Vista To XP Upgrade Triples In Price, Now $150 907
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.'"
Bender sez... (Score:5, Funny)
Blackmail is such an ugly word...
I prefer "extortion." The "X" makes it sound cool
Economics (Score:5, Funny)
Well, since it's an upgrade, it's only fair that people should pay more, right?
Why so shocked (Score:5, Funny)
I believe I've seen this every year since 1994 (Score:5, Funny)
I have seen the future: Windows $NEXT_VERSION [today.com] Milestone $MOCKUP.
I tried it on a low-end laptop with four Core 2 Duo chips and only 8 gig of memory, and trust me: $NEXT_VERSION is shaping up to be one heck of a product.
WordPad and Paint have seen major overhauls to their user interfaces. Forget the freetards and their "distros" full of all sorts of useless shovelware like FireFox" and "OpenOffice" and, haha, "GIMP"! - the bundled software with Windows $NEXT_VERSION is clear, simple, sparse and to-the-point. The much-loved $HATED user interface from Office $HATED_VERSION is now part of WordPad and Paint! It'll leave $LAST_VERSION utterly in the shade.
The controversial Digital Rights Management system in $CURRENT_VERSION has been worked over, with user-downloadable "tilt bits," which you can configure to your own liking. It'll require every user to supply a blood sample for DNA analysis, and the beta nearly took my finger off, but of course that's only if you want to play premium content. The Blu-Ray(tm) of Battlefield Earth was unbelievable on this operating system.
A public beta should be released by the end of this year. There's just no way that Steve "Trains Run On Time" Ballmer will miss the Christmas deadline. The final release should leave the midnight queues on $CURRENT_VERSION release day - the street riots, the water cannons, the rubber bullets - in the shade.
I am so excited about $NEXT_VERSION of Windows. It will go beyond just solving all of the problems with $CURRENT_VERSION, it will be an entirely new paradigm. Forget about security problems, those are all fixed in $NEXT_VERSION. And they're finally ridding themselves of $ANCIENT_LEGACY_STUFF. We have to charge them more for $PREVIOUS_VERSION, to get them to understand just how cool $NEXT_VERSION will be.
Also, there'll be $DATABASE_FILESYSTEM. It'll be awesome!
I wonder how $NEXT_VERSION will compare to $NEXT_NEXT_VERSION.
bigger inconvenience. (Score:5, Funny)
holy shit (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Hello... I'm a PC (Score:4, Funny)
This is how it will probably go :)
Mac: Hello, I'm a mac
PC: And I'm a PC.
Mac: So PC, I heard that people are now paying THREE TIMES more for XP then they were before, just to avoid Vista!
PC: Hold on a second Mac, I'm installing some updates and I have to reboot.
Mac: Ok..
PC: Alright be right ba-
Stop 0x0000001e (c000009a 80123f36 02000000 00000246)
Unhandled Kernel exception c000009a from 8123f26
Address 80123f36 has base at 80100000 - ntoskrnl.exe
Phyllis says (Score:1, Funny)
Oh, I don't think it's blackmail.
I think for it to be blackmail, there would have to be a formal letter.
Re:Tyrone the Linux nigger's open letter to Ballme (Score:2, Funny)
Maybe he's just drunk... really drunk.
Re:I don't get it (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I don't get it (Score:1, Funny)
Re:I don't get it (Score:3, Funny)
The UI isn't better performing or less cluttered. It's prettier. How do you quantify prettier?
Re:XP Pro is worth more (Score:5, Funny)
*chuckle* That card already got played. I have a screenshot of the HP page for a laptop. It has a line that says:
"Upgrade to genuine Windows Vista Ultimate for $99 ($60 value)"
I know what they mean, but I couldn't stop myself from thinking "I can't wait to run out and spend $99 on something I value at $60!"
Re:Microsoft's Turd (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I don't get it (Score:3, Funny)
And you can qualify this statement with evidence? I can attest to the fact that this comment of your is patently false, and that is through extensive experience on vista using 1, 2 and 4 gigs of ram on different machines.
To put it simply: You sir, are full of shit.
Re:I don't get it (Score:2, Funny)
You should try a magic plant, to keep the angrys away.
Re:It will work... (Score:1, Funny)
I believe you just created the beginnings of an infinite loop of irony and smug.
Re:XP Pro is worth more (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It will work... (Score:5, Funny)
Smart people influence the stupid people, eh? Sorry, but explain eight years of Bush to me then.
You haven't been influenced yet? :P
Re:Phyllis says (Score:2, Funny)
Yeah ok. How are those cheese triangles coming?
Re:Microsoft's Turd (Score:3, Funny)
We're missing the bigger picture here (Score:3, Funny)
How much was the Mojave upgrade? It's spoken so highly of on TV by real experts. Yes sir, it sounds like MS really hit the mark with that one.
Re:Bender sez... (Score:2, Funny)
What were they?
Re:Should it be downgrade? (Score:3, Funny)
Not this time - you're dealing with the endlessly witty hivemind of Slashdot.
Calling Vista a downgrade the first time was such a hoot that they can't resist repeating it once a day until I feel like my eyes are actually vomiting from reading it.
Re:It will work... (Score:5, Funny)
I'm tired of the "people are stupid" argument.
Become an educator.
Re:Tyrone the Linux nigger's open letter to Ballme (Score:1, Funny)
LOLOLOL YOU FUCKING DUMBASSS!
-signed a slashdotter who has been here 8 years and has NEVER been bitten by the 'check anonymously' bug
Re:XP Pro is worth more (Score:5, Funny)
If you throw a wad of paper in there while holding the Shift key, does it disappear forever?
:D
Now *THAT* would be cool to see.
Re:Microsoft's Turd (Score:2, Funny)
A 64-Bit OS that can address my 8GB of RAM and has drivers supplied for it by almost every company? I dunno, that's why I put vista-64 on my latest Desktop. I use it mostly to run office and VM-workstation with windows server products as a testing environment (and several flavors of linux).
With a 9800GT, a Phenom 9650, and 2 SATA disks with 8GB of ram, it seems to run fine to me.
(My laptop runs Linux, my macbook runs OSX)
Re:Vista is really not that bad... (Score:3, Funny)
I didn't realize until reading this thread, but I still have not actually seen this Vista thingy on a real operating PC.
Work is all XP, the WOW computer is XP even though it was just bought this summer as a Dell FreeDos box, and I'm posting from a Mac running Tiger. (It's too old to benefit from Leopard.)
How long has Vista been out? I guess it's non-existence anywhere around me is just another indication of how foobar it really is.
Re:It will work... (Score:5, Funny)
From the summary:
Wow. This many years and y'all still believe in Santa Claus?
Re:XP Pro is worth more (Score:3, Funny)
Little known fact: when you light a matchstick, it sounds like "shift" :)
Re:Bender sez... (Score:2, Funny)
That reminds me of Bernard's 'irregular verbs' in Yes, Minister:
I give confidential briefings.
You leak to the press.
He is charged under section D of the Official Secrets Act.