Comments on: Dell brings back XP on home systems

After adding it back as an option for small businesses, direct seller offers older OS on consumer machines in response to demand.

[1stRepent]

Dell's Decision to provide XP only to builders

Considering all I've heard about Vista, and considering PC manufacturers and MS are in business to turn a profit by keeping customers happy, it's beyond me why Dell will only supply XP to small business and small builders, and not to their main market ... and even more surprising is why MS has developed the same Dell mentality ... perhaps Bill G will come back with some creative solutions ... Jeff

[i_made_this]

Jeff, I'm afraid that...

...Bill Gates stepped down from active management purposefully just in time - and we only heard a partial reason about wishing to attend to the Gates Foundation. Some feel that Bill stepped down because he is a geek, knew precisely how poorly Vista would be received and wished not to be directly involved with the OS in his former capacity as CTO. He does have a geek rep he'd like to uphold, at the same time he obviously can't slam the OS due to his huge ownership of MSFT shares.

[technewsjunkie]

Apple's Leopard will be out in October

It'll be worth it.

[godam_registration]

Let's see if it'll be snatched off the shelves

Most likely, it'll be the same story as Vista. Not that many people have the hardware to upgrade, so the rest will wait until they have to buy a new computer. I remember when Panther came out, a lot of Mac users lamented how they didn't have the minimum 128MB of RAM required. And that's natural.

How come people expect Vista to become popular overnight? It's pretty intense on the hardware, of course it takes a while for people to adopt it...

[davidsco27]

When is MS going to just admit it.

It is AMAZING to me how IGNORANT, WRONG and STUPID the "analyst's" are in the above article. DUDES, VISTA IS CRAP. IT SUCKS. NOBODY WANTS IT. IT IS SLOWER, CLUNKIER, MORE ANNOYING, AND OFFER THE USER NOTHING OVER XP. IT IS NOT THE "LATEST AND GREATEST" IT IS JUST THE LATEST AND WORST. DEAL WITH IT! LEARN IT, LIVE IT! EVERYONE knows Vista is junk. EVERYONE. People I meet every day have heard it stinks and are staying away. NOBODY wants Vista!

[godam_registration]

Troll

Dude do everyone a favor and take your trolling elsewhere.

Try to make a COHERENT point. And easy on the caps.

[Gerry77]

Great Reply!

Hahaha... That's the whole point, they want to stay in business!!!

[dakotta]

Vista Needs Work!

Kudos to Dell for making that move. I just purchased a dell with Vista Basic and it isn't what I expected. I just purchased an upgrade to Business, but fear it won't be any better. I wish the option was there before. Good move Dell!

[kaptandrews]

Agreed...Vista does need work!

I'm a MS fan. Only because they hold some 80-90% of the market. But still...this attempt to force the "Vista SP" is having its impact. They just might force the move to Mac and OpenSource. If I have to learn a whole new way of computing, why not learn Mac.

Dell's decision is evident of MS's bullyin'. I too applaud Dell stance. I don't believe they gave the software/hardware makers enough time to work with the RC to build drivers that are compatible. Especially business, have not had enough time to play with it. Businesses are having all kinds of issues with front-end legacy apps (Nortel Client) not working! A co-worker of mine hem-haw'd around that weekend before the release and on Monday was only able to get Vista. We had to load XP in order for him to remote into work. We are one of the largest telecommunication company in the world (VZ) and we are not supporting personal laptop users. Let alone migrating anytime soon to the "Vista SP".

[Uncle Spongehead]

The only Vista choice is Business Premium

If your requirements include the ability to fax, scan or use wireless
networking, and you want the Media Center, you need the Business
Premium for $400.

To me, there is only one choice for the home, the $400 option.

[cristianjj]

As always Microsoft says the last word !!!

I really feel encouraged that Microsoft said that they would'nt sell XP to large manufacturers in the next year, this big Tirannical company want's that every person or company buy its new OS.

But everybody knows the amount of problems that comes with a new MS OS, as example: user knowledge, technical support, third party software compatibility, bugs... and much more.

We need to be free to choose what software want to use, not to be forced by Microsoft marketing or fashion or because they not support the old OS.

