Consumer Vista Upgrades Moving at Snail's Pace

Chester Freeze writes "During the holiday season, many shoppers bought PCs with the promise of quick, free Vista upgrades. The reality has been something else entirely: many Dell and HP customers are being told that they won't receive their copies of Vista before April. 'One source at a major OEM who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the real issue is that OEMs are still not sure which PCs are really ready to support Vista, and which PCs aren't... Customers who qualify for an Express Upgrade also qualify for OEM support for Windows Vista, even if their machines came with Windows XP. The last thing a Dell, Gateway, or HP wants to do is start sending out upgrades to customers who might have video cards that do not have particularly stable drivers yet (or sound cards, or RAID controllers, etc.). This could be a support disaster.'"

Comments

I can't possibly understand why...

[zdc]

... you give up an OS riddled with security holes, poor interface design, and ridiculous resource requirements for another OS riddled with security holes, poor interface design, and even more ridiculous resource requirements... except it costs a few hundred (potentially) more.

Not true.

[DogDude]

GF ordered a Gateway laptop a few weeks ago. Wanted XP, but she ordered on Vista's release date, and they said they would only sell Vista. If she decides to keep it, it ships at the end of February.