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What Does It Take To Get a PC With XP?
An anonymous reader writes "Christopher Null tried to buy a computer with Windows XP pre-installed on it from the United States' nine biggest PC makers. His findings: You can get one, but be prepared to fib."
They are so friendly and customer-focused that you have to jump through hoops to get the product that you want. Why do we put up with this shit when we wouldn't accept this from almost any other industry?
be prepared to walk.
That's how I was able to order a business machine from Dell. I told the sales rep that it was either that or HP as the consumer end didn't have what I want.
And also enjoy not being able to use Windows Update to get the lovely updates that makes Windows semi-safe.
It'd be great if some laptops were sold with a blank harddrive. If someone wants Windows, chances are they'll take Vista. If someone wants Linux, chances are they won't want the distribution that is preloaded on the laptop. If I wanted to buy a Linux laptop, I'd rather it be blank so that I could set it up the way I want it.
Talk about vendor lock in. I just hope Linux starts to make more headway into corporate desktops - and I don't just mean for developers. More support we get for Linux more it is going to be used by corporates.
... (sigh)
For whatever it is now, Windows wasn't all that great even 15 years ago. Very rudimentary, few supported applications and all that.
It was all the corporate adoption and the developer ecosystem that has brought Windows to what it is now. I'm sure with more widespread usage we can get Linux to be at the same usage level without the security glitches.
Only if the stopped using corny names like Hardy Heron
Help a man when he is in trouble and he will remember you when he is in trouble again.
Or, if this DOES become a real problem, simply purchase a computer from your local mom and pop PC place. If they're anything like the ones here, they'll be happy to set you up with whatever OS you want, be it XP, Vista, or *nix.
And the masses cried out, "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0!"
Alright this Vista thing has got a little out of hand. Here's a quick recap on events up till now:
1) Microsoft Released Windows Vista
2) Windows Vista failed to live up to people's expectations
3) People said "stick with Windows XP for now"
4) People complained about the normal driver and application compatibility issues
5) Somewhere along the line "stick with Windows XP for now" got turned into "Windows Vista sucks - stick with XP indefinitely."
So now we have people paying the same amount of money either way and going out of their way to pickup Windows XP. I could appreciate that position a year when issues still existed but those have all but gone today.
Vista is about as big of a leap as going from virgin XP to XP SP2. Meaning a few nice features but not really worth money. It has very few bugs and at least as many as XP currently does.
Windows ME was terrible. But let's be clear - Vista isn't ME. Because Windows ME was genuinely an unstable buggy monster as opposed to Vista which is just a very minor upgrade with a huge price tag.
Yes it eats more memory. SuperFetch converts all of your available free memory into better program loading times. These pages are marked so that they can be disposed of very quickly but when viewing a memory map it appears as if memory usage has skyrocketed.
It's not hard. You don't have to lie. You don't have to be a business to order it. And you can order it through the website without having to speak to a sales rep. (though you can also ask for it over the phone)
But you do have to pay extra for it, which is worse than having to lie to get it.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
If you're buying your first computer, are you really going to know the difference between XP and Vista? Are you really going to MISS XP enough to want it that much?
+1 IDisagreeSoHeMustBeATrollOrAnAstroturferOrAShill
I downloaded a copy of XP to run under parallels from a torrent. It was a custom ISO that did not require activation or entering a serial number. It also gets the updates perfectly every time without complaint.
I had more trouble setting up virtual machines in VMWare at work with legit copies than I did with the pirated copy.
There's no such thing as a soul, so it can't have any value.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
And what if MS decide not to activate that XP license?
So we see in this example the difference - when you're a monopoly, you sell crap and people have no choice. Jaguar on the other hand had trouble unloading their stock, and I'm sure people with half-a-million bucks to blow on car simply went and got Porche's, Ferrari's etc instead...
So to simply state that you can't buy an old model car is missing part of the point. I'm going to suggest that had the car sold well, it could well still be available today. Porsche has been making the 911 for many years and will make it for many more since it sells very well. Ford (for reasons beyond me) tried to replace the Mustang with the Probe and the outcry from the public resulted in the return of the Mustang - now you can't buy the Probe. Coke tried New Coke, today we pretty much have Coke.
There's plenty of examples in industry where successful companies respond to customer demand and sell them what they want, and when the company goes off the path they actually listen to their customers. This is because they have to compete with other companies offering customers an alternative.
