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Vista To XP Upgrade Triples In Price, Now $150

Posted by timothy on from the don't-forget-special-reserve-windows-xp dept.

ozmanjusri writes "Dell has tripled the charge to upgrade Vista PCs to XP. Under current licensing 'downgrade' agreements, system builders can install XP Pro instead of Vista Business or Vista Ultimate; however, Dell has opted for a surcharge of $150 over the price of Vista for the older but more popular XP Professional operating system. Rob Enderle says the downgrade fees could potentially be disastrous for Microsoft: 'The fix for this should be to focus like lasers on demand generation for Vista but instead Microsoft is focusing aggressively on financial penalties," says Enderle. 'Forcing customers to go someplace they don't want to go by raising prices is a Christmas present for Apple and those that are positioning Linux on the desktop.'"

5 of 907 comments (clear)

  1. Vista is really not that bad... by sgage · · Score: 5, Informative

    ... there, I said it!

    I was forced to buy a new computer this summer in a hurry, and all I could get was Vista SP1. Maybe it's just that SP1 took care of the big issues that you hear about, I don't know. But it works just fine, quite responsive, stable as hell, and I haven't had a single problem with it. I turned off all the Aero crap because I just didn't care for it, not because it was a performance issue.

    Mostly I'm in Ubuntu Intrepid anyway, but Vista is just the new Windows as far as I can tell - no worse than any of 'em. When I hear some of the stuff people say about Vista, I wonder what they're talking about, because it doesn't match my experience at all.

     

  2. Re:I don't get it by TrancePhreak · · Score: 5, Informative

    that 1GB is a myth. It's just precaching all sorts of things in case you use them so that they become available faster. Should your computer actually need to use the ram for something, Vista will dump out the precached parts to allow it.

    --

    -]Phreak Out[-
  3. Re:I don't get it by Anthony_Cargile · · Score: 5, Informative

    Windows logo("Super" key)+r launches the run dialog, then type the first few letters of a command - for example 'cmd', 'notepad', or 'http://$SITE' and autocomplete from there. This has been the case for at least since Windows 98, and even if there is no autocomplete on the OS the commands aren't all that hard to type.

    About 100-200ms depending on caffeine consumption minus typos. Another area where Vista is reinventing the wheel, badly. Can be made fun of like: "reinventing the wheel as a square", or "reinventing the 'wheel'" (root's group in Unix, UAC/security joke) :D.

  4. Re:I don't get it by mgblst · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yeah, it runs fine on my old machine to, the dual cpu quad core with 8gb ram... i don't see why everyone if complaining. Oh yeah, and I am a fucking moron.

  5. Re:It will work... by Plug · · Score: 5, Informative

    I wondered about the legality of using a mouse as a component to buy an OEM operating system, so I did some research.

    Turns out prior to August 2005, you could buy a copy of an OEM operating system with an "essential, non-peripheral component" - so a mouse would not qualify, but an IEC power cable would.

    The changed rules renamed the licenses "system builder" and made them available to anyone building their own PC - including end users.