Microsoft To Cut Vista Prices By Up To 50%

[OhioChick]

Source: Information Week

Price cuts for standalone packages of Windows Vista range from 20% to 50%, depending on the country and version of the software, Microsoft said.

By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek
February 29, 2008 01:40 PM


In an effort to get consumers to upgrade their older computers to its newest operating system, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) said Friday that it plans to cut the prices of packaged versions of Windows Vista by as much as nearly 50% in some countries.

Effective with release of the boxed edition of Vista Service Pack 1, expected to be available at stores within the next several weeks, the price for a full, retail copy of Windows Vista Ultimate in the U.S. has been reduced 20% to $320 from $400. The upgrade version of Ultimate has been cut to $220 from $260. The full version of Vista Home Premium falls 19% to $130 from $160, according to Microsoft.

Computer users in Europe and emerging markets will see even bigger price cuts. In the U.K., the price for the full version of Vista Home Premium drops 44% to 131.92 pounds from 233.60 pounds. The list price for Home Premium in South Africa will fall 41% to about Rand 1700.

Microsoft said Vista price cuts in emerging markets -- where the company faces the most competition from open source software -- will be as high as 48% in some countries.



Read more: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206901018

[onehandle]

1. No thanks. Shopping for a new Mac. nt

[Deja Q]

11. Okay...

DIY PC with 4GB RAM, quad core processor (Q6600), Vista 32-bit: $1000

Box store PC with 4GB RAM, quad core processor (Q6600), Vista 32-bit: $2000

"Macintosh" with 4GB RAM, quad core processor (Q6600), Vista 32-bit: $2800

Have fun.


Oh, BTW, the salesman at Box store claims OS X uses only 40MB of RAM too... I should have corrected him on that and the other things he got wrong, but judging by his age he was probably still in diapers and thinks Barney Dinosaur is the best thing since sliced bread...

[onehandle]

15. An entry level Mac (starting at $599) would do Everything that 99.9% of users would need.

I edit video in HD on a three year old Mac that is way slower than anything available today and that is the most processor intensive thing you can do.

And there is no need to talk about the reliability of and ease of use of Macs. That is well documented Everywhere.

Nice try, Microsoft slave.

[BlueJazz]

18. PC 's are very reliable also unless you buy a 250 dollar piece of junk..

...and No...I have nothing against Macs. They're Fine.

[onehandle]

20. That's true. Macs and PCs are pretty much boxes with the same innards.

It's the OS that makes the difference and where the Mac excels.

XP is fine. OSX is great. Vista is a nightmare.

I agree that 250 dollar PCs are junk. I'm glad you said that. You get what you pay for when it comes to hardware.

[BlueJazz]

23. I'm a MCSE and A+ and all that stuff but I'll say this. > Most people could...

...have a simple 800 processor with 128 meg ram and Windows 98 (2nd Edition) and be happy as hell. :)
It will run Email, Picture Editors, and lots of other everyday things.

[onehandle]

25. That's true too.

And I have a pretty old Mac without the latest OS. I do just fine, but I'm itchy for a new machine.

And Nobody needs Vista.

[Sin]

61. No but its quite pretty.

and I have no real issues with it. and the system builders copy of vista ultimate is like $170 or less have to check price watch
haven't had any bugs been playing crisis and wow and many other games with out issue Might have to pick up sins of the solar empire :)

+ one pretty thing i like is that dream Sean they released watching a looped hd waterfall from yellowstone as my background ;) on my 32in

[htuttle]

31. I was just reminiscing today about what I could do with a Mac Plus in 1992

I used it to layout a newspaper and design adverts using Photoshop and Pagemaker. I also used it to refresh my mad programming skillz using Think C.

The machine had a whopping 1 mb of RAM and a HUGE (for it's time) 20 MB hard drive. I think the processor ran at about 40 Mhz...

I blame the entire Moore's Law Madness of hardware escalation on Porn and Games...and maybe Seti@Home.

