PingBack from http://itsvista.com/2007/03/links-for-2007-03-21/

Are you guys trying to completely alienate your non-US customers?  I am a UK user and, apart from the (very) widely publicised outry at the hugely inflated retail prices for Vista, we do not have the option of the Family pack to soften the blow.  And now another incentive, the Vista additional licence program, is denied us.  I have three PC's at home.  Despite that Vista Ultimate (albeit full, not upgrade) costs a little more than a Mac Mini, I am expected to buy 3 licenses with absolutely no incentive to do so.  It's like you guys are really not fussed - you guys now how badly the product line is doing over here.  

Despite waiting years for this product, it has only taken the release of the UK pricing to convince me to swith to Mac.  Thanks a bunch guys.

Oops, looks like my anger was premature -- I can't find anything to say that this isn't available in the UK?  Any clarificaton?  We'd still like the Family discount by the way.

In mitigation, the thing is still overpriced ;-)  I'll now scurry off and stop ranting !

This program sounds like a good idea, although a 10% discount is quite small considering that you wont get a retail box.  Maybe if you bought one more license 10% off is OK but if you bought 5 more licenses the discount surely should be more say 33%.  Were talking about home users not bussinesses, 10% to a bussiness is good, but to a home user its not enough to encourage buying... I could be wrong though!

wombatmk- "For our EMEA friends, online orders will be available on 26 March." EMEA = Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

Great job also releasing this for EMEA! Thumbs up, guys.

Why BUY licenses for a crappy operating system? Get Linux, comes in a variety of flavors, Ubuntu being my favorite, and guess what? It's more stable, and it's completely FREE! http://www.ubuntu.com/

newsscientist2000, if you need that many additional licenses, don't forget that volume licensing is still an option. :)

Volume Pricing...Are you kidding! I want to know where I can get a new computer WITHOUT your Vista garabage! I'm sorry guys I really had hoped Vista would be worth it but you went over board with the security and I thought Microsoft wanted to get rid of the pop-ups...you can't do anything...even simple tasks like changing a file name without the constant pop-ups. Please let us control our own damn computers!

P.s I agree with Kawamura...Get Linux - it's free and a hell of alot easier to use! I run Fedora and Knoppix right from my CD/DVD drive! Don't even have to sweat an install!

willebanks, could you elaborate a bit about the pop-ups?  Are you talking the UAC window asking for permission?  Are you logged into an account with admin privileges?  

Thanks Terri for advice :-)

Is this REALLY worth it ... 10% off! ... < http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2007/03/20/purchasing-additional-windows-vista-licenses.aspx

Well....  Nice idea.  Too little, too late.  And what happened to the Anytime Upgrade idea?  Most of the world is not available........

The anytime upgrade is still available.  You can get the full details here -

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/windowsanytimeupgrade/faq.mspx

Well I'm still willing to give Vista a go.

Only however, if the Family discount is extended to the UK in June when the current limited time (US only) offer expires.

Otherwise it's way way too damned expensive for the 3 PC's I have.  Ten percent per additional licence is just not enough of a 'sweet deal' for me.

Run along Linsux and Mac fan boys. Run along. You will never be able to compete with the greatest company in the world!

I always fined it funny that you always see mac and linux people start posting "IM MS FREE!, ECT!" when to me i just look and say... which works best for me? It almost sounds like every computer company is not just a company but a religion, And im gessing Vires makers are Terrorists? XP

Man marketing must be a great job....

Sony just launched the PS3 in the UK and are giving away free HDTVs for some lucky buyers:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6603

Microsoft it seems are giving out seats to those in line(how thoughtful):

http://kotaku.com/gaming/britain/easing-tired-bums-at-the-uk-ps3-launch-246470.php

refering you to this insult:

http://www.shkyw.org/

Honestly, it leaves much to be desired (and I speak not as a Linux or Apple zealot), especially as you can easily find Vista discounted by 5-7% at Amazon.com or marked down by about that much at retail stores like Best Buy. In fact, with the sales tax rate in most states, it may actually be cheaper to buy it at Amazon than at a 10% discount from Microsoft.

Like Mary Jo Foley suggested, try 20% or something. Ten percent isn't worth it unless you are completely incapible of comparison shopping, or you live 100 miles from the nearest computer store and you're on metered dialup.

Well...  anytime upgrade is still not available over here in Hong Kong.....

