It would seem that due to the poor exchange rate, UK customers could end up paying up to 57% more for Windows 7 than US customers – and people buying in Euros could end up paying double.

This is fairly typical of big corporations with worldwide launches, but it’s not much better in the Linux world. You see my copy of Ubuntu 9.04 cost ten times as much as they charge a US user! Over in the US, you see, Ubuntu is available free of charge, whereas over here in the UK they charge you absolutely nothing for a CD. If you do the maths I think you’ll find that “absolutely nothing” is ten times “free of charge”. What a rip-off 😉

Of course this is just for the desktop version. In fairness to Canonical, the Server edition of Ubuntu is only half the price in the UK compared with the US. But if you’re a KDE fan, be prepared for a shock – Kubuntu is 15,000 times more expensive in the UK than in the US!

[Worryingly I know that there are people who won’t understand the humour in this post – so for their benefit, you can download both Ubuntu and Kubuntu free of charge – or they’ll send you a free CD (here and here), but you’ll have to wait a while for it to arrive]