Quoting "Robert G. Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, on Wed 21 Nov 2007
07:36:43 AM PST:
On Wed, 21 Nov 2007, Jim Lux wrote:
Quoting "Robert G. Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, on Wed 21 Nov 2007
05:56:51 AM PST:
On Tue, 20 Nov 2007, Jim Lux wrote:
Octave is nice, but.... the graphics are MUCH better in Matlab,
and there's all those toolboxes full of cool stuff (signal
processing, control systems, maps, etc.)
And, an academic license for Matlab is only $100. That's less
than the textbook likely costs. Granted Matlab isn't quite as
cool as the symbolic
"Only $100" is IMO highway robbery, especially for students.
For a copy that they get to have on their very own personal
computer (as opposed to a shared class license, which is cheaper,
on a per seat basis)?
I don't know that it's highway robbery.. It's comparable to the
cost of a textbook these days. It's less than the cost of a couple
concert tickets or a live theater presentation like "Wicked". (No
starving students buying tickets to see the Stones or the Eagles
these days...)
Oooo, thus speaketh a man who must not be facing tuition bills as high
as $40,000 per year for several children coming of age.
I have a 14 and 11 year old. I am sticking my fingers in my ears and
going "la,la,la,la..."
Ah, here we could go the rounds for a long time. Agreeing that around
half the cost is human support -- I might have gone over half, even --
the split between hard and software is more like 50-50 on the remainder.
Microsoft office alone, per seat, can cost a significant fraction of the
cost of the hardware at corporate rates. XP Pro or Vista
Business/Ultimate are also hundreds of dollars (around $300 for the
former, I don't know what for the latter). Antivirus adds a bunch. A
MS based business tricked out for JUST PLAIN DESKTOP stuff -- a login
interface, Explorer, mail, Office Pro, on top of a pro base version of
the OS -- can easily cost $800 in software alone, and that doesn't
really include the cost of the server side software needed to make it
all run. Real "applications" outside of this come on top, and of course
are going to typically cost $200 and up.
I think that enterprise licenses are substantially lower than this for
the whole MS shebang. Maybe not. Having the body sit at the desk
already costs you $100-200K/yr, so an extra $1K/yr is down in the
noise level (especially if it's perceived to be more trouble to get
rid of it than just to pay it again...Clever folks these software
marketing companies...)
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