Vista

Now that Vista is RTM, when will Dell begin shipping PC's with Vista
pre-installed?

I believe for consumers, January.
"Keith" wrote in message
...
Now that Vista is RTM, when will Dell begin shipping PC's with Vista
pre-installed?

billg will send Michael Dell a pretty holiday package with a nice neat bow and
the final Vista DVDs inside. Also a contract to be signed and executed.

Dell will announce when PCs with Vista will ship. Don't worry. You won't
miss the announcement... Ben Myers

On Tue, 21 Nov 2006 06:03:22 -0700, "Keith" wrote:

Now that Vista is RTM, when will Dell begin shipping PC's with Vista
pre-installed?

The retail release date for Vista is January 30th, but OEMs may be
allowed to begin shipping preloaded machines prior to that, perhaps even
as early as November 30th ... this isn't clear right now (apparently
CompUSA has definitely been given permission to begin preloading systems
with Vista on November 30th when they are bought by customers as part of
an order for 5 systems or more).

Frankly, I'd rather buy a machine now than after Vista is shipping
preloaded. If you buy a machine with MCE or Pro now, you get XP
***AND*** you get a free upgrade to Vista. Since I will want dual boot,
this is better (for me) than getting just Vista.

I have been planning to buy a machine and was waiting for a holiday
"super deal" from Dell, but I think that Dell lost me, I bought a
Toshiba last night at Sam's Club, a Toshiba A105-S4002, a configuration
made only for warehouse clubs. It had been $1,299, then it was $999.
But then last week it was marked down to $688. At that time they had 6
of them, and I was going to watch them closely. Well, last night, they
had one left and another customer was looking at it seriously (he had
the computer guy over to show him the features of all of the laptops on
display), so while he was looking, I bought the last boxed unit (I'll
probably pay for that in the afterlife, but the display unit was still
available). To make matters worse, I'm holding it here unopened in case
a really, really good deal does materialize over Black Friday weekend.
So I could return it. [smiley icon with horns needed here]

But what attracted me to the A105-S4002 (compared to a Dell E1505) was:

-The CPU is a Core Duo T2300. Almost all of these laptops have T2050's,
and occasionally T2250's, but the higher end T2300 is rare. I know that
Dell offers Core 2 Duo and it's not Core 2 Duo, but the difference
between the laptop Core Duo and Core 2 Duo is very small, single digit
percentages only (very much unlike the desktop CPUs).

-It comes with Windows XP PRO ... not MCE, and not Home. The real
significance of this is that I'm probably going to use the "anytime
upgrade" to get Vista Ultimate. But the FREE upgrade from XP Pro is to
Vista Business, while the upgrade from MCE (which the E1505 comes with)
is instead to Home Premium. Getting Business instead of Home Premium is
going to save me about $60. Plus, of course, the copy of XP on the
laptop is Pro.

-It has the dual-layer DVD super-multi burner drive and also a built-in
multi-format flash card reader.

-And, of course, $688 (straight-out, no rebates) was a really good price.

On the downside, it's only got 512MB of memory and an 80GB drive. But I
already have another 512MB memory module and a 100GB drive that I can
install.

There is one other critical difference between the Toshiba A105 and the
Dell E1505 (which are otherwise very, very similar laptops): The A105
has one PC card slot and one express card slot, while the Dell has no PC
card slots at all. For me, that was a fairly major consideration, I
think that Dell really screwed up by dropping PC Card slots so quickly.

I'll sit on the A105 still sealed for a week or so in case something
spectacular comes up. But it's going to have to be really spectacular
to cause me to return it.


Keith wrote:
Now that Vista is RTM, when will Dell begin shipping PC's with Vista
pre-installed?

COrrect me if I'm wrong. But the will probably send you and upgrade version,
not the full version.
So you might not be to use it in dual boot.
I use vista RTM now since friday. There is no rush to upgrade to Vista
beleive me!
Still many many bugs!


Yvon



"Barry Watzman" wrote in message
...
The retail release date for Vista is January 30th, but OEMs may be allowed
to begin shipping preloaded machines prior to that, perhaps even as early
as November 30th ... this isn't clear right now (apparently CompUSA has
definitely been given permission to begin preloading systems with Vista on
November 30th when they are bought by customers as part of an order for 5
systems or more).

