Re: Hardware Lockin and Appstore taxes
> I think prices have come down quite a lot.
Being somebody who's been buying computers and software since the late 80ies, I'm sure prices have gone up, and you get less for your money too. Take PC games for instance: Back in the start of the century you would pay at most $40 for the latest blockbuster in a glossy cardboard box, with a printed manual and other stuff (maps, reference sheets, goodies). Today you get at best a disk in a crappy DVD case, if it's not just a download, but prices did increase to around $50. Yes, I know, inflation and all, but don't tell me things have gotten cheaper! Most likely you just have more money than back then.
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> Software purchases in the 1990s were often more expensive for relatively simple software, whereas a lot of software today is free or cheap.
Nonsense: I've got Photoshop LE for free with a scanner, and paid around $20-40 (IIRC) to upgrade it to a Photoshop full license. Try to do that today!
Today a lot of software is "freemium", that means apparently free, until you try to use it and notice you'll have to spend big money to get even the basic functions working. There was way more truly free (as in "freeware") stuff back then. Fully functioning free software, no strings attached.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
