I have to say I’m impressed, something that doesn’t happen all that often in the cut throat world of software provision.

I’ve just pre-ordered my copy of the latest OSX release Snow Leopard which will be the first OS upgrade I’ve paid for since OSX 10.4 (Tiger) was release back in 2005.

Previously I’ve been happy to bumble along with whatever version of the OS the machine happened to come with (or, in the case of the home PC that came with Vista, a quick rebuild to XP slipstreamed SP3 using my venerable licence that came with a machine that since died) and have only happened across newer versions of an OS by happy accident.

My current Mac (a rather cute PowerBook 12″) came with a purchased upgrade to Leopard included (making the £400 asking price a bargain) and the news that Apple are releasing their latest upgrade for the super silly price of £23.99 resulted in my pre order whistling into Amazon as soon as I could verify that this was actually the asking price.

To my mind this is the way forward for OS providers – giving (or almost) your OS away is a great way to build your user base and prevent stagnation (the Windows XP Effect) of your users. This in turn means your latest platform for delivery of other, more costly software offerings is more prevalent across your market share. Microsoft have consistently failed to understand that the OS is not something most people want to pay for. Indeed (with the understanding that the OEM licence cost is included in the price of a new machine) I can’t think of the last time I actually came across someone who’d bought Windows.

At £229.00 for Windows 7 Ultimate you’re looking at 10 times the cost of upgrading a Mac to the latest OSX offering and I have to wonder if this will simply result in yet more people sticking with the OS they’ve already got?

How about you? Are you going to be upgrading your Mac come Friday? Will you be splashing out for the Windows 7 licence?