As a conclusion, we can't confidence in this private companys, that want to change and change things just for money.

[godam_registration]

Yeah, but they all do that!...

Every computer comapny (Symantec, NVidia, Apple, you name it) releases new versions of the same product and discontinues the last - to force consumers to buy them. Symantec realses a new security suit every year, more bloated and costly then before, and consumers have to pay cash.

It's not very reasonable to expect them to do otherwise, if MS was selling win2K still lots of people would be buying it (for like 50$, cuz it's old) and MS would be losing tons of money for having developed newer OS's (which not many would buy).

[mtoc]

dell

Dell should also set up more kiosks in malls to help potential customers configure a PC. they have a lesson or two to learn from Apple stores.
I will stick with XP till I buy my next PC or
switch to Mac.

[rogermoretz]

Too little, too late

I just received a Dell E520 with Vista Home Premium. Now if I could only throw XP onto the machine (I know, it has to be loaded the other way 'round). So far Vista has been having trouble with drivers; failing to work with legacy peripherals (all on USB connections); difficulty with software that ran great on XP; etc; etc; etc. There may be advantages, but I haven't seen any yet. Just headaches!

[Ted Miller]

Hurray! hoorah! Hurrah! Whoopee! Yippee!

A company has the guts to take the lead!

GO DELL!!!!!

DELL! DELL! DELL!

Everyone help support DELL! After all they are among the first to truly listen to the people. Unlike the Microsoft SNOBS!

Yah!

[Sumatra-Bosch]

V I S T A P O C A L Y P S E

<oem>

[jleemc44]

Surprisingly

Surprisingly, Dell has made a few changes biased on small amounts of feedback. I?m not sure why but I?m liking.

Microsoft on the other hand refuses to budge in any capacity to client needs.

[acannyoldminx]

Dell returns to XP

That was a good move but too late for me. The second time I powered up my brand new Dell I was getting drive incompatibility messages! I removed VISTA after finding so many annoying aspects I was alarmed. The last straw was those every other day updates were wiping out my ip address leaving me to start over to configure wireless internet!
VISTA is an absured throwback, NOT an upgrade. But, thanks Dell for selling me VISTA with no offer to send me XP when I told them I was changing OS! Next time I'm going with a Mac for sure!

[bdhillon]

Nothing innovative in Vista

There's absolutely nothing innovative in Vista. You can get the same glass look and feel from wincustomize.com for a fraction of cost and it's been available for years.

If you want to see real innovation, check out this:

QuickTime - http://webcast-east.sun.com/archives/GSN-1312/GSN-1312_forjds.mov
RealPlayer (Low Res) - http://www.sun.com/jsp_utils/ipr.jsp?elink=http://mfile.akamai.com/9191/rm/feedroomgen.download.akamai.com/9191/t_assets/20060807/4b3320456a653c31bf647b740a3981dd77cb18a5.rm?s=sun_n&c=Hidden2&ilink=http://webcast-mpk1.sfbay.sun.com/interchange/index.html?GSN-1312_01_035.rm
RealPlayer (High Res) - http://www.sun.com/jsp_utils/ipr.jsp?elink=http://mfile.akamai.com/9191/rm/feedroomgen.download.akamai.com/9191/t_assets/20060807/85641df23ae3fbbb15dd1fe4e7c5fa6cbbfee48e.rm?s=sun_n&c=Hidden2&ilink=http://webcast-mpk1.sfbay.sun.com/interchange/index.html?GSN-1312_01_200.rm

[MSSlayer]

That is not true

MS took 512 different memory address and randomly places critical process in them to attempt to keep them from attackers. Too bad it is trivially easy to read memory in Windows and a simple loop will check all 512 places.

That is MS security for you. Even a freshman computer science stupid would be embarrassed to come up with a "solution" like that.

[Anysia]

More computer manufacturers should do this

After hearing of brand new Compaqs (two of them from one store) that the store attempted to set up as VISTA demos and how they were trashed by vista, and of the upgrade horror stories (not only the drivers not working, but programs that were updated on regular basis not working, inability to uninstall VISTA or roll back to XP, etc etc), I am glad that XP is being offered by Dell.

