Microsoft ending Vista family discount
681752
Company says in blog posting that multicomputer software upgrade program, designed to attract early adopters, will "sunset" on Saturday.
645927
Microsoft is set to offer either free or discounted Vista upgrades to those who purchase new computers during the holiday season, press reports indicate. To qualify for the coupons, a PC would need to be purchased after October 28 of this year.
485874
By Tamara Chuang, The Orange County Register, Calif.  Jan. 30--The anticipation is over. Windows Vista is finally here.
510123
InfoWorld - Microsoft Corp. has discontinued a line of digital photo software, saying that the functions can now be found in Windows Vista and other Microsoft software.
345255
(InfoWorld) - Microsoft released details of a study it commissioned that found that total cost of ownership for Windows Vista on mobile PCs is $605 less annually than Windows XP. According to research conducted by Wipro and GCR Custom Research and released Wednesday, total cost of ownership for Windows XP is $4,407 annually, while Vista's cost is $3,802. The $4,407 figure was derived from costs of hardware, software, IT labor, and user costs. Mobile PCs were the focus because these units will outship desktop systems by 2010, said Hiroshi Sakakibara, product manager for Windows Product Management at Microsoft. Peculiarly, the study actually was based on XP usage and extrapolations based on Vista capabilities because there was not a substantial base of Vista clients in use yet when the study was done early in 2007. Now, the installed base of Vista is 60 million PCs, Microsoft said. GCR and Wipro calculated that the Vista upgrade itself saves $251 per year. These benefits include enhancements in security, desktop engineering, service desk requirements, user labor, and hardware and software benefits. Among the improvements noted were in such areas as network diagnostics, backup and restore, self-healing functions, and implementation of security policies. Deploying best practices through Microsoft's Infrastructure Optimization model adds another $236 in Vista savings, while utilizing the MDOP (Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack) saves $118 per PC. MDOP features Microsoft SoftGrid Application Virtualization and the Microsoft Asset Inventory Service, while Infrastructure Optimization covers best practices, such as controlling PC configurations. MDOP is available as part of Microsoft's Software Assurance licensing program. Reducing vulnerabilities and utilizing security policies presents savings, noted Bill Barna, principal consultant at Wipro. Security savings alone were estimated at $55. "If you can reduce the number of core vulnerabilities, you can basically have the savings flow throughout the entire security model," Barna said. The survey featured 541 phones calls to users at 131 XP user organizations; one IT decision-maker and three end-users were polled at each user site. While Microsoft is promoting Vista upgrades, a Free Software Foundation project called "BadVista," is pushing free software as an alternative. "We describe it as a campaign definitely against Vista but chiefly to promote free software over Vista," said John Sullivan, a campaign manager at the foundation. Users should replace "proprietary" systems with a free system like GNU-Linux, Sullivan said.
31778
Microsoft's long, strange trip with Windows Vista came closer to an end Friday as the company released the first release candidate of its next-generation operating system. Jim Allchin made the announcement in an e-mail to TechNet subscribers.
