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Windows

Exchange Rates Spell High Prices for Windows 7 In the EU 548

CWmike writes "European customers will pay up to twice as much for Windows 7 compared with US users, even though the new operating system will ship without a browser in Europe. Some of the money Microsoft stands to make on the European editions of Windows 7 comes from the weak dollar. Last week, for instance, the dollar fell against the euro the most in a month, hitting $1.41 per euro. For example, Windows 7 Professional, the key retail edition for businesses, will sport a price tag of 285 euros, or $400.60, and £189.99, or $313.84, at Saturday's exchange rate. In other words, EU customers will pay twice the $199.99 U.S. price; U.K. buyers will pay 57% more. And depending on your view on bundling IE, Europe's customers will be paying more for less, with Microsoft's decision to yank IE8 from Windows 7 in an effort to head off EU antitrust regulators, who may still force the company to take more drastic measures."

Comment Re:Correlation... causation (Score 1) 1186

And of course the $6k taxes goes *poof*? O yeah...I forgot that in the Us, compared to other (EU) countries, it proportionally goes more towards military and intelligence than towards measures that could lower the GINI coefficient and give people more equal opportunities. There are two things that make me angry: 1. The enormous income gap that exists, and that most people don't seem to be aware of. Alot of people live lives that most of us (educated slashdotters) can not imagine. For example, imagine earning minimum wage and living from paycheck to paycheck. This would mean that you can't afford to rent a decent place because you can not pay a guarantee up front; instead you live in a motel and you pay more than you would otherwise. This situation would also mean that you can not change jobs because you would have to work for two weeks on probation without pay (which you can't afford). There is no way to get out of a situation like that. Also, these people are not stupid/criminal/drugaddicted/lazy, which leads me to the second thing that makes me so angry. 2. In US it's the public opinion that poor people control their own fate and that they are the only ones to blame for their own situation. There are tons of sociological scientific evidence that prove otherwise, just look up the discussion between Davis & Moore and Tumin.

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