Beyonder wrote:Umm, yes. There are other facets to the issue beyond "open" and "free." I'm a firm believer in free beer; however, there's more than one beer to choose from, so why drink the natty light?
Mmm... Beer. I guess I'm guess I'll have to walk to the freezer to pick a can and celebrate our indepence day.
Aris wrote:Havnt ever paid for any MS product yet, never will.
Sinner.
Plus you gotta wait till the corperate and school copies that dont require cdkeys to leak out into the public so you dont have to pay for it but still get all the updates without worry.
Sorry, corporate versions don't get all the updates. For example IE7 requires you to run a Microsoft genuine something check to install it. Same thing with Defender.
mbetea wrote:Not really directed at you personally, but is MS changing their stance on OEM software? I haven't read anything that said places like Newegg and whatnot will not be able to sell OEM versions of Vista(Ultimate).
From MS's site they show Ultimate at $400 for the Retail package. In comparison the last time I checked the price of the retail version of XP Pro, it was $299 at CompUSA. So unless MS has changed how they will distribute Vista, I can't see paying more than maybe $190 for an OEM version of Ultimate upon release. I've never met a DIY'er that purchased a Retail copy of Windows.
vertigo wrote:Don't you need to buy a preassembled PC to buy an oem version?
Presumably this is the case. Last week I was looking at the OEM-versions of Vista and they had a "new and confusing" OEM-disclaimer. I send an enquiry to our biggest e-tailer and asked what gives? I got a reply, that Microsoft is presumably changing their stance on the OEM-versions of Vista, meaning that they will be only sold to preassembled PCs. They weren't 100% sure of it, but it looks like that's how it'll be.
However, if you don't want to pay the money of the retail-version there's still an off route.
For example if I don't want to buy a new preassembled computer, I could buy a OEM-version of Windows XP home edition for 86.90 euros. Then use the Vista Upgrade option that costs 39 euros and upgrade the XP to Vista Home Basic (69 euros for Vista Home Premium). For comparison Retail Vista Home Basic is priced 259 euros here. And Vista Home Premium Upgrade DVD is priced at 199 euros. Making it a pretty useless option, because it would be cheaper to simply buy OEM Windows XP home and use the 69e upgrade option for a total price of 156 euros... However this will work only until March 2007. They had to make it so, that people wouldn't stop buying computers in the anticipation of Vista.