I have a funny feeling that many people are going to hang onto their XP machines until there is no choice but to switch to VISTA (rather like how when no programs were written for Win 3.x, then none for 95 etc etc) until people are satisfied that the current software they spent good money on will be usable with VISTA.

[godam_registration]

True, forcing consumers to upgrade sucks for us

It's the same way as with Office, Norton AV, and hardware too like video cards and CPUs - every time a new version comes out the last one is discontinued, and everyone is forced to pay full money for incremental improvements. Take Norton AV - other then new defs and a very bloated new UI it's the same as 2K3 versions.

So you're right, consumers will benefit if old versions are offered, but manufacturers won't, and so they won't do this. MS is no different. The reasonable thing to do is press them through civic action. But it's unrealistic to expect companies to forfeit all the revenue from these new software versions unless forced too!

[pchesels]

Downgrad to XP from VISTA via EULA

Here are the FAQ's from MS: (I believe this is volume licensing?)

FAQs
I have Microsoft Office XP, but only Microsoft Office 2003 Edition licenses are on the price list. My business currently has machines that have Microsoft Office XP installed. What license do I need to buy to run Microsoft Office XP on the new machines I will be purchasing?
If you buy the Microsoft Office 2003 Edition license through a Microsoft Volume Licensing program, you may use any prior version of the software in place of the version you order, including Microsoft Office XP.

We are currently using Microsoft SQL Server? 7.0. We need to allow Internet access to our Microsoft SQL Server server computer, and the Microsoft SQL Server Internet Connector is no longer available. What do we do?
Acquire SQL Server 2000 per-processor license(s) for the server machine that will be accessed over the Internet. When you do that, you are governed by the applicable Product Use Rights (PUR) for that product. These use rights will continue to be applicable to your use, even if you choose to downgrade to a previous version of Microsoft SQL Server. What this means for you is that the rights associated with the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 per-processor license that allow anyone, from anywhere, at any time, to access your Microsoft SQL Server data on that server would still be applicable even if you are using downgraded SQL Server 7.0 software bits on the server machine. Even though this option did not exist with SQL Server 7.0, by licensing the current product and using the current PUR and the applicable downgrade rights, you can run SQL Server 7.0 in this manner. This holds true for any new product acquired under the current PUR and downgrade rights associated with Microsoft Volume License agreements.

Can I downgrade my OEM version of Windows Vista Business to Windows XP Professional?
Yes. OEM downgrade rights for desktop PC operating systems apply to Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate as stated in the License Terms. Please note, OEM downgrade versions of Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate are limited to Windows XP Professional (including Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and Windows XP x64 Edition). End users can use the following media for their downgrade: Volume Licensing media (provided the end user has a Volume Licensing agreement), retail (FPP), or system builder hologram CD (provided the software is acquired in accordance with the Microsoft OEM System Builder License). Use of the downgraded operating system is governed by the Windows Vista Business License Terms, and the end user cannot use both the downgrade operating system and Windows Vista Business. There are no downgrade rights granted for Windows Vista Home Basic or Windows Vista Home Premium.

If I have Microsoft Office Professional Enterprise Edition 2003, what can I downgrade to?
Downgrade rights in the Volume Licensing programs provide customers with the right to downgrade to any prior version of the same product. Therefore, Microsoft Office Professional Enterprise 2003 can be downgraded to the Microsoft Office XP, Office XP 2000, Office XP 97, Office XP 95, or Office XP 4.3 versions. You would not, however, be able to downgrade to Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003 as that is a different product and not considered a previous version of Microsoft Office Professional Enterprise Edition 2003.

Which 2007 Microsoft Office system suites are eligible to downgrade to Office 2003 suites?
Customers who have licensed Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 are eligible to downgrade to Office Professional Enterprise 2003 and all previous versions as described above. Customers who have licensed Microsoft Office Standard 2007 are eligible to downgrade to Office Standard Edition 2003 and all previous versions of Office Standard Edition.

Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 contains several additional components that were not available in any Office 2003 suite. If I have a license for Office Enterprise 2007, then what can I downgrade to?
Customers who are licensed for Office Enterprise 2007 can downgrade to Office Professional Plus 2003 plus the Microsoft Office OneNote® 2003 note-taking program. Additionally, Office Enterprise 2007 licensees who had licensed Microsoft Office Groove® 3.1 and held Office Groove maintenance that was active on July 1, 2006, may also use Office Groove 3.1 as a downgraded component. Customers choosing to downgrade and use these components must use them on the same device in the same manner they would use the components in the version of the suite for which they acquired a license.

If I have Windows Vista Enterprise, what can I downgrade to?
Downgrade rights in the Volume Licensing programs provide customers with the right to downgrade to any prior version of the same product. Windows Vista Enterprise is a new type of product and does not have a prior version. However, customers licensed for use of Windows Vista Enterprise are licensed for Windows Vista Business, and it can be downgraded to the Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows NT® 4.0, Windows NT 3.51, Windows 98, or Windows 95 operating system. You would not, however, be able to downgrade to Windows Vista Home Basic or Windows Vista Home Premium, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, or Microsoft Windows Millennium as those are different products and not considered previous versions of Windows Vista Business.

Since I can no longer purchase Multilanguage User Interface (MUI) for Windows outside of Software Assurance, can I downgrade and use MUI versions of the Windows operating system under my Windows Vista Business Software Assurance if I downgrade my PC to Windows XP Professional?
Yes. Customers that acquire rights to MUI on their new Windows Vista PCs through Windows Vista Enterprise in Software Assurance are permitted to use prior MUI versions of the Windows operating system.


Note: This Microsoft Volume Licensing Brief is provided for general informational purposes only. For the terms and conditions governing your use of Microsoft software, please refer to the applicable license agreement.

[gdusseau]

Happiness is not found in your reply, but...

I understand your reasoning. I would have done the same. I was just curious. Thank you for taking the time to reply. gd

[hitex45]

Windows XP

Since Summer 2006 wanted a new computer.
Bought Dell with Windows XP Professional
in March this year. Changeover from VAIO
and liking it. More power to XP!!
Somehow Americans like Gates Bush cannot
see the glaring truth.
People like simplicity,can not say that for
Windows XP but its near to completion as
an app??? Better than an Upstart Brat like
Vista who is a glutton like a lot of people
in this world.
Am satisfied with One Gig Memory for now but
can you say that for Vista???

[weegg]

eh, hem

Mac OS 10.5 will be POSIX certified (unlike VISTA which is only
compliant).
Mac OS 10.5 will be fully 64/32 bit seamless through out on all
APIs (unlike VISTA and XP).
Mac OS 10.5 already stated OS resource requirements will work
on hardware older than 5 years (unlike VISTA).

One that I am really hoping is that 10.5 will deploy ZFS for the
filesystem. If that is the case, XP and Vista are essentially
dinosaurs. ZFS eliminates the need for RAIDs and opens up the
limits on filespace. There have been hints of this in the
developer releases.

[rmiecznik]

waiting for 10.5 ...

I am waiting and my check is blank for now... I was given Vista
Ultimate for free, full retail verion, both the 32 and 64 bit version,
don't work on my computer, it's less then 1 year old, almost 2.4
Ghz in speed. I wanted to give it away to friend, Vista that it and I
got the same response from them all. Get the F!@#$ out of here,
no one wanted it for free, let alone the ridiculess price that MS
wants for it.

Get the F@#$ out of here is right.

[weegg]

Good for you

Vista has DRM in the core OS and not application level. All potential
users should boycott Vista on this sole issue.

[weegg]

eh hem

A huge factor that makes PCs attractive is that they use free and
solid technologies like the PCI bus, USB, and ATA for hard
drives, while Macs always use PROPRIETARY technology which is
minimally more effective but one that charges lots of royalties,
like Firewire and SCSI, both of which failed.

True, Apple was slowest to move to PCI-bus. But, they there
now.

Which PC vendor was the first to deploy USB support through out
their line? Apple.

Which PC vendor was the first to deploy ATA drives in all their
systems? Apple

Which PC vendor brought superior Firewire technology to the
plate (and 800 is faster than USB2)? Apple. Just wait till the next
Firewire speed boost.