[Tracer]

50. Ha. That made me reminsice also!

I was working at a newspaper in 1988 when they "computerized" with those little one-piece Macs (I've even forgotten the name). How the entire newspaper (ads and all) was done on those tiny machines is a puzzle to me now!

I'm now on my 6th Mac (if you count those newspaper Macs) a brand new iMac. As a graphic designer, even with my heavy-duty programs, it does everything I need it to do -- and easily.

[goclark]

76. I will not get Vista so how long will my XP work

Vista is crap IMO.

My next will be a MAC just don't know which one.
I saw the laptop for $1000, it looked great!

Do you think the prices will come down or go up because of the Vista mess up?

[Frank Cannon]

40. I've got a year 2000 Dell with a Celeron processor running XP

And I'm happier than a pig in shit, as I have been for eight years. I use my box for just about every workplace task you can imagine, plus playing some oldie-but-goodie games that will never grow old (e.g., Civilization, Deus Ex, Homeworld). I've never noticed a real speed difference between my machine and the newer ones that we have in the office.

I don't get why most people would need the extra horses put out by today's machines, unless someone is doing some heavy-duty professional graphics or video work.

Oh, qnd you're right on about 98SE. I only upgraded last year when I was forced to. It was a nice OS, but I've been happy with XP as well. Let's not talk about Vista.

[ConcernedCanuk]

57. I luv my Win98SE - I'll keep it forever as long as it works with most programs.

.
.
.

Got a gift of a 'puter with a 20gig HD, and XP installed(no CDs).

Processor on the new puter is 1.7Mhz.

Processor on the old puter was 350Mhz.

XP took longer to load, and had all sorts of restrictions on it - wouldn't read my other HDs when put in as slaves - wanting to transfer programs and files - gave up - yanked the HD with XP, put in my old 3.2 gig with Win98SE -

And here I am

[Warpy]

27. Hey! The Antichrist was a $250 piece of junk

That rotten thing taught me more about computer maintenance than most techs out there know. I can troubleshoot nearly everything now and be right with my first guess.

[neuvocat]

36. Got the same Mac for the last 7 years.

There hasn't been a single problem other than slowing down this year (not bad for a G3 processor w/64 MB and a 20 GB HD).

[hunter]

14. I'm watching the curbs.

All my computers are made out of junk.

I did purchase a nice LCD monitor, however.

Linux is very nice, it does what I want it to, and it's free.

[onehandle]

16. Free and way too out of the mainstream for the average person.

Most regular people don't have the time and technical skill to make Linux useful for even ordinary tasks.

You home kit. Good for you.

You can find pee soaked sofas on the curbs too. You're welcome to them all.

[hunter]

33. Try Ubuntu, it's free.

Eventually Microsoft Windows will be free too. That's inevitable.

[frog92969]

46. Or PCLinuxOS, especially if your a windows user.

My 10 year old just installed a second boot of it for her school work, I setup the boot file and she did the rest. I hate it when people say it's too complicated, I know they're full of BS.

Good site- http://distrowatch.com/

[Occulus]

52. Last I heard, Micro$oft wanted to move to a

subscription model. As in, you no longer buy a licensed copy; you download portions of the OS using your paid subscription.

I believe there are now enough government computers running Micro$oft Window$ to qualify its security holes (and they are legion) as a national security risk. The only solution, of course, is to exercise eminent domain over Window$, open the code, and publicly disseminate it.

I'm only being half silly. The Window$ code really ought to be opened up so the public can fix the fucker, because it's obvious Micro$oft has no percentage in creating a completely stable product.

[bluerum]

35. Apparently u have not seen some of the latest linux distributions.

[Occulus]

51. Fedora installs as easily as Window$ these days

You must have last used linux when Redhat was at version 5. Back then, your assertions were very much true. But now? The only real issues I've had involve my nonstandard display device, a 1080p HDTV.

