Saved Altair 4K BASIC - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

11 Nov 1998

-4 years old, and living in the USSR. I don't agree that VC++ is 
necessarily seven decimal places cheaper, since not all of the files in 
VC++ are part of the program, or even made by microsoft. I would say 
that the total amount of code written just for VC++ 5.0 and on the CD is 
more like 25 MB.

...
 Max, how old were you in 1978?  :-)  Let's see,
$150 in 1978 would be 
at least $500 in today's dollars, maybe 12 cents a hand-crafted byte.
Today's Visual C 5.0 is about 131 megs installed at about $500, or
about seven decimal places in the less expensive direction. 
But many more people would still buy it. Plus, organizations that didn't 
want to pirate stuff but wanted to use BASIC. 
...

Pish-posh.  In 1978, we're talking about a bunch of scroungy ex-
or current- ham radio operators who'd cross the street to pick up
two pennies on the sidewalk.   
I am not generally aware of the software in those bins, and am 
consistently surprised by things that used to cost about $70 only a 
couple of years ago. But, CompUSA reeks, and so does the discount bin :)

...
 Even today, why do people routinely pirate software
that can be had 
for $20 in the CompUSA discount bin?

- John

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