus writers intent on getting a jump on everyone. also, Longhorn is **not** built upon XP. it has a completely different file system.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]


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