I've managed to get most of my important windows apps to run in linux under Wine, which has gotten a lot better at running Win apps. And while one used to have to hack the fstab file to add drives to the system, Fedora at least now automagically detects them all, *as well as* the Windows network, if you're on one (those discoveries were very pleasant little shocks). Linux no longer requires a great deal of time or technical skill; it does, however, require a willingness to RTFM and learn new computing concepts.

The only major issue I've ever had with linux in general involves an old TV tuner/video card I once used. I could never get 3D acceleration or the TV tuner to even function, but given it was an ATI card, and their linux support may as well not exist, well, I'll blame ATI for that. NVidia, on the other hand, has stellar linux support, with dedicated drivers and utilities- no hacking config files necessary!

The various flavors of linux now run out of the box with very little actual setup involved, and updating the entire system is as simple as typing apt-get update or yum update, depending on your distro. Installing (and searching for!) new software built specifically for your system is just as simple. If you're using a live CD version, you literally do nothing but put the CD in the drive and boot the computer. Perhaps you should download a live CD version of a distro and try it out again. It'll be slow if you use a live CD, but you'll get a good idea of what it's now capable of.

[bitchkitty]

74. Pee soaked? lol

Linux = pee soaked sofa? C'mon, that's not a fair analogy! (But it was pretty funny)

[Threedifferentones]

58. Yes and after you get your Mac

if you are like many of my friends who own one sooner or later you will want to do something, probably online, that Mac OS does not support so you will end up installing a version of Windows on your Mac to use sometimes anyway. And that's after you pay 50% more than you needed to for a computer of a given speed. At least you get a free camera, I think...

[ProudDad]

70. I tried a new iMac

I hate their business model. I'm returning the damn thing even though it's going to cost me about $200 to $300.

I bought the machine primarily to do video and audio processing. My old pc is dying and was too slow for video so I thought I'd finally try a Mac.

After hours of setting up the machine and trying to process video from my camera, having to BUY and download an ADDITIONAL piece of software (with a MAC you have to BUY everything -- nickled, dimed, and $20'd to death) -- that software that was pushed on their support web site didn't work...

And nearly an hour talking to Bangalore, India the next day I was finally told that they did not and would not ever support my digital camera -- because it didn't have enough "market share" for them.

Screw that shit.

I was able to buy a PC type machine that has twice the horsepower of the iMac at half the money and I'd rather deal with the devil I know!

[havocmom]

2. Shit: half off?

:rofl:

[originalpckelly]

19. Well, makes sense after all, it is half-assed!

:P

[OhioChick]

21. .....

:rofl:

[billyoc]

3. It really costs money.

Fascinating.

[Runcible Spoon]

77. LOL I was thinking the same thing

don't think I've ever actually paid for any Windows package ever. I don't feel guilty pirating from MS AT ALL.

[islandmkl]

4. in an unrelated release, the Federal Reserve Bank announced..

that $10 bills will now display $20 as the denomination while only being 'worth' $5...the move will allow the Fed 'save money' by discontinuing 2 denominations...officials were unsure if the move would precipitate more or less money printing to meet demand...

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. Fuckers. I figure they owe me at least that much in lost productivity. n/t

[madrchsod]

6. i downloaded a program that allows

a linux program to be downloaded to a file instead of partitioning the hard drive. i`ll keep my xp till microshit kills it off. i guess they are having a hard time unloading that piece of shit in america now they want the rest of the world to suffer

[customerserviceguy]

7. When XP is through

I'll run solely Linux.

[Phred42]

8. Can't even give that trud away. I'll be impressed when

when they cut the price of Office Suite by 50%

[ChromeFoundry]

9. LOL

Can't give that $hit away.

[nebula]

10. Fork over another grand or two for a new computer, while you're at it

Chances are, your current one won't be able to run it beyond a snail's pace, if at all.

