Are You Going to Buy Windows Vista?

[arsenal]

Originally Posted by fleury

Plus, there are rumors that Google is going to come out with their own operating system...that should be interesting (and a nice time right now to buy their stock IMO).

$492 / share is a good price?
It would have to get over $900 / share to double your money. what are the chances of that happening?

I think google is a great company, I just don't see their stock rising that much. Mind you, i am not a financial annalyst.

As far as google providing their own OS. Could be interesting. AFAIK it would be a thin-client web based application. Great that you could access it any where in the world. I think there already is one out there that you can test. It's slow slow slow. But an interesting POC none the less.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Yep - I will certainly get Vista. I consider myself an early adopter but figure I'll wait till June/July till driver support increases. I don't need it that badly yet!

A large part of my job is techo skills driven so I need to ensure I stay ahead of the curve with that. Business is a Windows World.

[edn88]

I am a techie, and I have made my living off of knowing Windows & MS systems, so I think I am in.

[bluejays]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

Yep - I will certainly get Vista. I consider myself an early adopter but figure I'll wait till June/July till driver support increases. I don't need it that badly yet!

A large part of my job is techo skills driven so I need to ensure I stay ahead of the curve with that. Business is a Windows World.

The thing is, we know we're all in, it's just a matter of when. If you purchase it right now, you're working for Microsoft for free sending them your R&D reports when things go wrong. The reviews I've read have all said that there are some kinks to work out (nothing major though), but a powerful system is needed to run all the bells and whistles. If you have a good computer, try it.

Just curious, if you needed it for your job pretty badly, why didn't you get in on it in November (I don't mean to be obnoxious, but I'm curious)?

[eyipyip]

There will probably be a lot of bugs in the first version, probably will wait til end of this year at least

[Winsor_Pilates]

Not likely

[Rathji]

Already ordered a new laptop w/vista from Dell for school. My 17" widescreen isn't meant to be lugged to school and back every day.

Saw an ad last night during hockey game that futureshop was selling for $179 and was including a free wireless router.

[SoulOfTheFlame]

i'll wait... see what their gaming platform is like, if it's as revolutionary as they're spouting... probabley

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by fleury

Just curious, if you needed it for your job pretty badly, why didn't you get in on it in November (I don't mean to be obnoxious, but I'm curious)?

I'm not in IT or anything like that so I don't need to be in on the advance betas. My organization is probably 2 years away from adopting Vista so I've got lots of time before it falls into the universe of my job.

[ken0042]

Some Vista humour:
http://www.joyoftech.com/joyoftech/joyimages/915.gif

Bill Gates on the Daily Show yesterday. (apparently works through my work's proxy)
http://www.comedycentral.com/motherl...&is_large=true

[LockedOut]

Is there any reason to buy the 64 bit version over the 32 bit(x86) version?

[MattyK]

Originally Posted by LockedOut

Is there any reason to buy the 64 bit version over the 32 bit(x86) version?

If you have a 64-bit processor, buy the 64-bit version. If you have a 32-bit processor, buy the x86 version.

I'm not sure of the interoperability of versions and processors, but I wouldn't count on it working.

[Wookie]

Originally Posted by MattyK

If you have a 64-bit processor, buy the 64-bit version. If you have a 32-bit processor, buy the x86 version.

I'm not sure of the interoperability of versions and processors, but I wouldn't count on it working.

64 procs runs both

32 procs only run 32 bit O/S

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by LockedOut

Is there any reason to buy the 64 bit version over the 32 bit(x86) version?

Originally Posted by MattyK

If you have a 64-bit processor, buy the 64-bit version. If you have a 32-bit processor, buy the x86 version.

I would strongly disagree with that. Unless you know that all your devices have drivers for the 64 bit O/S then stick with the 32 bit O/S. (and if you don't know then you probably want the 32 bit version).

[SpitFire40]

What's the deal with the Upgrade version?? Is that just to verify your license? Would I be able to install Vista from a fresh drive format?

[photon]

Originally Posted by SpitFire40

What's the deal with the Upgrade version?? Is that just to verify your license? Would I be able to install Vista from a fresh drive format?

No that's something they actually changed; with the upgrade version you can't do a clean install, you have to do an upgrade to a fully installed version.

So the best bet if you still want a clean install would be to do a clean XP install then do the upgrade I guess (yee haw).

Also with the upgrade version it will invalidate the license key of the Windows XP that you use to upgrade from, so you will not be able to activate that key on another computer.

[LockedOut]

Next question. Anyone buy the OEM version like the one available at Memory Express? It's so much cheaper than the retail full(non-upgrade) versions and almost the same price as the retail upgrade price. What's in the package(ie. manuals, etc) and how limited is it with activation down the road compared to a retail full version.

[photon]

The OEM version doesn't come with any manuals or fancy packaging, it's just a disc and key, and it doesn't come with any support from Microsoft (the OEM is supposed to provide support, which if you buy the software yourself, you are the OEM).

The retail version can be transferred to different computers down the road while the OEM version is tied to a single specific computer.. More specifically Microsoft will (through the key and activation) tie the OEM version to the computer's motherboard. So you can upgrade anything else, but if you change the motherboard you won't be able to run or install your OEM version on that computer. You can probably get around this once if you call Microsoft and tell them your old motherboard died, but who knows how difficult that will be or how many times they'll buy that.

[LockedOut]

Originally Posted by photon

The OEM version doesn't come with any manuals or fancy packaging, it's just a disc and key, and it doesn't come with any support from Microsoft (the OEM is supposed to provide support, which if you buy the software yourself, you are the OEM).

The retail version can be transferred to different computers down the road while the OEM version is tied to a single specific computer.. More specifically Microsoft will (through the key and activation) tie the OEM version to the computer's motherboard. So you can upgrade anything else, but if you change the motherboard you won't be able to run or install your OEM version on that computer. You can probably get around this once if you call Microsoft and tell them your old motherboard died, but who knows how difficult that will be or how many times they'll buy that.

Thanks for the info. I think I'll try the OEM version when I upgrade my computer pretty soon. Can probably buy 2-3 copies of the OEM for the price of a full retail version. Don't really want to muck around with the upgrade version. Seems like too much of a hassle. Plus I want to keep my copy of XP working on my to be old computer anyways.

[photon]

More info on OEM:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070130-8730.html