Buying a new PC - Windows vista

cyberstar

I was planning to buy a new media centre PC from dell but I hear that the new windows vista will be released soon. I dont mind waiting a few more months just to get the latest updated PC so I have a few questions.

When windows vista is released in retail stores, will this be pre-installed on new PCs at the same time as well?

If so, is it going to be more expensive than it is buy a windows xp PC right now?

wiraone

Vista won't be available in a few months time .. and most probably will be even delayed further. So, the best bet right now is to get a Vista ready PC (Core Duo or Core 2 Duo based PC). As usual, Microsoft will make the upgrade path available for existing Windows user.

Tallymanjohn

If you can hang on though, you'll probably save some money as M$ will charge for the upgrade to Vista. At the moment it's allegedly going to be available from Jan 2007 - corporate customers will be able to buy it from Nov 2006, so if this goes ahead you should have a good idea whether it will appear in retail form on time. There shouldn't be a lot of difference in pice (if any) of a pre-installed system - M$ are desperate to make Vista a success.

sco0ter

This was on ZDNet earlier but has been removed now...

A Microsoft executive has leaked a general release date for Vista, Exchange 2007 and Office 2007.

Speaking to IT professionals, parliamentarians and senior law-enforcement officers at the Parliament and Internet conference in London on Thursday, Microsoft revealed its release plans.

"We will officially launch Vista, Microsoft Office 2007 and Exchange 2007 on 5 December," said David Hipwell, a Windows client sales professional at Microsoft. The business version of Vista - Vista Business - is expected to ship November 2006.
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This was removed without explanation so uknown if its 100% accurate but ZDNet is usually on the ball 99% of the time.



Heres Microsofts official line...

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/Oct06/10-13VistaReleasePR.mspx

wolfman

I've literally switched jobs in the past couple of weeks, but at my last company we did contract work for Microsoft. From what I heard it will be shipping around Decemeber, although the average person won't be able to get hold of it until nearer February.

frogman_2

As an industry person, I can endorse most of the previous statements as far as I know today. Just to clarify; Vista will go 'Gold' (RTM - Release to Manufacturing) sometime in November. It will be made available for the commercial sector (mid- to large size businesses) at the same time so that they can evaluate/implement and released to OEMs and the pressing plants. It normally takes 6-8 weeks for the CDs to be ready so I would say that Vista will be in the shops by end-January (though there may be a formal launch date in February). However, new PCs from OEMs (HP, Dell, Sony, Evesham, Mesh, etc.) may have Vista installed by late December or early January.

Of course, as with all OS releases, all of this could change at any minute! There should be no incremental cost for Vista PCs except that the minimum hardware spec. will probably be decent CPU, 1Gb RAM, 80Gb HDD and a decent video card to run the Aero versions of Vista. Also most professionals like to wait 1-3 months before all the initial bugs are reported and some wait till the first service pack...

BTW, there will be no seperate MCE with Vista as all of the functionality should have been rolled in. But there will be three levels of Vista; Basic, Premium and Ultimate as well as the Basic N which will not have Media Player to sooth lawmakers...

Go to the mouth of the horse...here!

alterego_2

"wait till the first service pack..."

Or the second. Not sure why anyone would want to be first on their block with a new release from M$...

chunter

alterego wrote:

"wait till the first service pack..."

Or the second. Not sure why anyone would want to be first on their block with a new release from M$...

I agree. Didn't the original XP come out with the firewall on connections switched off as default.

wolfman

alterego wrote:

"wait till the first service pack..."

Or the second. Not sure why anyone would want to be first on their block with a new release from M$...

Unless you're a developer of course. Or like to be on the cutting edge.

The first service pack is usually a good rule of thumb for businesses. You could be waiting 2 or more years for a second service pack, which is quite a wait.

For the average user there probably (or shouldn't) won't be any problems. Best bet is to wait a month or two after it has been released, see how it fares then upgrade.

chunter wrote:

I agree. Didn't the original XP come out with the firewall on connections switched off as default.

Different times back then, they weren't quite prepared for the web, and security wasn't their top priority. And anyway, security always goes beyond the OS, or at least should do in an ideal setup.

biddy79uk

cyberstar wrote:

I was planning to buy a new media centre PC from dell but I hear that the new windows vista will be released soon. I dont mind waiting a few more months just to get the latest updated PC so I have a few questions.

When windows vista is released in retail stores, will this be pre-installed on new PCs at the same time as well?

If so, is it going to be more expensive than it is buy a windows xp PC right now?

stick with xp for now;anyway curiosity's killing me
why upgrade so soon why not wait and see wots best,
and i dont mean xp or vista of course
see wot you want ,wait a little and see what it has to offer that win xp doesnt,
just my theory:beer:

biddy79uk

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Vista won't be available in a few months time .. and most probably will be even delayed further. So, the best bet right now is to get a Vista ready PC (Core Duo or Core 2 Duo based PC). As usual, Microsoft will make the upgrade path available for existing Windows users.
exactly what i mean?