[Deja Q]

12. See post 11.

The real money comes at the 64-bit version, so when activation, be sure you know which version you want the number to be tied to; and save the expense of a difference license later on... (I'll agree, MS's own FAQs and other sections leave a lot to be desired on that issue...)

BTW: Runs damn fuckin' fast for me... ran darn good on my previous computer (now 18 months old.) I am sick of blind jerks saying "it runs like a snail".

Hell, with minimal effort, I got DECADE-OLD 3D software running on Vista32. I know there are some issues, but most of them are the "1D10T" variety...

[nebula]

13. What??

A quad core or 64-bit machine is required to run this Vista overbloated crap?
It's worse than I thought.

Even if you could run it, why the hell would you want, or need to?

Unless you're a rocket scientist, no one needs a PC with that kind of processing power. It's a waste of money and a burden on landfills, not to mention toxic to the environment.

[onehandle]

22. Exactly right. nt

[CRF450]

43. It doesn't take "that" much to run Vista well.

My brother bought a new Dell with Vista. Specs are...

22" widescreen LCD monitor
2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E4500
2 GB of DDR2 system memory, 667 MHz
500 GB hard drive, 7200 rpm
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition

Sure programs dont load up instantly, but it doesn't take long at all.

I built a new gaming rig recently with Vista Ultimate 64bit.

Core 2 Duo Q6600 overclocked to 3.4ghz
MSI P6N SLI 650i motherboard
4gigs pc800 memory
150gig Western Digital Raptor 10,000rpm hard drive
500gig storage drive
Two EVGA Geforce 8800gt video cards
Tuniq T-120 cpu cooler
Thermaltake Soprano case
Thermaltake 700w psu
22" Acer LCD widescreen monitor
Logitech MX518 gaming mouse
Logitech Ergonomics Wave Keyboard

Even when not playing games it still makes my 4 year old XP gaming computer look like crap when going through web pages and using different programs. Its like comparing a base Civic to a Corvette Z06. It is true that Vista does slow down gaming performance compared to XP on a comparable setup, but the decrease in performance is minuscule at best and hardly noticable. Vista has been very reliable for me, the only little trouble it gave me was a needed driver update for the onboard sound, the drivers that came with the mobo didn't support the 64bit OS. But I easily found 64bit drivers on MSI's website, nothing but a quick and easy download/installation, so its hardly a con.

I'm not gonna look down on Linux based OS's, even though I dont have much experience with one at all I hear nothing but good things about them. But my gaming needs keeps me on Windows. As to Vista being being buggy and a resource hog, if I remember correctly, wasent that how XP once was? People bitched and moaned about it, but with the increase in hardware performace and the bugs being fixed, it turned out pretty good like it currently is. Vista will be no different.

[sofa king]

55. Actually, $600 goes a long way today.

The "Econobox" in Tech Report's newest system guide is a nice start, but recycle some old parts and replace that wheezy CPU with a new Intel E8400 and all of a sudden you have a monster machine that can be overclocked to speeds faster than money can buy. No, really. There are no 4.2 GHz CPUs for sale today, but the E8400 will do it if you're bold, lucky and know what you're doing.

I wish Apple would hurry up and float its OS, but unfortunately I think a lot of Apple's magic comes from the fact that it's based on a tightly controlled list of quality-tested hardware. But you pay for it in price and performance. A $2700 Mac Pro still uses a shitty Radeon 2600 XT graphics card, which can be smoked by the $180 NVidia-based 9600 GT in the Econobox, and an overclocked E8400 will kill all eight of the Mac Pro's Xeon cores in many applications (the E8400 is also being badged as the Xeon 3110, by the way). For those of us without that kind of money, Apple simply isn't an option.

Vista's biggest and best competitor isn't any Apple or open-source OS. It's Windows XP. Microsoft is realizing their own worst nightmare: they finally released a product that wasn't utter shite, and their consumers are smart enough to know it. Now they're gonna wait until MS either fixes their latest shitbox OS, or something better comes along.