Im Windows Vista Team Blog wird über ein Programm berichtet, mit dem sich zusätzliche Lizenzen von Windows Vista zu vergünstigten Preisen erwerben lassen, z. B. um einen weiteren Computer mit dem neuen Betriebssystem auszustatten. Um i

I'm planning to buy a laptop from Japan. but the problem is hp and dell only offering Japanese version of Windows Vista. I may need to pay some extra bucks to get English OS :(

Also, don't forget to check with your computer maker if you purchased a new system between October 26, 2006 and March 15, 2007. The Windows Express Upgrade was offered by many major (and some minor) computer makers. Some have not been very up-front about it, however, so you may have to ask.

:-)

Oh, and did I say, it's free?

Very much a case of too little too late, in the overal pricing model for the UK purchaser.

(Especially as UK businesses trading in US can buy directly from US and use in the UK the software - it hurts the little guys the pricing approach).

Prehaps listening to the 10,000 or so people protesting about the $1=£1 ratio addressing the base RRP would be a better start.

Petition to the Prime Minister on Vista Overcharging:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/VistaOvercharge/

Well, I'm writing this from a fresh install of Windows XP. After testing Vista for almost three weeks, I have no idea why anyone would choose it over XP, other than the fact it came pre-installed on a new machine. I could not function in any kind of efficient manner with Vista. I formatted the drive and re-installed my trusty old XP. I don't care how many price breaks you offer, why should I pay for a DOWNGRADE in operating systems? My other computers in the house will now be running Ubuntu linux. Vista is a dog, in my opinion. Wait for service pack 1 and keep your fingers crossed!

I've been running some form of Windows Vista and Ubuntu for almost a year now; I can understand the Mac people having issue with the OS, but why is everyone such a die hard for XP?  I've only run into a handful of apps that don't work, and the only times I've had a dreadful experience were the times I tried to upgrade instead of a clean install, much better in the RTM but I still haven't had a good time with that method of installing Windows Vista.  Overall my experience has been smoother in the first few months with Windows Vista than it was back in 2001 with my first few months of XP.

Anyway now that I've got that out, what kind of issues did you have? Did you try a fresh install of Windows Vista?  Is your system within or exceeding the recommended hardware requirements? Is this system homebuilt or did it come from a large manufacturer, ...?  I'm not picking at you but offering a bit of support.

I can't wait to see what improves with SP1 but I'm not sitting around waiting on it.

Hey MadMax:  if you were to contact me directly via email, I'd be happy to help you address the issue(s) you're encountering and ultimately improve your experience with Windows Vista.  I know there's a solution, and it may possibly change your mind about the new OS.

Well, I actually liked Vista from the Beta tests I done and hoped to have it when it was finally released.

Unfortunately, things never go as planned. I found my XP to be a fake (last time I buy pre-built, normally build my own).

I put this right by purchasing a genuine copy of XP through the genuine advantage program as I needed to stay 'up and running' and it is 'the right thing to do' and could not wait in case Vista was delayed for any reason.

However, having paid out for XP in late September 2006, and then becoming unemployed mid January 2007, I can not afford or justify another outlay to get Vista.

Is there anyway I can qualify for an upgrade?

I know people who purchased XP through the genuine advantage offer between October 2006 and March 2007 can, so I have only just missed this, ironically by being maybe to honest and quick when it came to realising my original XP was a fake.

The real shame for Microsoft is that I have never considered anything for the the desktop in my workplace other than Microsoft. However, after Vista came out and in particular following the way UK home customers have been treated in comparison to the US market, I have had my eyes opened to all the possibilities availible on the three other 3 pcs around my home. Today I spent 4 hours going round a sample of 500 users in my organisation to see exactly what they use their PCs for. The scary thing is that in 95% of all cases ther is no need for a Microsoft solution where the various freeware OS and office apps perform perfectly adequately. In fact the saving on upgrading from XP to Vista is so substantial that I'm sorry I'd never considered it before, particularly since my annual bonus is linked to how much I can save off the IT budget each year! So decision time - 70 days and counting! Kerching!  

cheaper is not possible:

http://www.multiseatcomputer.be/eng/

no license/family

no license/company

no license/school

impossible with windows

eat this.

I wonder if there are any possibilities to upgrade the old Win XP licence on a cheaper budget?

Well, anytime upgrade is still not available over here in Germany.

----------

http://www.dl4all.com

hrdn: "Well, anytime upgrade is still not available over here in Germany."

Not in Hungary!