Vista prices fall even further
I expected to see some lower Vista prices in this weekend's ads, but was surprised to see just how low the prices had fallen.
Officially the price cuts announced by Microsoft on Thursday don't take effect until later this year when Service Pack 1 hits retail shelves. However, the company had said that many retailers were offering promotions that bring the software to its lower price.
But the ad at OfficeMax took things a step further. In this week's circular, the office products chain is selling Windows Vista Home Premium for $99. That's $30 less than Microsoft's just-lowered price and the same as the suggested price for Windows Vista Home Basic--though perhaps just a hair more than the clearance prices a couple weeks back at closing CompUSA stores.
The question now is just how low will Vista go.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
that requires considerate computer and peripheral upgrade, and is
still lackluster.
Meanwhile, $119 gets you the full, robust, elegant and advanced
Mac OS X, or $0 gets you Ubuntu.
I've had three laptops with Vista pre-installed (1 w/ Home
Premium, 2 w/ 64-bit Ultimate) and each one had issues w/
Vista.
When the last machine started to BSOD when I tried putting it to
sleep, I called up the mfg and they were gracious enough to give
me a full refund for the machine. I took the money, bought a
Macbook, and haven't looked back.
btw...if you're a die-hard Windows/PC guy, do NOT buy a
Mac.....seriously, stay away from Apple and Macs. Why? Because
once you use Leopard, you'll never want to use Windows again.
Only issues I have are with a couple of games like Sins of a Solar Empire and that's because of a graphics driver issue and nothing to do with Microsoft or Vista.
I have an Intel iMac and I don't see what all the fuss is over OSX. It's a great OS but it's no better than Linux or XP/Vista.
If you know how to actually use XP/Vista then you will never have a problem with it. You buy a cheap little $299 Dell with XP and you hit every porn and warez site you can find... you deserve the problems you will encounter.
I rarely ever have any problems out of XP / Vista.
But to be honest, I didn't pay any attention to the iMacs until they switched to Intel. Before that they weren't very great. PPC wasn't doing them any good. Intel at least allows you to run Windows if you really need to. Also Intel produces cooler and more energy efficient processors, which are way better for consumers.
Now, My home machine is a iMac 24, which I absolutely love. However, the bugs in Leapard are just as frustrating as the bugs in XP. Like, sometimes, the graphics in the app bar just bug out. Safari will just stop working and crash and you have to restart it, almost weekly. Firefox is not that much better. I loved the previous version of iPhoto and iMovie much better. Sometimes, my DVD drive won't take in the drive and the disc just sits there. I have to use a litle screw driver to push it in just a little further and then it will grab the disc.
That being said, I still love the iMac and Leapard, and I won't be parting with it anytime soon. But XP and/or Vista is much better suited for my office tasks. Pages and Numbers are not quite there yet. I like OpenOffice, but it's WAY too slow. It's pretty reliable though.
btw...if you're a die-hard Windows/PC guy, do NOT buy a Mac.....seriously, stay away from Apple and Macs. Why? Because once you use Leopard, you'll never want to use Windows again.
20DChris says:
Gotta agree! Two years ago if someone had said I'd be using a Mac today, I'd have laughed in their face. NEVER!
Now that I have my Imac I can't tell you how happy I am w/it. I've had it since December, upgraded to OS X Leopard w/not a problem. Every time I hear about Vista headaches, I thank GOD I don't have to deal with Windows. I can't believe I'm saying it but I've been converted. And MAN it is the BEST decision I could have made!
--
Chris
My question is, can Vista even survive? It is too resource hungry for all but the most powerful new processors (unless you want to use bare bones home basic, but why use that when XP will do?).
I've tried Ubuntu, and gave up because I have no wish to become a real Geek (it's a chore just to see network drives), Mac is out for me because most of the the things I use computers for are better done with windows with more choices, That leaves only XP for me.
Vista is gaining market share. It's slow but it's moving!
I had a motherboard (ASRock) NIC driver issue that I resolved by getting a beta driver a few weeks ago.
There are some quirky things with older software sometimes...but nothing to write home about.
I, like a lot of folks, have a lot of time invested in Win OS's in the work environment, so Vista is just the next iteration to have to work with. If I wasn't tied to the corp world, I'd love OS-X for home...just for the thrill of starting from scratch. We have some OS-X machines at the office that tend to have to suck hind t*t in our MS AD world.
There, I've said it. STEVE--I SAID IT OUT LOUD!!!
