Would you want to pay 150 dollars for Windows 10 when it could be free?
Just to further cement my point in; The only way Windows 10
could be free, is if Microsoft decided to swallow hundreds, of millions, of not billions of dollars in their R&D budget, and just take a billion dollar financial hit for no other reason than being nice.
Human beings, who on top of spending years in College learning to code, work their 9 to 5 jobs developing things like Windows for us. They have to write, manage, re-write, peruse and bug fix millions and millions of lines of code, to make Windows work for us, and to keep making it better, and they do this every day, year after year.
Sure, It is possible Microsoft could afford to offer Windows for free, but that won't come without sacrifices. The revenue they lose then have to come in from somewhere else, like maybe charging $600 for an Xbox instead of $299, or doubling licensing fees for business's who need to use Office.
They get enough money without charging any extras
Which part is the extra?
The $930 Million R&D budget they use to develop the next generations of Office? The probably equally high amount they use to develop Windows?
People work to create these products, and they work hard for it. Just because software is not tangible, doesn't mean It was easy to create.
If I'm starting to sound frustrated, It's because I am.
The ones here who argue against me, argue solely out of anecdotal evidence, and perceived notions of what Windows is, and how Microsoft operates. I put effort into my posts here, I don't just contradict your opinions for fun, I do it because I do research to discover the truth of things.
Do I want Windows to be free? Sure, that'd be awesome. But I understand and know why It probably can't, but most assuredly shouldn't be free.
At this point, 8 pages into this discussion, I'm feeling very disheartened. I've read dozens of articles and perused Wikipedia entries for Bill Gates, and Office and Microsoft as a whole to understand why It is not only right for Microsoft to charge for the products they produce, but why they have to.
Who here can say the same?