[AccessD] Cheap windows

Doug Steele dbdoug at gmail.com
Mon Jul 2 22:12:44 CDT 2012


Here you go, John. Windows 8 (officially!) for $40.  You can be the guinea
pig.  Let us know how it works out :)

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2012/07/02/upgrade-to-windows-8-pro-for-39-99.aspx?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter


Doug

On Sun, Jul 1, 2012 at 11:49 PM, Hans-Christian Andersen <
hans.andersen at phulse.com> wrote:

>
> Fair enough. However, given my experience, a lot of my answers are going
> to involve Linux (which I suppose isn't exactly helpful for an 'Access
> Developers' mailing list :-| ).
>
> > Do you have any idea what that sounds like to me?  Are you even speaking
> English?  It sounds like you are coughing up a tarball.  ;)  (tarball is
> about as much as I know about Linux!)
>
> Lol! That reminds me of the old joke about Unix commands, but it might
> perhaps be a little too explicit for this mailing list (considering that
> our email exchanges are publicly published).
>
> Hans
>
>
>
> On 2012-07-01, at 9:49 PM, jwcolby wrote:
>
> > Yep, for a shop already familiar with Linux what you say makes absolute
> sense.  For me it makes no sense at all, believe me.
> >
> > It takes a mere 2 hours of my time spent trying to do the Linux thing to
> pay for the 4 copies of Windows I purchased.  About two years ago I spent
> waaaay more than that trying to get any version of Linux installed under
> Hyper-V and failed.
> >
> > In the end, it simply doesn't matter that Microsoft makes no effort to
> get Linux running under Hyper-V, what matters is that I know and can do
> Hyper-V Windows XYZ VMs in a matter of minutes, whereas Linux would be a
> huge time suck which I can ill afford.
> >
> > Emulators are wonderful things.  I am constantly amazed that VMs work at
> all.  But to run a linux vm and then run Wine in that to try and avoid
> paying $30 (or $120) doesn't make any sense to me.  I cannot imagine that I
> could get Linux machines running and then get wine running in that and then
> get my app running in that in less than a week, and it could stretch into
> many weeks given I know absolutely nothing about Linux.
> >
> > I already have Hyper-V running, have learned how to make it work, and
> have used it for several years.  I already have VMs running for my dev
> machine running C# and SQL Server, where I do my coding.
> >
> > Since all of my business is with clients running Microsoft software, and
> since I have spent 30 years learning Microsoft software, and the last 5
> years learning SQL Server and C#, what is the point?
> >
> > I understand that those who have a business reason to go with Linux are
> distraught that the rest of the world blindly continues to run MS products
> but that is the world my clients live in and thus the world I live in.  I
> will never convince my clients to stop using their sql server and Office
> and it is not my business to even try to do so.
> >
> > So when I found a license for a stripped down Windows 2008 for $30 I
> jumped on it.  I don't think I have ever seen a license for ANY version of
> windows for $30!  It certainly appears to do what I need.  We shall see.
> >
> > > Well, you have options.  FoxPro for Windows can run fine under Wine +
> Linux/FreeBSD. Also, FoxPro 2.6 for Unix can be installed on Linux and
> FreeBSD using the Intel Binary Compatibility Standard (ibcs2) support
> library.
> >
> > Do you have any idea what that sounds like to me?  Are you even speaking
> English?  It sounds like you are coughing up a tarball.  ;)  (tarball is
> about as much as I know about Linux!)
> >
> > John W. Colby
> > Colby Consulting
> >
> > Reality is what refuses to go away
> > when you do not believe in it
> >
> >
> > On 7/1/2012 11:47 PM, Hans-Christian Andersen wrote:
> >>
> >>> I need virtual machines which run a Foxpro for Windows application
> purchased from a vendor.  I purchased these $30 licenses for Windows to run
> in those virtual machines.  I already have one of the VMs up and running
> one of these cheap licenses.
> >>
> >> Well, you have options.  FoxPro for Windows can run fine under Wine +
> Linux/FreeBSD. Also, FoxPro 2.6 for Unix can be installed on Linux and
> FreeBSD using the Intel Binary Compatibility Standard (ibcs2) support
> library.
> >>
> >>> If you are talking about Linux, then free isn't exactly free since I
> have to spend dozens if not hundreds of hours getting myself up to speed on
> something I don't use, then getting them to run (running Linux in Hyper-V
> was non-trivial, I have tried), then getting something like Wine to emulate
> windows then dealing with any headaches of incompatibility...
> >>
> >> We could be talking about FreeBSD as well and, yes, they are both truly
> free in every sense of the word. If you haven't got the spare time to learn
> something new or your specifications are too restricting, then this is
> obviously going to have to be a problem you throw money at. Also, I
> certainly can't speak about HyperV - it is a Microsoft technology, so we
> know who is at issue if other operating systems are unable to run under it.
> :) There are plenty of other options you could choose to go with instead
> (VirtualBox, VMWare, etc).
> >>
> >> Regarding Wine, the great thing about free is that it only takes 10-15
> minutes of your time to actually try it to find out if there are any
> incompatibility issues (but, imo, I'm 99.9% certain you won't have any
> issues).
> >>
> >> In any event, $120 may have worth it to you and it may be cheap
> compared to what you are used to paying, but it's still not cheap overall.
> To put things into perspective, $30 is the same price Apple charges for
> their entire operating system without limitations and Apple users are the
> ones we normally associate with spending too much money on things.
> >>
> >> I'm not recommending you do anything differently, I just think it's a
> shame you have to spend that much money on something that is a product with
> deliberate limitations just to run a single application on each, when there
> are free alternatives out there which are just as good (or better,
> depending on who you ask).
> >>
> >> Hans
> >
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>
>
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