Gartner Symposium: Free Windows 7 for everyone
Free beer (in the Richard Stallman sense) accompanied the free software (not in the Richard Stallman sense). It's a good way to pack a showroom floor.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)ORLANDO, Fla.--Gartner offers a Justification Toolkit to argue the financial merits of attending the Gartner Symposium, but a show perk might carry more personal appeal: each attendee gets a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate, packaged with a slab of chocolate.
Well, maybe not free exactly.
It costs $3,695 to attend the show. And as one wag commented, "The chocolate's the better part. You'll get fewer headaches."
Perhaps stung by the contrast between its Windows Vista's tarnished reputation and its flashy "The Wow Starts Now" promotional campaign, Microsoft is sticking to barer-bones marketing work with Windows 7. Microsoft is one of five premier sponsors of the conference, and giving freebies to a few thousand influential IT folks probably makes sense--especially given how many companies just stuck with Windows XP rather than upgrade to Vista.
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
The chocolate is white; only in one size, you pay extra for it but has a strong bitter after taste.
- by Mr. Dee October 19, 2009 6:18 PM PDT
- $4,000 to hear a bunch of always incorrect analyst talk more garbage? Things like this should be illegal.
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