718726
Two weeks ago, InfoWorld launched a petition campaign to save Windows XP. So far we?ve gotten more than 70,000 signatures, thanks to a passionate response from a wide range of XP users. We hope we can persuade Microsoft to keep selling XP licenses indefinitely, past the June 30 deadline, after which Microsoft has said no more shrink-wrapped or OEM licenses will be available for retailers, computer makers, and others to order. (Vendors can continue to sell by June 30 any XP licenses they ordered from Microsoft, but when they run out of those, they can't get more to sell.)We fully acknowledge that, even if we get a million signatures, Microsoft may stick with its original plan. If new Windows XP licenses come to a screeching halt after June 30 as currently planned, what can IT do to get more XP seats? The answer depends on your licensing arrangement with Microsoft. The short answer for most users, though, is that Microsoft will let people with Vista Business or Ultimate "downgrade" to Windows XP Pro under specific circumstances.Here, based on Microsoft's published documentation and on the company?s responses to our questions, is InfoWorld's guide to how you can get new XP licenses after Microsoft officially pulls the plug. Note that some of Microsoft's answers to us differ with what has been published on its Web site. Microsoft had changed some of its "downgrade" policies in summer 2007 and appears to have missed updating some of its documents.Retail licenses If you?re Joe XP user and you want additional upgrade or full-install packages, your only option is to stock up before the deadline. Only until July 1 can retailers order shrink-wrapped boxes of new XP licenses and upgrade licenses -- what Microsoft calls FPP (Full Package Product) licenses -- to sell to customers like you. Chances are these last licenses will sell out quickly after the June 30 order cutoff.Also until July 1, individuals can buy XP licenses online from Microsoft (such as when you have an installation CD and need an extra license for it, or when you need to load the software on a second computer). But not after that date.OEM licenses PC makers largely stopped selling XP preinstalled on new consumer-oriented desktops and laptops in spring 2007, although they remain available to business customers who order online or have a business account with OEMs such as Dell Computer or Hewlett-Packard. (Microsoft calls preinstalled copies of Windows "Direct OEM" licenses.) So larger businesses have by and large kept ordering XP-equipped PCs, although many individuals and small businesses bought Vista instead because they didn't know they had a choice.Today, people who have already bought Vista systems have two choices to get XP instead. One is to buy an FPP XP license before June 30 and install it over Vista.The other is to "downgrade" to XP Professional, using an XP Pro install disc you already have or a "downgrade" XP Pro install disc supplied by the PC maker. Essentially, Microsoft lets you use your new Vista license for an XP Pro install. You have such "downgrade rights", however, only if you bought Vista Business or Vista Ultimate.Note that you can't run both Vista and XP using the same license (so you can't, for example, install Vista on a virtual machine if you're also using the XP "downgrade" install as your boot OS). You get only one license and have to choose one OS or the other. And OEMs don't have to make the "downgrade" discs available to you.Also note that any version of Windows preinstalled on a PC is licensed only for that computer and cannot be transferred to a different machine, so you cannot use such "old" licenses on new PCs, even if you no longer use the old hardware. But you can use your old XP discs under the "downgrade rights" conditions above.After June 30, OEMs can no longer order new licenses of Windows XP. (The deadline is January 31, 2009 for white-box PC makers, who have what Microsoft calls a System Builder license. Other than the date, the limitations and options for installing XP are the same as for Direct OEM licenses.) So how do you get XP on PCs you buy after these cutoff dates?After the cutoff, OEMs may still install Windows XP Pro (not Home) on users' systems, but only for orders of 25 or more PCs. In this case, the systems must come with a Vista Business or Ultimate license, which is then transferred to the XP Pro install. Essentially, you're buying a Vista PC that the OEM can then put XP Pro on instead, using the Vista license to activate XP Pro. (Again, the OEMs don't have to provide this option.)If you buy fewer than 25 PCs in an order, the OEM can install only Vista. You can still get XP Pro on those PCs, though, if they came with Vista Business or Ultimate. Those two Vista versions include the "downgrade rights" that let you apply the Vista license to your XP Pro installation. You can use your existing XP Pro install discs or get an XP "downgrade" disc from the PC maker (if it wants to supply it). Remember that "downgrade rights" are not available in OEM licenses for other versions of Vista, and they do not let you install XP Home.Enterprise licenses Businesses that have volume Windows licenses can also install XP Pro after the order cutoff deadlines. If you have a volume license for any version of Vista (not just Business and Ultimate), you may install XP Pro on your Vista PCs using the "downgrade rights" granted in the volume license.To downgrade, you can use your existing copy of the XP Pro installation images. Microsoft will also supply an XP Pro "downgrade" installation disc or disk image after the cutoff dates. As noted earlier, OEMs can also do the "downgrade" for you in some cases."Most small businesses, enterprises, government agencies and educational institutions purchase their software through volume license agreements. As part of those volume license agreements, they get downgrade rights as part of the license," noted a Microsoft spokesperson. Volume licenses are available for as few as five seats."Subscription" licenses Some businesses don't directly license Windows, but instead "rent" it from IT support companies such as CenterBeam that provision Windows, Office, and other software on a per-user, per-month basis under Microsoft's Service Provider License Agreement. The service provider actually owns the license. If your business gets its Windows OSes this way, any XP licenses acquired through the provider will stay active, said Karen Hayward, executive vice president at CenterBeam. For new users after June 30, however, it's not clear if CenterBeam can offer XP, she noted. The service provider license does not forbid provisioning of XP after that date, but neither does it specifically allow it. CenterBeam hopes to have a clarification from Microsoft in February.The Microsoft spokesperson said that such providers' license agreements with Microsoft would specify how long each provider could offer XP, but that the June 30 and January 31 cutoff dates should have no effect on them.What happens to existing licenses Organizations can continue to use any Windows XP licenses they have indefinitely, even after the OS is no longer available for new licenses.For technical support and updates, Microsoft will end mainstream support for XP on April 14, 2009, for most editions, and it will end extended support on April 8, 2014 for most editions. (Extended support is not available for consumer licenses.) Both support mechanisms include free security updates. Hot fixes for other issues are free only during the mainstream support period; non-consumer users wanting hot fixes must buy a hot-fix update plan from Microsoft before July 14, 2009.
