Buy a PC Now, Upgrade to Windows Vista After Launch

re: Buy a PC Now, Upgrade to Windows Vista After Launch

newscientist2000 — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 05:41:19 GMT

I wasn't expecting an upgrade program for Office 2003 aswell. Good move :-)

re: Buy a PC Now, Upgrade to Windows Vista After Launch

p0verHaus — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 06:12:29 GMT

I have Windows XP Professional, this means I can't buy a Windows Vista Home Premium upgrade? I HAVE to use Windows Vista Business in order to but just the upgrade?

re: Buy a PC Now, Upgrade to Windows Vista After Launch

p0verHaus — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 06:12:37 GMT

I have Windows XP Professional, this means I can't buy a Windows Vista Home Premium upgrade? I HAVE to use Windows Vista Business in order to buy just the upgrade?

re: Buy a PC Now, Upgrade to Windows Vista After Launch

p0verHaus — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 06:14:36 GMT

I just re-read the post. This is just for people who bought XP between those dates.

re: Buy a PC Now, Upgrade to Windows Vista After Launch

someone — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 06:22:08 GMT

Now suppose you get the upgrade, is is that you can install Vista only over an XP install or does it mean that your XP license is no longer valid in exchange for the Vista one but you can do a clean install?

re: Buy a PC Now, Upgrade to Windows Vista After Launch

nemoby — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 06:38:52 GMT

Nice move but not exactly 'Buy a PC Now'.... I just ordered a new xp-pro 64 machine yesterday from Dell. Looks like it shipped today or will tomorrow. So 'Now' doesn't include me.

Most marketing promotions like this go back on the calendar to alleviate issues like this. Announcing a promotion like this with a future date leaves those of us that fall in the middle with a bad taste in our mouths. The funny part is that I likely won't have my machine in hand until after the 26th. Had I known, I would have waited two days.

-Andy

Vista Upgrade Coupon

Paul Mooney — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 06:59:45 GMT

If you're in the market for a new computer this holiday season, be sure to ask your retailer about the...

re: Buy a PC Now, Upgrade to Windows Vista After Launch

hklm — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 07:19:24 GMT

Smoke and mirrors seems to be the MSFT mantra these days Nick.

A lack of sincerity and committment on

1) SPP and WGA drawing federal suits against MSFT like flies because they are incompetent at telling legit from pirates

2) Your continued partnership with OEMs to refuse to provide competent recovery media --ie the OS on media for your customers

3) A EULA that is an enigma enshoruded in mystery that has scroes of people confused on Vista groups--how about clarifying it since you were gong to take up the questions of Robert McLaws' blogs readers?

All of this is damaging your customers to protect MSFT's revenue stream.

HKLM

re: Buy a PC Now, Upgrade to Windows Vista After Launch

newscientist2000 — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 07:49:22 GMT

Any more info on the Microsoft Office 2007 Technology Guarantee program, the Express Upgrade site seems to have more info about Vista than Office.

Specifically which preinstalled versions of Office 2003 qualify for the upgrade program. Student and Teacher, Professional, Small Bussiness Edition? Does it vary by vendor?

Thanks for the information :-)

Everyday is a winding road

The things that are better left unspoken — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 08:55:28 GMT

On the Microsoft Windows Vista team website Microsoft announced the strategy to supply consumers with

Busy Day For Vista-Related Releases

Robert McLaws: Windows Vista Edition — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 11:07:38 GMT

Today was the best indicator yet that Vista is nearing RTM. Microsoft RTWed several Vista technologies

re: Buy a PC Now, Upgrade to Windows Vista After Launch

someone — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 15:37:12 GMT

Hey dont you answer questions anymore? I asked:

"suppose you get the upgrade, is is that you can install Vista only over an XP install or does it mean that your XP license is no longer valid in exchange for the Vista one but you can do a clean install?"

re: Buy a PC Now, Upgrade to Windows Vista After Launch

roder — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 17:30:47 GMT

Yeah, this is all swell and good, unless you are in the market for a Media Center PC. Microsoft has officially stated that you will NOT be able to add a CableCARD tuner to an existing PC, so if you buy a computer with Windows Media Center Edition now and want to add CableCARD functionality to it, you're gonna find yourself up selling it on eBay and purchasing a new computer with the tuner preinstalled.

Makes you wanna just run out and buy one right now, right?

re: Buy a PC Now, Upgrade to Windows Vista After Launch

jatt10 — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:41:36 GMT

But the License to transfer to 1 pc is not Right Idea for Microsoft. They might loose customers that way. At least put a different idea. If Microsoft is after Piracy. Just a Suggestion.

Someone Posted at another site:

I don't mind Microsoft protecting its products from piracy, but I have to draw the line at the point it creates major headaches and inconvenience to legitimate customers. For PC enthusiasts like myself who do frequent overhauls of their systems, limiting installs to two is a serious problem. That kind of licensing would be considered completely unacceptable with any other software product, and I don't know why Microsoft thinks it's OK for Windows.

If they proceed with this licensing, I would expect it to backfire and result in more piracy, not less, as enthusiasts seek ways to circumvent it with hacked copies. Nobody pirates a legitimate copy of Windows anyway, so why punish the people who are actually paying for it? This would certainly put a damper on any enthusiasm I have for Vista. I'm willing to pay for it, but I'm not willing to pay for it more than once.

re: Buy a PC Now, Upgrade to Windows Vista After Launch

jatt10 — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:49:49 GMT

People dont like the Licence rule of 1 transfer http://news.com.com/5208-1016-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=22122&messageID=194542&start=-1

re: Buy a PC Now, Upgrade to Windows Vista After Launch

hklm — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 20:10:30 GMT

Nick--

I'd say doing those things instead of letting the confusion multiply would be appropriate Product Managing for a product manager on the Vista Launch team and no time like the present as multiple synchophants fan out to talk about Vista Office upgrades and discounts and carefully avoid the dirty little secret that MSFT wants to keep OEMs from providing OS discs for XP or DVDs for Vista.