Edit: I should add that while I've yet to find a compelling reason to use a 64-bit operating system, I've just learned the hard way that system speed and high-end graphics are crucial to anyone who even dabbles in 3D modeling or high-resolution illustration.

[CRF450]

59. Yup, like in my previous post my brother bought a Dell from walmart

About $300 in that $800 price tag is the 22in monitor alone. The computer itself would probably be around $500 to $600. The specs on it are pretty decent, but the onboard graphics like all else just flat out sucks. Not only that, but C2D E4500 cpu it has can be overclocked ALOT. It would actually make a good high performance gaming computer for a cheap price, all thats needed is a good 600w power supply, a Geforce 8800gt vid card, and overclock the cpu.

The E8000 series cpu's are damn impressive. I'm actually thinking about giving up my Q6600 for one of those.

[sofa king]

60. I've been really lucky.

I've really only built two machines for myself in the past ten years. The first was a Celeron 300A that never went below 450 MHz (eventually replaced with a 533 that did 892). It made it five years before I physically wore out the CPU slot by testing different fan configurations. It was named The Sanford Box, because I put it together using a lot of junk parts.

The next one was built around a Northwood 2.4C which did 3.0 GHz out of the box and eventually 3.1. Lamont has been great, but now my video card has died on me (I wasn't even overclocking it!) and I don't want to blow money on a new AGP card.

So I guess it's time to build Grady. This time, I only have $500 to spend, but I seem to have lucked out with the E8400s. If I can find one (or a Xeon E3110), I think that there's a chance it will also make it five years, with minor refreshes. Hopefully by 2013, software makers will have figured out how to actually utilize multiple cores and 64-bit memory addressing. Also, hopefully by 2013, I'll be using an operating system other than Windows XP, because I'm sure as hell not touching Vista as it stands.

I figure that since 1998, I've spent a little less than $2000 on computing parts and wound up with systems which were really fast about half the time, and better than average the rest of the time. The funny part about it is that I've always been partial to AMD chips. But, every time I have to rebuild, AMD happens to be making crap that's not worth buying.

[CRF450]

65. My older computer has an AMD 64 3400

AMD was awsome when they first introduced the 64bit cpu's almost 5 years ago. They were literally kicking Intel's ass. But ever since the Core 2 Duo's came out, AMD's been on a downward spiral. Their mid range cpu's are pretty good but they have nothing faster than the E6700.

[originalpckelly]

17. That's cool, when I finally get enough money, I'll buy an iMac and install it!

:P

Can't wait until I can afford it, which should be a few months from now!

[bitchkitty]

24. Once you go Mac,

you never go back. I bought a mini a year ago and am VERY happy with it. Looking forward to my next purchase - an iMac or an Air - haven't decided which. Probably the iMac.

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

26. Until you want to play a popular game

[onehandle]

30. Not anymore thanks to Boot Camp...

Oops...

MacBook Pro Is the Fastest Windows Vista Notebook
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,136649-page,3-c,notebooks/article.html

Macs Really Do Run Windows Better
http://stevenf.com/2007/09/macs_really_do_run_windows_better.php

[fascisthunter]

80. Have You Played Any PC Games Using Boot Camp?

If so, how was it?

[bitchkitty]

72. Not my thing, at all...

I use my computer for web design and coding, music and video and long meanderings through through cyberspace. Click click click. I play a little online mahjong but that's it for games...

I'm a visual type and a sucker for a REALLY sharp design and Apple beats them all in that department...

[CatholicEdHead]

37. So true, I am diversifing my background with A+, Network+, Security+

and later a MCP/MCSE and CCNA and I am using Vista Ultimate as my main box now (old XP box died last fall). I much prefer a MacBook Pro with Bootcamp, that will come later as I am forcing myself to suffer to learn the quirks and OS fixes.

