not really a hardware problem. but..

[Guitar Guy]

I paid 250 for Windows Vista Ultimate. Damn good peice of software. That also makes me an investor in American economy, something all of us should think about when ripping off software companies. When you are going to use something you should pay for it. Then maybe when you get a job you'll get paid, for your work, as well. (sorry about the rant, sorat pet pev)

When software companies stop chargin your limbs for an operating system that is full of bloatware, then I'll buy it. $250 could get me a high end graphics card. Why waste it on an operating system that could be $50?

[dvxAznSensationxvb]

the 250 isnt supposed to have the trailwares............ if it does then ill be annoyed lol, most of the price is due to the purity of the OS of it not having shit in it........... shiet a OS cd from the manufacturer for me is only 30 bucks so i rather take out everything instead than use 250

[rjk83]

I think that most of the cost is due to the cost to employ thousands of engineers, developers and testers that produce a quality Operating System like XP, Vista, 7.

Bill Gates said that the estimated cost to produce Windows Vista was $6 Billion. And after spending $6 Billion to develop Vista, he said "Best $6 billion I ever spent."... Vista really is a good OS, it gets a bad rap, if you can embrace the change, and look past the original release issues with compatibility and driver availability, then it's a great OS.

If you don't want to pay for an OS, then go illegal (and don't degrade the product or bitch) or go with a Linux disrto...

[Shotgun]

First my Rig:
Gateway M1340 Metallica Blue
Ati Radeon 1300x
4GB DDR2 RAM
2 Logical Turion 64x CPUs
PC150 Sennheiser Microphone
Logitech Optical Mouse

OSs:
Vista 64-bit Pro
Ubuntu
Linux Redhat Distribution
Virtual Machines for testing with XP/ 2000/ 2008RS/ 2003 (I program!)