1) Can you clarify the exponentially metastasizing confusion on the Vista newsgroups as to the Vista Eula. Robert McLaws said you were planning to do that. MSFT Redmond isn't spinning you too are they the way they seem to have been spinning Paul Thurtott?

Pretty nifty Nick--you give those guys access, load them up with gym bags full of swag and toys and then tell them to say whatever you all want.

Why all the sneaking around and suberfuge? When you're going to screw people just tell them to line up and enjoy it--it's a screwing from Redmond Arrogantsoft.

How about a straight up Nick White article 1/2/3 etc. with some precision and clarity conferred on that Raiders of the Lost Ark engima enshrouded in mystery EULA your lawyers and everyone with the least software engineering ability at Redmond used to craft the thing.

Please read and enjoy Ed Bott's blogs on your EULA or on How MSFT Damages the Customer and his Legit Vista to Protect their Revenue Stream:

A sneaky change in Windows licensing terms

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=156

Get facts, not spin, about Vista’s new license

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=158

October 19, 2006

"Forbidding Vistas: Windows licensing disserves the user "

http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archives/2006/10/19/forbidding_vistas_windows_licensing_disserves_the_us

Ed Bott at http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=84

UAC Good; SPP Not So Good

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/

2) Any comments on the law suits that are starting to slide into federal district court against WGA and SPP because your coders can't write it to distinguish accurately between pirated copies and genuine?

Also when the author of one of the most definitive books on Vista that has sold nearly a million copies calls you all to try to work to clarify what you all won't or can't or are afraid to why not give him someone with quality that knows what they're talking about rather than your Wagner Edstrom PR flacks who don't or some bottom feeder who knows nothing more than "Yippie Kah Yah WGA"?

HKLM

re: Buy a PC Now, Upgrade to Windows Vista After Launch

hklm — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 20:15:19 GMT

This gets into a very taboo subject for a MSFTie doesn't it Nick?

3) I saw something encouraging on a Dell blog that I have seen MSFT always afraid to talk about and even lash out vindictively when it is discussed and I can prove this.

MSFT tries to coerce their 300 OEM named partners into agreements that ensure that millions of your customers who do not enjoy the ammenities of the backups and custom installs of an enterprise IT machine with 6 figured CTOs who also have managed to screw up enough on ocassion to allow the 2nd biggest railroad in your country the US to go down over Blaster merely because they didn't get around to updating with hotfixes--a bozo move the elementary school kids on my street are smart enough to avoid.

Here's a topic I'd like some Nick White clarificaiton on: There are about 300 Named OEM partners. These are presided over by one Scott Di Valerio (accountant not trained in software but apparently trained in squeezing money out of millions of people for OEM machines with pre-loaded windows and no effective way to recover and decoy crap discs and partitions that don't work if you have had extensive experience comparing them to real OS's and I have).

For the past 7 years millions of your customers were left up a bad creek. Not backed up the way you do it, they couldn't boot to Windows for software glitch reasons, and when F8 options were fully exploited they had no Windows XP and won't have Vista media to access what would have fixed them (Rapair Install or Win RE's Startup Repair).

When asked yesterday at Round Rock, your platinum partner Mr. Dell's company claimed that you insisted for years they not supply your customers with a legitimate way to recover that had any chance of efficacy so the joke recovery cds and partitions go out from your OEM named partners after your customers pay their hard earned money for what you're peddling in this thread--pre-installed Windows OEM.

Let me say that again Nick.

*Pre-installed.* No MSFT media IE no OS copy of Win XP or Vista and the way things are going Blackcomb/Vienna/Figi either.

As you know well, your last financial report showed a drop in 20% of retail sales and an increase of 20% in OEM preinstalled OS sales as a chief source of MSFT income.

I want to show you something that recently appeared on the Dell blog that I'm trying to confirm counter to the culture of "leave our customers without a way to recover Windows" that MSFT has nurutred for years.

How many of your OEM partners are doing what Dell says they are going to start doing--i.e. shipping a real OS on media instead of that junk that doesn't work nearly 100% of the time you all force them into using?

http://www.direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2006/10/17/3132.aspx

Update: Thanks to Direct2Dell reader Steven and a couple of Dell employees for pointing out a mistake I made in my original post. When I wrote this, the OS media was listed as an option in the configurator for $0. I mis-read the number, and for that mistake, I apologize. Also, though this been in the works for some time before now, it's now official. For U.S. consumer and small business customers, all systems will now ship with an operating system disc. This change will take effect in Europe by later next month. In Asia, things are unchanged—we've always shipped OS discs with systems there.

When is MSFT going to put its concern where it's Wagner Edstrom spinning mouth is and provide a legitimate way with efficacy for your customers to recovery the OS?

BTW do any of you are your Windoz maven collegues want to take my challenge Nick? How about the gang at File Core Services, Jill, Dan, and set up, Darell Vinny and the rest--and you.

We break Windows and make BSOD stops--you all try recovery with OEM recovery discs or partitions and I'll use an XP CD or Vista DVD--one with all the OS code on it even though many of us are learning startup repair is a work in progress that won't be made at Redmond Washington any time soon.

Tell me when you're ready. We can radio 9 tape it and send the pod cast to Scoble's new podcast company at www.podtech.net

HKLM

re: Buy a PC Now, Upgrade to Windows Vista After Launch

DCMonkey — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 21:42:54 GMT

HKLM,

I believe you need an OS DVD to take advantage of Vista's "Windows Anytime Upgrade" so that you can install the "premium" features, so it was probably going to happen anyways.