[bitchkitty]

73. Bless your heart...

I worked for a design firm in Florida and my boss kept after me to get a Mac - turns out he knew me so well, because I fell in LOVE!

On the server side, the advantage of being completely self-taught is that I have not yet had to get into Windows at all. I like the 'Nix servers best, having worked with one Windows server very early on.

[fascisthunter]

81. How is Boot Camp Working for You?

[ixion]

28. they could give that away and I wouldn't put it on one of my machines

Vista both sucks and blows.

[sandnsea]

29. I just took it off

and put XP back on. Too many incompatibilities.

[MannyGoldstein]

32. Ubuntu Linux Is Quite Nice - Very Simple, Very Pretty

I've pretty much given up my Win XP system in favor of Ubuntu.

[fshrink]

56. Same here. It was about time.

[JerseygirlCT]

34. How low can it go?

From what I've heard it's no bargain at any price.

[ramapo]

38. I wouldn't take even a free upgrade

I still run Win2K and only because apps I need don't run on linux. I'm tempted to run linux with VMs and then only use windows when absolutely necessary.

[sellitman]

39. Vista is a joke.

Vista is the biggest joke MS has ever unleashed. I have many facts to back this up, but I will only tell you about one. Vista still uses NTFS. Regular old NTFS! The only difference between XP and Vista NTFS is symbolic links. BIG DEAL! UFS has had symbolic links for decades! Microsoft completely ignored 20+ years of file system research when picking a file system for vista. Instead they picked a file system that remains relatively unchanged since 1993.

Vista is supposed to be a "commercial" grade OS, but that is a joke. Once again MS has made a OS that is barley fit for home use. In fact they have made it harder for home users with all the fancy security features that will be broken shortly.

Listen, don't be afraid of change! Save your old computer and put Linux on it, or buy a Mac!!! Both OS's undergo constant change and improvement, not just when their creators find a problem! The old stereo type of software only running on Windows is gone, anyone who wants to remain in business has ports to at least OSX. Internet Explorers position as the standard web browser is dying too, Mozilla Firefox out numbers hits on my web site almost 2 to 1.

Microsoft should wake up and smell the coffee, or they are in trouble.

[AlphaCentauri]

41. after the SP1 fiasco? no thanks Bill

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/949358

[bhikkhu]

42. XP was a pain, Vista is worse. Half-price crap is still crap.

This from a frequent customer - between home and business computers I have bought XP six times and Vista once. Vista never worked - endless driver nightmares, wiped the hard drive and went back to XP.

As for XP, when you buy it on a new computer what are you really buying? I lost a hard drive on one computer and could not recover the OS. Switched it to Linux. I upgraded another computer and XP went to "new activation required", which Microsoft advised me would cost $139 for a new license. I switched it to Linux. My latest upgrade I didn't even bother trying to re-use the XP OS - switched to Linux as a matter of course.

Most irritating - may last home XP system, which ran some programs I have grown accustomed to, finally got taken down by a virus I could not eradicate without a hard-drive wipe. The recovery discs again were useless and a call to Microsoft was a wasted two hours - I was encouraged to upgrade to Vista for a $200 license. I switched it to Linux.

Microsoft has to do something better than reduce the price, they have to convince me that I am actually buying something when I buy their program. Linux may have a learning curve but it it not that steep and it actually works just fine for everything I need. Another difference is that all the people involved are genuinely helpful and nice, where Microsoft seems annoyed to even talk to its customers about its crashed and useless products unless they have some prepaid support package.

[nolabels]

44. There is no way they could even pay me to put that crap on my PC

:puke:vista :puke:vista :puke:vista :puke:vista :puke:vista :puke:vista :puke:vista :puke:vista :puke:vista :puke:vista :puke:vista :puke:vista :puke:vista :puke:vista :puke:vista

[frog92969]

45. I wouldn't pirate vista.

Linux has been rock solid on all 5 of my evolving machines for over 2 years.

