[filmscanners] Re: Digital Darkroom Computer Builders?

["Anthony Atkielski" <anthony@atkielski.com>]

Laurie writes:

> If he is correct and it is a matter of some
> internal switch, I would be inclinded to
> agree that this is a bit of greed and consumer
> be damned on the part of Microsoft which may
> come back to bite it ...

It is indeed greed, but it won't bite Microsoft, because all companies do
it, not just Microsoft.

I once worked for a vendor of proprietary computer systems that had a 2000%
mark-up on memory for the systems (yes,  you read correctly!).  I know of
vendors that include hardware or software switches to _slow down_ computer
systems so that they can sell a cheap version of a system; in other words,
same hardware and software, but with the switch set to "run slow," and a
price tag that provides only a 50% margin, instead of a 95% margin.

So everyone does it.

And I take for granted that it is just a switch in the software, because
that's almost invariably how it is done.  It's too expensive to maintain
multiple code bases, so companies write just one and then turn things on and
off with easy-to-change switches.



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