[OT] Windows Vista... are they *so* desperate, uhu?
Vincenzo Beretta
laptops come with Vindows Vista pre-installed, BUT the brochure also
advertises that all the registered buyers will be able to upgrade to Windows
7 *for free* once it becomes available.
Did anyone heard about similar offers elsewhere? I mean, it is like they are
saying "Please, bear with us: it will be only for a while".
[Factually, the number of "average Joe" users in my circle of friends I saw
buying a PC/laptop running Vista only to re-install XP sooner or later has
become, in recent times, the majority]
Anssi Saari
> Today I got a brochure from a local chain specialized in laptops. All the
> laptops come with Vindows Vista pre-installed, BUT the brochure also
> advertises that all the registered buyers will be able to upgrade to Windows
> 7 *for free* once it becomes available.
>
> Did anyone heard about similar offers elsewhere? I mean, it is like they are
> saying "Please, bear with us: it will be only for a while".
I've heard about it before, yes. With a little checking, for example
slashdot wrote about it back in February.
> [Factually, the number of "average Joe" users in my circle of friends I saw
> buying a PC/laptop running Vista only to re-install XP sooner or later has
> become, in recent times, the majority]
I'm hardly average Joe, but I'm going to put XP in my ultraportable
Portege R500. I just got a bigger disk so I can try out various
things, even Windows 7. It came with Vista Business and after a lot of
tweaking, it's just slow now instead of very slow...
Now, the R500 is no speed demon, CPU is only 1.33 GHz. At least it's
dual core, but still. Anyway, it's not the CPU speed as such, it's the
eternal disk accessing that just goes on and on for no fathomable
reason. Since the R500 is so light, it's nice to carry, but with Vista
at least I can forget about "wake it quick, check email, back to
sleep". Well, that works, except for the quick part.
Warewolf
news:vg33a9b...@omppu.modeemi.cs.tut.fi:
> I'm hardly average Joe, but I'm going to put XP in my ultraportable
> Portege R500. I just got a bigger disk so I can try out various
> things, even Windows 7. It came with Vista Business and after a lot of
> tweaking, it's just slow now instead of very slow...
Should M$ and the various programming language gurus (ie Sun Microsystems;
the Linux community) turn to the Amiga OS for guidance?
It should tell you something when an older game or productivity program has
more features than what's available today. 9_9
Signed,
Warewolf
who will admit to watching some old televised software reviews on YouTube.
CJM
Are you trolling?
The Windows 7 upgrade scheme has been all over the technical rags for
the last 6 weeks. It's the same deal that happened for Vista. People
traditionally stop buying machines a few months before a major OS
release. To keep the sales flowing, MS will give you free upgrade if you
buy your hardware now.
As for purchasing a new PC and downgrading to XP, you would either be:
a) a corporate customer - gotta have a standard corporate platform!
b) you are purchasing very old (pre-vista) hardware
c) you are an anti-fanboi
Most XP die-hards claim that performance is an issue, but standard Vista
era kit runs Vista better than standard XP era (2001) kit ran XP when it
was launched. Vista is better looking, has better and more built-in
features, but more importantly, is far more robust and more secure. XP
barely still in the 'Extended Support' period anymore...
Many XP dieshards will upgrade to Win7 because it 'avoids all the
problems of Vista', but irony being that Win7 essentially *is* Vista
will a few minor tweaks. Don't get me wrong, there are some nice changes
and additions in Win 7 but most are superficial - the kernel is all but
identical.
Basically if you didn't like Vista, you ain't going to like Windows 7.
Performance is similar (yes, really - don't believe the hype - you will
not get XP performance with Vista features), driver support is similar,
look & feel is similar.
If you still are against Vista (and by association, Windows 7), you
could do worse than upgrade your XP machines to Ubuntu or similar. The
sooner we get people off XP the sooner we'll get a reduction in botnets
and spam relays. Neither Vista/Win7 or Linux are bulletproff but all are
considerably more protected in general, and certainly more protected out
of the box.
WDS
> Vincenzo Beretta wrote:
>> Today I got a brochure from a local chain specialized in laptops. All
>> the laptops come with Vindows Vista pre-installed, BUT the brochure
>> also advertises that all the registered buyers will be able to upgrade
>> to Windows 7 *for free* once it becomes available.
>>
>> Did anyone heard about similar offers elsewhere? I mean, it is like
>> they are saying "Please, bear with us: it will be only for a while".
>>
>> [Factually, the number of "average Joe" users in my circle of friends
>> I saw buying a PC/laptop running Vista only to re-install XP sooner or
>> later has become, in recent times, the majority]
>>
>
> Are you trolling?
>
> The Windows 7 upgrade scheme has been all over the technical rags for
> the last 6 weeks. It's the same deal that happened for Vista. People
> traditionally stop buying machines a few months before a major OS
> release. To keep the sales flowing, MS will give you free upgrade if you
> buy your hardware now.
It happened before too, probably with every major Windows release. My
first laptop came with Windows 95 installed but I got a free upgrade to
Windows 98.
Esponga Alp
>It happened before too, probably with every major Windows release. My
>first laptop came with Windows 95 installed but I got a free upgrade to
>Windows 98.
Exactly. They have always done this, because otherwise PC makers
would complain of a drag in sales in the 6-9 months leading up to the
OS release... who is going to buy a new PC knowing they would have to
pay $100 again in a year for the new OS?
Although I have seen reduced OS charges occur outside the window that
MS provides them to offer the free upgrade. I don't know if that
incentive comes from Microsoft or if it's just a deal the PC vendor
offers.
jl...@idirect.com
When I was a manager at one company, we had exactly this happen with
the NT - W2K transition. We needed hundreds of new PC and they were
staged with NT but we got certificates saying that they would ship us
copies of W2K as soon as they were available. I filled three filing
cabinets with the CDs and COAs that were shipped. It was to make sure
we didn't put our sales on hold waiting for W2K.
James