Microsoft Cuts Price for Boxed Vista

Excite News ^ | Feb 29, 2008 | JESSICA MINTZ

[cake_crumb]

Every new(ish) OS MS has released has been bigger and more RAM hoggy while requiring larger and larger processors, thus creating the need for bigger and bigger power supplies and ENLARGING THE AVERAGE USER’S CARBON FOOTPRINT!!! BILL GATES AND MICROSOFT ARE DESTROYING THE WORLD!!!!

[untrained skeptic]

I have Win XP running on an Athlon 64 box I put together and I won’t go to Vista. I have multi boot and can do XP 32; XP 64 and Ubuntu. I do XP 32 most often as my apps that I use most are on that partition.

Vista has some features that I do like. I will probably go to it in a couple years once the bugs get worked out, and the hardware needed to run it well is relatively cheap.

However, it doesn't bother me that Microsoft is selling vista. I just feel no need to buy it at this point.

Ubuntu is a good OS as well. I run it on an older computer I have. However, I find that I run into a number of web sites that won't display properly with Firefox under Ubuntu. I also find that while some things are easy to set up on Ubuntu, others tend to be frustrating and time consuming.

Ubuntu is a step in the right direction for Linux desktop use, but it can't replace having XP for me.

[cake_crumb]

"I won't put it on one of my machines if it was free."

Good idea. In preparation for buying a new system this year, I bought XP SP2. Now I can get a no OS system, thus getting what Vista is really worth. Without the hassle of reformatting.

[Secret Agent Man]

Kind of a “Back to the Future” move for you, eh?

[null and void]

Brooks said he expects so many customers to buy Vista at the new prices that the price cuts will increase Microsoft's revenue, not subtract from it.

I'll buy Vista.

When NOTHING ELSE is available.

[Gen-X-Dad]

Just rebuilt 3 old home machines to upgrade them for the future, they all have XP Pro. VISTA is a dog on performance, especially file performance. It will be interesting if the VISTA SP1 will fix that issue. MS discontinues XP in June of 2008, so get it while it lasts or you will be stuck with VISTA.

[Gorzaloon]

Many years ago I received a new C-64 as a christmas present from X #1. It's still in the box. Someday if the V-20 dies I may start using the new C-64, but really don't know why I'd need all that memory.

HAHAHA! Oh, I had my C=64 stuffed full, with the ML Monitor and the extra RAM expansion, two floppy drives, and the (ugh) Thermal Ribbon color printer. Oh yeah, the Turbo ROM upgrade, too, and the (gasp) 300 bps modem.

My memory of it is fading, but I remember having a lot of fun with it. When a friend found a PC in the trash and I "upgraded" it to an XT, I tried to give the C=64 away, but by then, it was a fossil, and no one wanted it. I was unaware of the online Commodore Museum at the time, so it is in a landfill somewhere.

Actually, I kind of miss it. Paperclip III was quite a good WP Program.

[AppyPappy]

It doesn’t help me. I am pricing a system now for the kids and getting the System Builder version of 64bit Vista Home Premium for $109.

[qam1]

Is Vista worth it at half the price?

No!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vista, Office 2007 and IE7 all combined aren't worth half any one of the boxes they came in.

And Yeah, yeah, yeah Mr. Microsoft salesman, I know even though I've been working on/using Microsoft products since DOS 2.0 I don't know what I'm doing and even though I have a brand spanking new computer it's all my fault for not wanting to shell out several more $100s of dollars to replace my other hardware & software that's older then 2 years with microsoft products. Vista is really great, I'm just bashing it because I'm lonely and just trying to fit in with all the strangers on the Internet I will never meet who claim they hate it. Just keep on telling yourself that...

[Secret Agent Man]

Inflicted, Infected, Cursed (po-TA-to, po-ta-to)

[null and void]

It sounds as if V SP1 causes as many problems as it tries to solve.

Not to worry. They'll fix those on SP2...

[untrained skeptic]

Why blame the lawyers? Why not blame the judges who can throw out a case

Well, most of the judges that refuse to throw out such cases were once trial lawyers themselves.

I do blame the Judges. I also blame the bar associations that aren't doing their job. I blame congress for protecting such greedy trial lawyers and even making what they do easier in return for large campaign contributions.

I blame politicians that appoint and confirm these judges.

