#51 if vista sucks then why switch at all? I've tried fedora and Ubuntu, and it's either one driver problem or another. I've got it on this laptop and media pc, but i've found it simpler just to run it in vmware as linux simply is a pain to work with when your hardware isn't popular. even when it is, you should see how screwed up fedora 6 was, when it installed with the wrong kernel. Linux is nice and all, but it has a good bit of work to do when it comes to hardware.

You want to install something - and the IDEA behind yum is perfect - linux's developers did have great ideas in designing the several networked app repositories that exist, but the implementation sucks. ooohh dependency error - go hunt forums! want to install a video driver - hunt forums to learn you have to set a different runlevel only to learn your hardware doesnt like to switch to level 3 from 5 and freezes.

Why take a step back if you can't go forward?

Vista Me!

Vista 2000 is sheduled for release in '09.

Then a few years after that maybe we'll finally get Vista XP, in which the best features of Me and 2k are merged together into a stable installation that has proper driver support...

Why do I get the feeling that Vista in it's current form is kind of like Windows ME. Microsoft needed a stopgap product so they released an unfinished bloated OS with almost no driver support that works. Sounds familiar, the real question lies with the way MS is acting (shady). Will we see a new product (Based on the Vista core) to replace the non professional types, or will it be three or four service packs before it almost does what it was supposed to do out of the box. (Which is alot less then it was supposed to do when it was announced.)

Vista Ultimate doesn't have the words "Business" in it, right? Nor does it have the words "Enterprise", right? Reading the fine print is important, but how many people actually read the EULA?

We can't read the EULA before we buy the product, but we are allowed to disagree to it before the install. It's difficult to returned unopened software back to your retailer, but you can return to MS instead (last I heard, ymmv).

Buyer beware, as usual.

It will be extended. It has been historically in the past, and Microsoft typically pairs it's similar codebase support for ease.

what i also don't get, is why ms wants to release a refresh in 2yrs.. surely the refresh would be built on the vista kernel, so why would people bother? do they think people want to keep skipping through OSs? its a hassle, there's still a shocking amount of people running 98... an OS which is nearly 10yrs old (most people are XP these days, but you would be surprised the old junk some people are using)

Not that I'm interested in Ultimate, but don't forget that the extended support phase which follows mainstream support is not entirely a bad thing. And anyway, I think in five years' time that 95% of us won't be running the computer we have today.

Google OS, where art thou?

Since they offer the Ultimate Edition under volume pricing, that would tend to make me believe that Ultimate was an option for business/enterprise. Only businesses should be purchasing in volume, therefore business class warranty should apply.

Meh.

So THAT is what the Mayan prophesy is really about!

As long as the Microsoft Knowledge Base still functions, I don't see a problem with this.

is that 10 years in addition or ten years total?

With Vista 09 coming out soon (2 years is soon in OS terms), what is the use of buying Vista now? Other than DX10, which will be mature by the time 09 comes out, so why not wait until then?

Another nail in Vistas Coffin.

So, Support stops in 2012 eh?

I reckon it'll be 2010 until SP2 comes out and Vista can be considered both stable and bug-free enough to be considered "finished".

Good one Bill....

I'm sorry but "support"? I haven't called windows a single time since ... well since ever. I think you've seriously got to be somewhat stupid if you have to call Microsoft for a windows problem, other than transferring a license or something for a failed MB, etc. What your google search button doesn't work?

I mean, are there seriously people calling MS all the time? What in five years the software is still going to be so bug ridden, you're going to be needing to call MS? And if you drop four c-notes for software within a month it comes out, I doubt you are some newbie, or will have the same hardware/software in a half a decade, which is a half a century in comparison, if only that.

To me, "ultimate" implies the best of everything.
This seems pretty stupid...

Damm it looks like that makes business the choice for my needs.