561243
Microsoft pulled the free software offer from its Web site Tuesday, which made free copies of Vista and Office among other applications available in exchange for feedback.
243604
Online retailer Amazon.com has begun to accept pre-orders for Windows Vista, which it says "will be released on January 30, 2007." The company is charging $399 USD for the Ultimate Edition of Vista, $239 USD for Home Premium and $199 USD for Home Basic. Vista Business is priced at $299 USD.
207358
Microsoft's operating system from 1.0 to Vista.
533078
Microsoft Corp. has discontinued a line of digital photo software, saying that the functions can now be found in Windows Vista and other Microsoft software.
313156
Internet retailer Amazon.com Inc.   AMZN.O has started taking early orders for Microsoft Corp.'s   MSFT.O long-delayed Windows Vista operating system, offering   versions of the product from $100 to $399.
703405
Microsoft Corp. defended its decision to limit support for three versions of the Windows Vista operating system to five years rather than the usual 10 years.
49976
Microsoft should keep Windows XP available until at least 2009, not end the majority of sales on June 30 as currently planned, said analysts at Gartner and The Burton Group. ?A good rule of thumb in any OS transition is that you have to have the original and new products available for at least two years to handle customer [migration] needs,? said Richard Jones, a Burton Group vice president and service director. But Microsoft gave customers just 11 months in its original plan, in which new XP licenses would have ended on Dec. 31, and even the additional six months that Microsoft granted when it changed the date to June 30 is not enough, he said.?It would be wise for XP to be available until the end of 2008,? concurred Michael Silver, a research vice president at Gartner. Even though Microsoft does a good job of addressing application compatibility, those efforts miss homegrown applications and applications from minor and defunct software companies. That?s why a two-year transition period is more sensible, Silver said.[Learn whether you can get XP after the June 30 cut-off sales date ]Jones said Microsoft may have pushed a too-aggressive transition schedule because of how long it took to release Vista, a delay that deprived it of new earnings. ?Microsoft is up against a rock, with Vista coming out seven years after XP?s release. But it?s their fault it took seven years, not my fault,? he said, adding that users should not be forced to rush their transition because of Microsoft?s internal delays.Microsoft says it?s listening Microsoft has not rejected the possibility of extending XP?s availability beyond June 30, saying it will listen to customer and partner feedback. "That's what informed our decision to extend the availability of XP initially and what will continue to guide us," a Microsoft spokesperson told Computerworld Australia when asked the company?s reaction to InfoWorld?s ?Save XP? petition effort asking that XP be kept on sale indefinitely. That petition has gathered more than 79,000 signatures. (Microsoft has not responded to InfoWorld?s request for a reaction to that petition.)?It wouldn?t surprise me if Microsoft backed away from its June 30 cut-off date for XP if a sizable number of XP customers continue to complain,? said Ovum analyst Dwight Davis, ?especially if the company sees evidence of customers abandoning Windows altogether rather than moving to Vista. Microsoft in the past has sometimes drawn lines in the sand [such as with some onerous licensing model changes a few years ago], but then relented to customer pressure and softened its positioning,? he noted.?Microsoft has a good handle on what the customer attitudes are, and if in June it?s clear that they?re not ready to move to Vista, I wouldn?t be surprised if it keeps XP available longer,? said Al Gillen, a research vice president at IDC. He noted that Microsoft was flexible in its end-of-life deadlines for Windows NT Workstation, 2000, and XP. ?I don?t think an online petition is the right method? to get XP?s life extended, Gillen added. Instead, he advised customers to lobby Microsoft through its own channels, such as through the feedback section of the company?s site and via mechanisms such as forums available to enterprise site licensees and developers.An ?XP classic? mode for Vista? One complaint that many users have is that Vista?s UI is significantly different from XP?s for no obvious reason. The Burton Group?s Jones said it would have been good for Microsoft to have included a UI compatibility mode in Vista so XP users could have kept their familiar interface. ?For getting normal work done, you don?t