I blame the voters that elect those judges that support and allow this in the cases where those judges are elected.

I blame the people that sign up on these class action suits out of pure greed.

There's lots of blame to go around, and it's going to take a broad effort to reverse the moral decay that is the root of the problem that allows this to continue.

[Conan the Librarian]

I’d say YES.

I have it on my laptop and I love it. It still has issues, but, they aren’t serious ones. When a problem does arrise, it is a whole lot easier to fix than on previous versions of windows (my opionion only).

I am running a 1.8 gig duel processor laptop with 2 gig of memory. I have Vista on full power and it runs smooth.
I do have some older software that I run on my XP machines, and my old laptop still runs ME for the really old software.

But, life goes on, you can’t go on using the same equipment forever. eventually you will have to upgrade, you might as well do it now.

[Noumenon]

You’ve got it. Most bad Vista experiences seem to come down to inadequate hardware. Give it 2GB RAM, a processor with a decent L2 cache and a good graphics card (less than $100 gets you enough bang for the buck) and it runs just fine.

Also, a lot of the gripes I’ve seen come down to, “It’s different.”

I’ve been running my office on Vista Ultimate and Office 2007 for a while now. Works just fine.

[untrained skeptic]

My biggest impression is one of irritation, particularly wrt silly rearrangements of directory structures, renaming of control panel items, and useless changes to common tasks and operations designed to be more intuitive, I suppose, but succeeding only as a sure way to piss me off, and causing a lot more help desk type calls that seriously eat up my time.

I couldn't agree with you more in that regard.

I'm sick of rewriting installation manuals and getting all new screen captures because Microsoft, once again, decided to move some features from one place to another or rename them for absolutely no good reason.

I can deal with my device drivers not working with the new version and having to figure out what changed. It happens far less with Windows than with Linux.

What drives me crazy is that Microsoft wastes so much of people's time figuring out where they hid some feature that was in a perfectly reasonable place before. That happens with Linux too, but I guess I expect a more stable interface from a commercial company than from a bunch of hackers.

[ImpBill]

I agree for the most part. I did initially upgrade from XP to Vista Home Premium. Had a few problems with cosmetic stuff and then did a clean install and have had no problems with the OS.

I will never purchase another HP product. I have a HP LaserJet 1000 sitting here for 10 months now that I can't use as HP still hasn't come out with a driver after promising to have one last summer.

[amigatec]

Ever try to run Vista through a Linksys Router?

The son’s XP box works fine, but his Vista box refuses to even see the Linksys. It tells me to plug the network cable it. I can see it in the DHCP tables, but it still doesn’t work. I flashed the firmware a still it refuses. Real quailty software.

My Linux boxes have never had nay problem with the Linksys.

[VanDeKoik]

We’re happy fore you Bill, but the fact remains that vast numbers of people see no advantage over XP. Throw in the fact that it is infected with DRM and there’s just no reason to use it.”

People saw no advantage from 2000 to XP. It was just the “in” thing to act like you didn’t want the new OS. If you want to stay with XP then fine, but don’t act like your need to stay with XP constitutes a universally lousy OS experience for everyone else.

And the DRM in Vista seems to have been left out of my computer as it seems to be non existent.

“I hope they lose a ton of money and continue suffer humiliation as people refuse to “upgrade” and get it right next time, minus the DRM.”

I have no idea what that means.

“Speaking of indescribably bad software, has anyone else had a look at the software for Zune. No words in the language are adequate. You have to see it for youself.”

Have seen it. In fact I just used it a hour ago. Again I had zero problems.

[TruthSetsUFree]

"Oh I know, you have to dish out all the canned lines about how much it “sucks” and how you “upgraded” to XP, and I’m sure it makes you look really hip, but having actually used Vista and XP and OSX and Ubuntu, I haven’t seen any of this horrible(ness) that the same people keep repeating."

Same here. Vista works just fine. No problems here with software, printer, or other peripherals that everyone says everyone has. It's just not true.

[roamer_1]

What drives me crazy is that Microsoft wastes so much of people's time figuring out where they hid some feature that was in a perfectly reasonable place before.

Absolutely. More so, their utter refusal to change the thing in a positive direction- Offering a unified and easy means to shovel "userland" OFF the system partition as a perfect example (a pet peeve of mine).