Lucky for Microsoft they don't have such baggage to worry about. ...and this goes for most of the other examples I'm reading here like cell-phone and internet service providers. The lack of competition leaves a lot of power in the hands of the company to do what it wants instead of providing what the customer is demanding.
If you think imaginary property and real property are the same, when does your house become public domain?
Which is fine, Vista isn't the unusable brain-dead pile of steaming poop some would have you beleve, and it has some benefits over XP. I think you've named them all except for 1 (when you try to delete a load of files, any that are locked will show a prompt with 'skip' option).
Vista however....
hogs memory - you've seen this already.
hogs disk space (check your WinSxS directory, it isn't small. this is more of a big deal in this age of VMs and smaller, power-efficient machines)
Explorer will occasionally start to delete everything when you delete a few files, I think its user error but its not obvious how I end up with Vista trying to delete the containing directory.
File delete still takes ages - Vista will happily wait to tell you how long it'll take to delete a file before actually deleting the f*cker.
Driver support can be ... limited, especially for older hardware and you're SOL if you don't want to buy a new device.
Explorer cannot keep the display configuration per folder that I set it - not if I edit a parent folder (with the 'inherit' checkbox cleared, obviously).
The indexer service never seems to stop, and if you do stop it, you'll find you don't get a complete start menu list after time.
Also, for some reason, when I close any app that has used a lot of RAM, Vista starts a mega disk thrashing session. This lasts for minutes, though the system is usable, I wouldn't like to be running my box on a SSD!
Oh, but the biggest issue is things that have just broken, but you don't realise until you come to use them. eg, I had a problem with the Task Scheduler - it couldn't create new tasks. I forget the exact problem (or the solution) but it was pretty wierd with a mis-install of some system component. Also, I had problems installing SQL Server - I got a 'failed to compile MOF files xyz'. Turns out, this is because the WMI is corrupted! I'd only just installed Vista and it was broken in subtle ways. I think its just too complex, and I reckon you will too once you really get going with it.
So, after using it for a while I think its ok, but if I had to buy a copy I just wouldn't bother. Incidentally, my work PC runs XP and will do so until I have to change.
We have some HPs with that issue - you can get an XP license, but the hardware does not have XP drivers.
Besides, didn't you say your guy wanted something flashy? Vista is certainly that.
I just get kinda pissed off about people who ditch Vista who have never used it, who have only used early betas, or are trying to run it on underpowered systems, or who complain its too different.
Linux gets ditched by people who have never used it, find it complicated, have not used it in years, and who complain that such and such hardware is not supported by Linux. That does not mean its a bad OS.
I am quite happy with Vista. Two years ago, I was dual-booting between XP and Linux. Now, I run Vista Business exclusively. I find it far more stable than XP, when something does bomb out in it, it is usually able to recover without any ill-effects, and in my experience, on newer machines, with both XP and Vista, Vista way outperforms XP.
In fact, in the IT department I work in, we have been so happy with Vista and Office 2007, we started rolling it out to our users back in May. After they get past the first 5 minutes of "oh my gosh, its different", they usually figure out where everything is, and claim that they will never go back to XP and Office 2003. They LOVE it.
Getting back on subject, what do you need to do to get a computer with XP? Should have bought it before June 30th. Its not as if that came as a surprise to anyone. I mean, that was not even three weeks ago.
So, I just did a build your own laptop on Dell's website and do not see an option to get XP. Same is ture on the Business Models Vostro and Latitude. However, on their main page, if you go to Large Business, and then to the Latitude laptops, there is still the option to get XP preinstalled.
HP home laptops all are Vista only, but if you go to Small Business or Large Business, they have the option to order with XP preinstalled. I have ordered business class machines from both HP and Dell before for home users, and have never been asked if we were really a business, so I have not had to "fib" about anything.
At first glance, I do not see a way to order XP at Gateway.
Just suck it up guys. Windows 3.0, 3.1 and 3.11 are dead. 95 is dead. NT is dead. 98 and ME are Dead. 2000 is dead (much to many people's dismay). And now, XP is dead.
BTW, as long as we are trying to get computers with XP preinstalled, perhaps you can also tell me how I can buy an analog TV after February of next year. Let me know where I can find LPs and 8tracks and LaserDiscs, and where I can buy an HD-DVD player.
I mean, sorry to be a butt, but you guys know that the June 30th deadline was coming. If you are a business, you can still get XP through your Microsoft Licensing Agreements.
Why do you Windows users think that enduring this sort of shitfight just to install your OS of choice is acceptable?
The mind boggles.
"You can't fight in here, this is the war room!"