Mac - http://www.parallels.com/en/landingpage/dskd10_4/?
gclid=COufrpeO8JECFQQFlwodeBxIxw
or
Fusion by VMWare - http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/
Oh, and of course you can run virtually (sic) any version of Windows or Linux.
3 Operating Systems, 1 computer to unite them all.
Maybe, like the Zune, the target market for Vista is really the escaped mental patient cohort.
When did they EVER drop the price for XP? XP Home wasn't good, but Pro is THE BEST - has all of the Oomph it needs while still incorporating back in all the "tools" that were so cool in 98SE.
No, we don't want Vista, the GOVERNMENT doesn't want Vista and dang it, MS - please realize that THIS is even WORSE than ME (Millenium Edition) and is now being termed the "OS2 of MS" (OS2 -IBM- red or blue flopped so badly that it never made a spash anywhere...)
So do we go Linux or do you give us XP back!!!!!!!!!!
Didn't think so.
Sins of a Solar Empire is the only game giving me problems and that's because of an Nvidia glitch that they say will be worked out on the next driver update.
On my laptop which is Vista32, Sins plays great, Lost: Via Domus plays ok, but since my laptop doesn't support Shaders 3.0 I cannot see all the environment, but the game still plays. BF2142 plays at medium/low graphics because it's not a gaming laptop with a high end graphics card onboard... I loaded up Lost: Via Domus on my Vista64 box and plays fine... it's just the game sort of sucks and I have no desire to play it.
The only real problems I have is that my Microsoft Finger Print reader doesn't have a 64bit driver and my HP PhotoSmart 7660 has to use dumbed down 5600 driver just to somewhat print. HP said they have no intention of doing a 64bit driver for that printer so it's now hooked up to my XP box which is fine.
I actually have better gaming performance out of my Vista box than I did when it was running XP. Games like BF2 and 2142 would not let me ALT+TAB out of the game in XP without essentially crashing the game to a black screen. In Vista, I can task out of any game and back in with no problem at all.
spend $300-400 for the only worthwhile version of Vista (i.e.
Ultimate) to do the same thing I'm already doing in Linux, OSX
or XP? (please don't harp on to me about the latest security
enhancements in Vista - I don't need em).
Sure, each OS has its own shortcomings - eg Leopard had its fair
share of instability for me until 10.5.2 - but at least I didn't
blow $300-400 AND have to deal with issues. ...and that's my
main gripe with Vista. I hear of so many issues with it (and
success stories too, but that isn't my point) that having to spend
a considerable amount of money for an OS that from a consumer
perspective will only make MORE work for me rather than make
life easier just doesn't make much sense.
I've been a geek for the past 20 years, and so I've spent a
fortune on the latest, greatest and ahem, breakiest, but I guess
I'm getting old in the tooth when it comes to forking out more
$$$ to Microsoft for more of the samey samey.
I thought being a geek was genetic.
What were you before you were a geek?
:-)
A forewarning to those MS programmers: If it doesn't install directly over my XP Pro like it says it will, I'm going to post a video of me flame-torching the disc, and mailing it back to you up in Redmond.
problems either, but that might be because I'm running Leopard on
a MBP.
Microsoft lied to most everyone again when they released info that claimed they were finished rebuilding xp. FYI, there is a soon-to-be-released Service Pack 3 coming for XP. However, it is somewhat of a dud too since it mainly installs updates that were previously blocked from installing via windows updates.
Vista's Service Pack 1 has already been causing tons of problems. When is Microsoft going to quit being sooooo greedy?
My next system will definitely be a MAC!!!
- Rob
- http://rgginc.evenhosting.com/
I'm running all kinds of software and haven't had problems. Just my two cents.
yeah go buy yourself a big mac computer. you will miss the great windows for sure unless you virtual pc.
Microsoft is Microsoft...always have been.
VISTA on the other hand would really screw mr up financially. I'd have by newer more powerful computers eacg with @ Gigs Ran (or more).
Why would I want to do that?
- MO - NOP - ALY
- by juchestyle March 3, 2008 5:32 AM PST
- What do you expect from a monopoly? They don't care about the end user, if there was competition, then they would be forced to hire people to program and not chimpanzees!
- Like this Reply to this comment
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- Microsoft does care about its customers
- by zephryn March 3, 2008 5:52 AM PST
- Only their major customers aren't end user consumers like us. They sell to PC manufacturers like Dell, HP, Acer, and of course their 'pals' from Intel...
- Like this
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (137 Comments)R,
And if Microsoft can train chimps to write code for a whole operating system, then they must have some expert training staff