Microsoft Canada leaks Vista pricing

Microsoft on Monday briefly posted pricing for Windows Vista on its Canadian Web site, giving an eye into what the company will charge for the new operating system.

The posting indicates that the Home Basic edition of Windows Vista will be priced the same as Windows XP Home, at $233 ($259 Canadian). The Home Premium version, which includes support for Media Center and tablet PC abilities will sell for 13 percent higher rate, a price that translates to about $269 in American dollars.

Microsoft quickly removed the price information, but blogger Ed Bott, who spotted the price list earlier Monday, included the price list in a ZDNet posting. Bott cautioned that those trying to figure out U.S. pricing would be better off comparing the Canadian Vista prices to their XP counterparts than to try and just convert to U.S. dollars.

A Microsoft representative said the company "inadvertently posted Windows Vista Canadian retail prices" on its Web site but said it has removed the posting and is not ready to share U.S. pricing information. The company said it would announce those prices when it ships the "Release Candidate 1" test version, due out by September.

On the business side, Microsoft listed Windows Vista Business at a price that equates to $341 in U.S. currency, 7 percent less than what Microsoft charges in Canada for Windows XP Professional.

The company is still wrapping up development work on the oft-delayed Windows update, which will come more than five years after its predecessor, Windows XP. After issuing the near-final release candidate next month, the company hopes to finalize the code in November in time for a mainstream launch in January.

Apple is afraid of competition and makes it illegal to install on a standard PC, do a search for OSX86 on google or yahoo

Apple is not afraid of competition, but they don't condone piracy of their intellectual property.

It's the other guys who are afraid. Dell is afraid to design a DellOS operating system. Microsoft is afraid to manufacture computer systems, although they've been selling game systems for a while and will attempt to sell music players soon. Apple is the only company with enough courage to make "the whole widget".

Apple is not afraid of competition, but they don't condone piracy of their intellectual property.
It's the other guys who are afraid. Dell is afraid to design a DellOS operating system. Microsoft is afraid to manufacture computer systems, although they've been selling game systems for a while and will attempt to sell music players soon. Apple is the only company with enough courage to make "the whole widget".

how is it piracy if i buy the OS X software and put it on my PC? hmmm

yea and if you want one part you gotta go "all in"

It's probably more that they don't want to get into legal issues with MS over infringement. You can already run Windows on the new Macs, so why would Apple be afraid of competition from a PC?

uhhh, do you really want me to answer this?
Apple is afraid that their hardware business would colapse if the opened OS X up to PC's...

how is it piracy if i buy the OS X software and put it on my PC? hmmm

That would be a violation of the License Agreement. The outside of the Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger box says "IMPORTANT: Use of this product is subject to acceptance of the software license agreements included in this package"

The License Agreement says "IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE, DO NOT USE THE SOFTWARE. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE, YOU MAY RETURN THE APPLE SOFTWARE TO THE PLACE WHERE YOU OBTAINED IT FOR A REFUND."

The Permitted License Uses and Restrictions say "This License allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at at time."

Apple has the right to set the terms and conditions of usage for their intellectual property. They have the right to restrict the installation of the operating system to their hardware only. They do allow other operating systems to be installed on Apple hardware, like Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux, etc. It's a reasonable deal for everyone.

Apple has good reasons to restrict Mac OS X to Apple hardware. It allows Apple to provide the best quality systems on the market, it keeps support costs down, and it keeps the price of the products affordable.

I don't want Apple to waste everyone's time and money by trying to support their OS on junk from Dell, HP and everyone else. Maybe someday Apple will allow third-party manufacturers to certify their hardware for Mac OS X, but until then, Apple should not allow it on PC clones.

Like i said, call the Wammmmbulance...

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