Just in from Excite-

Quote: Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s long-delayed upgrade of its flagship Windows operating system will cost the same as comparable versions of the previous version, Windows XP, the company said Tuesday. The software maker also said Windows Vista remains on track to be delivered to businesses in November and to consumers in January. Microsoft priced Windows Vista Home Basic at $199, or $99.95 as an upgrade for computers already running the consumer version of Windows XP.

Microsoft is hoping most consumers will go for Windows Vista Premium, which will come with entertainment features like the ability to record live television. That version will cost $239.
Windows Vista Business will cost $299; the company set the price for upgrades at $199.
Another version, Windows Vista Ultimate, will be geared toward people who want to do both personal and office work on their home computers. It will cost $399, or $259 for an upgrade.
Vista, the company's first new operating system in five years, touts a sleeker look, improved security features, better protection against spyware and viruses and more intuitive search tools to help users find saved files.
The prices are in line with the market for operating systems, said Michael Cherry, a lead analyst for the independent research group Windows on Microsoft. But for most consumers, the cost of buying a machine that can run Vista is more relevant.
Vista requires more memory and a more powerful graphics card than XP; people who bought their computers more than a year ago may not have the power to run the operating system at full speed, said Cherry.
"Microsoft will make the point that Vista will run on older machines, but it's either going to run slow" or without the full graphics-handling capability, Cherry said, adding that he has yet to see what computers fully equipped to run the system will cost.
Microsoft also said Tuesday it will make the most recent test version of Vista, dubbed release candidate 1, available to 5 million customers worldwide this week through its Customer Preview Program.
"We're in the last mile for Windows Vista, and the release candidate marks a great amount of progress and a great step toward final release," said Shanen Boettcher, general manager of product management for the division that includes Windows.
Microsoft will decide whether to release another test version of Vista based on feedback from this round of user testing.
Shares of Microsoft fell 23 cents to close at $25.61 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Slak. you also copied the advertisement from the article.
Anyway, I am not going to upgrade to vista for a while, even with the upgrade prices. I am going to wait until I hear more reviews on the actual product instead of the beta.

Quote: Originally Posted by fatsobob Slak. you also copied the advertisement from the article. Anyway, I am not going to upgrade to vista for a while, even with the upgrade prices. I am going to wait until I hear more reviews on the actual product instead of the beta.

Oh really dumbass ?????

I'll buy Vista when the games I want to play no longer ship for XP (As unlikely as it should be..) I'll still however dualboot/ usually be on XP anyway.

Quote: Originally Posted by konai_konai666 I'll buy Vista when the games I want to play no longer ship for XP (As unlikely as it should be..) I'll still however dualboot/ usually be on XP anyway.

I am with you on this one. Vista can eat through a Gig of RAM witoout breaking a sweat. It could just be the betas, but we'll see.

Is this OS a system hog? Thats my only complaint with XP right now as it takes up so much resources...

When XP is optimized, it is not a resource hog at all. It may take a little bit longer to set it up but it performs like no other. Vista, on the other hand, keeps giving me the momory low message, even though I have a gig of RAM.

I ran vista for a month and had no problem with little mem. Although it could only run games in software mode due to my old ass radeon 9200 i was able to watch super troopers while defraging and on msn / virus scan running

hahahah i love that ad

Quote: Originally Posted by JimsZR2 Is this OS a system hog? Thats my only complaint with XP right now as it takes up so much resources...

I am able to run Vista RC1 without Aero with only minor memory problems. Ran fine on my macbook with Aero running bootcamp. I think it will be fine after the first service pack.

I ran rc1 for about a week. Loved it. Went back to xp. Ill still get a hacked copy. Until i guilt my dad into buying me a ligit copy when it comes out.

I would pay 399 for the final copy because its that much better then xp in my opinion. Only problem is to run it well you need a very nice system. And hopefully dx10 cards come out soon. So i dont spent money on a 7900 when its outmatched after a few months.

COME ON DX10

Ugh... Vista...

Someone should pour some time and effort into educating the world about the vast alternatives found in the GPL world.

In layman's terms: Linux!



The Linux Home Page at Linux Online
DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.
Linux - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



*bows dramatically* Thank you!

The problem with open source is, according to the GPL, Richard Stallman gets to store your soul in his beard.

Quote: Originally Posted by Hak Foo The problem with open source is, according to the GPL, Richard Stallman gets to store your soul in his beard.

*dons his black hooded-cloak*

"Come to the Dark Side..."


I'm going to retract that whole blurb from earlier. Windows is a decent OS in it's own right, and I'm not one to preach to anyone. I do hope, however, that some of you who don't game as much as you used to, or are content with the numerous games made for Linux, will at least do some research. I won't bother with Vista, unless I have a lot of money to spare.

To be honest, I don't see any reason to upgrade. Weighing the pros and cons of it.

-Pros

Bleeding-edge
nifty visual elements
support for latest games

-Cons

Price
resource footprint
redundancy (It does everything XP can, with some extra toys and eye-candy.)


Make a judgement call.

Im running RC1 and will never go back to xp. Retail intel is giving me a e6300, intel mobo, and vista ultimate for 220$ cdn. So i dont see a need to ever go back. I admit that it is a resource HOG. At startup im using 57% of 1gb ram. It is just as fast as xp. The only thing is that i used tuneup utilities 06 forever and miss being able to optimise everything. I as a lazy man so i dont think learning linux will help me.

The best thing about Vista has got to be the ReadyBoost functionality. It's great to be able to plug in a USB stick and instantly boost your RAM a few hundred megs. I mean, I know it isn't as good as real RAM but it still helps.

does that mean vista wont upgrade from windows 2000 pro if so that sucks

Quote: Originally Posted by jaziel does that mean vista wont upgrade from windows 2000 pro if so that sucks

How did you get this far without upgrading to XP, i mean it has been out for half a decade!

i have xp pro for my pc but my uncle wants me to build him a gamer rig and i figure why buy an os when i could install 2k pro and probably just buy the upgrade for vista but now that might not be possible he may have to fork out the dough for vista full version or buy xp and the vista upgrade thats why i said that would suck if it didnt upgrade from 2k pro im looking at a 1,000 budget and this may change that because he definetly wants to run vista also im trying to hold him back a little until the dx10 compatable gpu's come out at an affordable price range (150-250)

slow down man... use some periods.

Just look at it this way, installing (and reinstalling) vista is going to be easier with a full version. Besides, a good general rule of thumb is to not install an os on top on an os.

Its gonna 100 bucks well spent.