STATIC DISCLAIMER: All the stuff in here is purely my opinions, and they tend to change depending on what mood I'm in. If you're going to get bitter if I say something about you that you don't like, then maybe don't read. I avoid using names as much as possible, and would request that people who know me do the same in their comments. Basically, I often vent my frustrations on here, so if you happen to be someone who frustrates me, expect to read a description of someone very much like you in here!

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Windows Vista

So I was looking around at Windows Vista today, which I'm interested in getting but because I want both the home stuff (like Media Centre) and the business stuff (like Remote Desktop) I need the Ultimate edition which is retailing for around $750 for the full retail package. However, if one was to take themselves over to Amazon.com you'd find that Vista Ultimate full retail package is US$379.99 - which works out to AU$486.23. Unless you're going to be paying a couple of hundred dollars in shipping, that looks like a much better deal to me, and is the way I'll be going if and when I decided to buy this software. Just thought I'd share.

EDIT: As it turns out, closer inspection has revealed that Amazon won't ship this product outside of the US. So yeah - no Vista for me in the near, non-finacially enabled, future.

4 comments:

m said...

So what's the difference between the "full retail" and the "upgrade" then? Officeworks has the "Vista Ultimate Upgrade" listed for $499, though makes no mention of a non-upgrade version...

Justin Warner said...

Upgrade requires you to own a licence of another Windows operating system, and for the first time ever with Vista, that OS has to be installed first in order to install the Vista upgrade. So, say you buy a new hard disk and want to install Vista but you have the upgrade version - you first have to install Windows XP, and once it's done, you then run the upgrade to Vista. Someone has found a workaround for this, but that's not really the point. Also, there's rumours that when you activate your Vista upgrade, it will invalidate your Windows XP key - meaning you can't then go install the Windows XP licence you just upgraded onto another machine. Activation of XP will fail. I'm not sure if this has been confirmed or not...

Anyway, my XP licence is for Media Centre and I want to keep running that on the stereo PC - so I need a full retail licence. I *may* get an OEM one... they're significantly cheaper... but the licence is then tied to your hardware, and if you get a new PC, you can't move the licence across. Maybe it's time I just sucked it up and got a full licence... but $750... ;(

m said...

(Kiirrily's Blog link leads to "Grant's Rant...Thought you might like to know...)

Justin Warner said...

(fixed!)