need the Aero interface,? he said.The last time Microsoft significantly changed the user interface was in 1999, when it offered Windows 2000 to replace Windows 98 and Millennium, and there are millions of people who know no other interface, Jones noted. By contrast, PC users at the time had been through two major interface changes in just five years, from DOS to Windows 3.1 to Windows 95. ?Today, there are very few people who have not used XP before,? he added, so the impact of a changed UI is greater. He notes that Microsoft did not get significant adoption of Microsoft Word until it added WordPerfect shortcut support, and he said an XP UI option in Vista would boost Vista migration. But he noted that it may be too hard for Microsoft to add such a feature now and instead should have done so as part of initial Vista planning.Ovum?s Davis also has doubts as to whether an XP compatibility mode would be doable today. ?I suspect that approach would raise technical complexity and compatibility issues,? he said. But he understands why some people would have wanted such an option: ?The difficulties that new users and former XP users experience when learning the Vista interface tend to suggest that -- for all of Microsoft?s extensive customer usability research -- the company?s perspective on what is intuitive is still somewhat removed from the reality of many users? experience.?Gartner?s Silver said that Vista?s UI is not that big a deal for most users, so he would not favor a UI compatibility mode. ?I think that issue is overstated,? he said. A bigger concern is the UI transition that Office 2007 forces, given its adoption of the nearly menu-less approach of Internet Explorer 7, which hides capabilities from users and makes it hard for them to know what to do or where to do it.Ready or not, prepare for Vista Regardless of whether Microsoft keeps XP around longer than June 30, all four analysts said that users should make the switch. The question is when, not whether.Gartner?s Silver recommended that most businesses wait until spring 2009, after Microsoft has issued more updates and software providers have had more time to update their applications.A business not comfortable with Vista could continue to use XP for another four years, Silver said, since Microsoft will continue to support the OS with security updates until April 2014. The Burton Group?s Jones said a good way to judge the right time to switch is when users start complaining they have Vista at home and want it at work. Such internal pressure is what got XP into enterprises during the transitions from Windows 98 and 2000, and gave IT the comfort that users were ready for the change, he said.Gartner?s Silver does not believe it is wise to hang on to XP in hopes that Windows 7 is a more appealing OS than Vista. Even if Windows 7 ships in late 2011, as currently expected, it will take two years for the OS to become stable and software and hardware to be made compatible. Should Windows 7 be delayed, XP users at that point will find themselves outside the security support window, he noted. That would be too dangerous for larger companies, because their own internal transition times would add another year or two to the effort once they were comfortable with a Windows 7 transition.IDC?s Gillen said businesses today should buy Vista Business or Vista Ultimate on all new PCs today, even if they use the ?downgrade? rights that let them put XP Pro on those systems instead. (These rights do not extend to other versions of Vista.) By buying either of those Vista versions now, they can have XP today and upgrade to Vista later without having to buy a separate Vista license when they do upgrade. Small businesses may not realize they have this option, Gillen noted.Consumer users have the fewest options, adds Gillen. If they buy a PC with any Vista version other than Business or Ultimate, they won?t have ?downgrade? rights to XP Pro, nor will they be able to get new XP licenses after June 30 through retail stores or online sellers like Dell or Hewlett-Packard.
424019
Get your desktop computer for just Â£9,999 Vista only hit the shelves yesterday, but Microsoft's new operating system has already sent shockwaves through the PC retail industry.â¦
608870
Ease of Access Centre gets thumbs up Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system has just been released for corporate consumption.â¦
389938
InfoWorld - InfoWorld's "Save XP" petition asking Microsoft to keep Windows XP available indefinitely, not end most sales on June 30 as currently planned, has prompted many readers to suggest that maybe the best answer for those who don't like Vista is to switch to another operating system completely.