Fuck micro$oft holding down tech.

[Occulus]

47. *SIGH*

"the price for a full, retail copy of Windows Vista Ultimate in the U.S. has been reduced 20% to $320 from $400"

And the OEM has been that price for quite some time. People really need to learn how to NOT buy an "off the shelf model" PC.

[Hissyspit]

48. Finally got my Macbook Pro. Bye Bye Microsoft!

[SpikeTss]

49. No, Thanks! I'll continue using OpenSuse Linux

Especially since this year the new KDE 4 desktop will be released. But GNOME is also cool, of course!

:thumbsup:

[ngant17]

66. I've been impressed with Ubuntu

ever since I tried to re-install Windoze software on an HP Pavilion-series XP box but I hadn't the slightest idea where to get the original XP drivers (video, audio, ect.)

I installed Breezy Badger version of Ubuntu and it automatically put in all the drivers I needed. I don't do anything but watch everything load. And this is an older version of Ubuntu.

You can have OpenOffice and all the other goodies for free. Next time I am in another fix with a Windoze box, I'll naturally look at a new version of Linux, you can get real cheap Linux OS discs for a couple of bucks at OSdisc.com and they deliver via snail mail for people like me who don't have high speed connections and can't download 100 MB files very easily.

[Akoto]

53. I know my opinion won't be popular, but ...

I've been using Vista Premium for a while now, and I have to say that I don't have a problem with it. I'm experiencing only one recurring bug, and it's corrected in two keystrokes. Other than that, the OS runs smoothly on my non-monster PC and does everything I need it to, including gaming and work.

[jayfish]

54. What They Really Need Is A Reasonable...

"home license" policy. Those prices would look great If I could contractually install that copy on every PC in my house.

Jay

[candice]

62. Can I get a cheap copy of XP to run on my Intel Mac?

[Systematic Chaos]

63. I think a lot of shops sell OEM copies of XP Pro for around $100.

Sometimes they stipulate that you purchase some hardware. Luckily, a 3.5" floppy drive will meet that criteria for like $8 more.

[burrowowl]

64. MS Vista and AutoCad say

the AutoCad runs well on Vista. Guess what? AutoCad doesn't run well under Vista at all!
I hate MS and AutoCad, however if you have to use AutoCad don't convert to Vista, problems galore. Keep your XP.

[fedsron2us]

67. Apparently even some MS execs were fooled by the Vista Ready label

http://apcmag.com/8344/has_vista_lost_all_credibility

The class action law suit on Vista looks like it might well turn out to be a humdinger. Maybe MS are slashing prices to shift as much of the product before the tsunami of bad news hits sales.

Personally,I have always regarded the claim bandied about by some people that buyers should have been 'aware' that the minimum spec for this OS was suspect as dubious. MS have been pumping this piece of software as a consumer product suitable for the retail user. As such it is unreasonable to expect buyers to have to engage in major reconfiguration just to get some basic features to work. It is high time that the software industry was forced to conform to the 'fit for use' standards that most other suppliers of products have to meet.

[midnight armadillo]

68. I just bought Vista Ultimate on Friday...

...I needed a new PC to support some contracting work, they develop under Windows and I need to test against the 64-bit OS, so it was a no-brainer.

Vista was $185. Ouch. I may actually run Ubuntu Linux and use VMWare to run Vista if I don't take well to the Vista experience.

[ProudDad]

69. No fucking chance

my new computer will have XP on it.

Vista is crap!

[CRF450]

71. Why complain about the price of Vista?

XP was $100 for the upgrade, and $200 for the non-upgrade. Of course that was off a retail shelf.

[knitter4democracy]

75. I'm still not buying. That thing's crap.

I'm not buying all new support stuff, a new laptop, and new versions of software I already own. Screw that.

[MiniMe]

78. IT puppy hates Vista

[Javaman]

79. Shit at half price is still shit. nt