Hardware Geeks

For the past few months and in particular these past few days, whenever I see an article about the Microsoft PC Hunter ads, there are countless comments to the article that say “Oh they aren’t factoring in the cost of the 975 dollars in Software you have to buy with a new PC”.

99% of the time the person who made the comment has a username of MacAddict, OpenSourceGuru or LinuxLover and 98% of the time they end up promoting Linux and OSX or both at the end of their post.

For example of what I mean, check out this Reuters article. Just read the comments.

Anyway, whenever I see the “You Must factor in $975 for all the software you have to buy” and you ask them what software do you have to buy?  They typically answer with, you need: AntiVirus, Firewall, Registry Cleaner, Word Processing software, Video Editing Software, Music Editing software, CD and DVD Burners, and a Program to read your email.

That does sound like a lot of additional software and with that software there may be an additional cost, so maybe they are right maybe it will cost me an additional 975 dollars. But the more I think of it the more I realize that:

a) I can get this software for free (sometimes the free version is better than the paid version)

b) It’s already in the OS Standard or the OEM includes it with my new PC

I really don’t get how I will end up spending $975, but lets add it all up.

Let’s start with one of the first pieces of software they say I need, which is an Anti Virus. Yes all PC users need AV Software, I agree 100%. So what are my options and what will it cost me?. There is AVG and AVAST which are free, they both are decent not great but they do their job. Then there is Norton Anti Virus which is $39.99 and I have seen as low as $19.99, and there is McAfee which is also $39.99 but again I have seen for $19.99.

I’ll go with the Norton AV for $39.99, I chose Norton because of their super fast install time of under a minute and it uses less resources than AVG, AVAST and McAfee.

The next piece of software they say I need is a Firewall.But wait a second, every MSFT OS since XP has come with a built in firewall which in my opinion works perfectly fine and there is no need to spend a dime on one, and with most people I know now a days behind a router there really isn’t a need for one. But if you don’t want to use the one in Windows and want some form of Software Firewall there are free firewalls a popular one being ZoneAlarm. If you don’t like free they also sell a paid version of ZoneAlarm, you could get Norton Internet Security for $59.99 or McAfee total Protection for $59.99 also.

Both Norton Internet Security and McAfee both have AV and Firewall and both will protect up to 3 PC’s for 1 year.

Again I will go with the Norton Product for $59.99 because it installs faster and uses less of my system resources, and in test that I have done over the past year they both pretty much have the same detection rate.

My grand total so far $59.99.

The next thing they say I need is a Registry cleaner. I totally disagree I believe registry cleaners can cause more harm than good and DO NOT RECOMMEND THEM especially if you are a novice PC user.

But for sake of argument let’s say I did buy one, I would probably go with Norton 360 for $79.99 (1 year sub of antivirus definitions) it includes AV and a Firewall also backup software and of course the registry cleaner. But if you google free registry cleaners you can probably find a dozen of them for free.

So now my grand total is $79.99

Then they say I need Word Processing software. Amusingly enough most of the time when the Linux and OSX people say they get Office capability for free they say they use OpenOffice or NeoOffice (OSX fork of OpenOffice), and conveniently forgot it’s platform agnostic. You can get OpenOffice for a windows based PC. However lets say you and I don’t want OpenOffice and we want to buy Microsoft Office. Well the home and student version is only $125 dollars, and if you are a college or high school student you can get it for $59.95. In fact if you are a student chances are you can get a lot of Microsoft software for dirt cheap you must ask your school for more information though.

However I am not a student and I opt for the $125 dollar version of Office which can be purchased at all retail stores that sell software.

So lets see, my grand total now $79.99 (N360) and $125 (Office Home and Student Edition) = $204.99

The next one is the Video Editing software, again Windows comes with Video Editing software it is called Windows Movie Maker and it works for normal scenarios. So there is no need to buy video editing software, you can buy some if you want but if you aren’t a hard core video editor and just want it for family movies then you do not need to buy it.

I am not a hardcore video editor so I will stick with Movie maker price tag $0.00. If you need more on the PC it will have a price premium associated with it. OSX has multiple tiers of pricing the simplest is just to use the integrated application that comes as part of iLife for $99/yr. Still more expensive than the free Windows Movie Maker. Or you can go with Final Cut Express for $199 which is a professional grade edition for much less than the high end edition which runs $1,299.

They then say I need audio editing software, well I am not into editing my audio files so I do not need one, but if I did there are countless free versions on Download.com one example is Audacity.  However, what they probably mean isn’t editing (since almost no one does that), but rather ripping and converting audio to mp3 or similar formats. Which Windows Media Player does for free. As well as iTunes.

They then say I need CD or DVD Burning software along with DVD playing software.  Windows comes with a basic CD and DVD burning software that is built into Windows Photo Gallery and Windows Movie Maker.

However I would recommend a more complex burning software such as Nero which often times comes already pre-installed for free by the OEM, the price tag is typically $40 dollars if you buy it alone, but if you go to Newegg.com and purchase a 25 dollar DVD burner you pretty much get it for free.

So let’s add it up:

$79.99 for AV/Firewall/Registry Cleaner (All I can Get for Free)
$125.00 for Office Home and Student (I can get Ultimate for $69 if I am a student or OpenOffice for Free)

$40.00 For the DVD playing software (In the rare event my new PC doesn’t come with the software)

Total: $244.99

$244.99 is far less than $975 and keep in mind all of what I paid for I either didn’t need or could get for free.

So WTF? Why the bogus claim? Have the people who are making this claim used a Windows Based PC recently?

By the way call me a Microsoft Fan Boy if you want, while you do I’ll go fiddle around with my brand new mac mini which I love and my iPhone.

Post Tags: software  apple  windows  linux  osx  applications  microsft  opensource 

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