Frankly, I'd rather buy a machine now than after Vista is shipping
preloaded. If you buy a machine with MCE or Pro now, you get XP ***AND***
you get a free upgrade to Vista. Since I will want dual boot, this is
better (for me) than getting just Vista.

I have been planning to buy a machine and was waiting for a holiday "super
deal" from Dell, but I think that Dell lost me, I bought a Toshiba last
night at Sam's Club, a Toshiba A105-S4002, a configuration made only for
warehouse clubs. It had been $1,299, then it was $999. But then last week
it was marked down to $688. At that time they had 6 of them, and I was
going to watch them closely. Well, last night, they had one left and
another customer was looking at it seriously (he had the computer guy over
to show him the features of all of the laptops on display), so while he
was looking, I bought the last boxed unit (I'll probably pay for that in
the afterlife, but the display unit was still available). To make matters
worse, I'm holding it here unopened in case a really, really good deal
does materialize over Black Friday weekend. So I could return it. [smiley
icon with horns needed here]

But what attracted me to the A105-S4002 (compared to a Dell E1505) was:

-The CPU is a Core Duo T2300. Almost all of these laptops have T2050's,
and occasionally T2250's, but the higher end T2300 is rare. I know that
Dell offers Core 2 Duo and it's not Core 2 Duo, but the difference between
the laptop Core Duo and Core 2 Duo is very small, single digit percentages
only (very much unlike the desktop CPUs).

-It comes with Windows XP PRO ... not MCE, and not Home. The real
significance of this is that I'm probably going to use the "anytime
upgrade" to get Vista Ultimate. But the FREE upgrade from XP Pro is to
Vista Business, while the upgrade from MCE (which the E1505 comes with) is
instead to Home Premium. Getting Business instead of Home Premium is
going to save me about $60. Plus, of course, the copy of XP on the laptop
is Pro.

-It has the dual-layer DVD super-multi burner drive and also a built-in
multi-format flash card reader.

-And, of course, $688 (straight-out, no rebates) was a really good price.

On the downside, it's only got 512MB of memory and an 80GB drive. But I
already have another 512MB memory module and a 100GB drive that I can
install.

There is one other critical difference between the Toshiba A105 and the
Dell E1505 (which are otherwise very, very similar laptops): The A105 has
one PC card slot and one express card slot, while the Dell has no PC card
slots at all. For me, that was a fairly major consideration, I think that
Dell really screwed up by dropping PC Card slots so quickly.

I'll sit on the A105 still sealed for a week or so in case something
spectacular comes up. But it's going to have to be really spectacular to
cause me to return it.


Keith wrote:
Now that Vista is RTM, when will Dell begin shipping PC's with Vista
pre-installed?

In the past (AFAIK), the only difference between the upgrade and regular
version was during the installation, where it would check the HD and/or
request a valid disk. Technically, there would have been no restriction on
doing a dual boot.

However, I suspect the EULA would restrict the usage of the old OS.

Clint

--
Clint
(removing mysocks for e-mail)

"Yvon" wrote in message
.. .
COrrect me if I'm wrong. But the will probably send you and upgrade
version, not the full version.
So you might not be to use it in dual boot.
I use vista RTM now since friday. There is no rush to upgrade to Vista
beleive me!
Still many many bugs!


Yvon



"Barry Watzman" wrote in message
...
The retail release date for Vista is January 30th, but OEMs may be
allowed to begin shipping preloaded machines prior to that, perhaps even
as early as November 30th ... this isn't clear right now (apparently
CompUSA has definitely been given permission to begin preloading systems
with Vista on November 30th when they are bought by customers as part of
an order for 5 systems or more).

Frankly, I'd rather buy a machine now than after Vista is shipping
preloaded. If you buy a machine with MCE or Pro now, you get XP
***AND*** you get a free upgrade to Vista. Since I will want dual boot,
this is better (for me) than getting just Vista.

I have been planning to buy a machine and was waiting for a holiday
"super deal" from Dell, but I think that Dell lost me, I bought a Toshiba
last night at Sam's Club, a Toshiba A105-S4002, a configuration made only
for warehouse clubs. It had been $1,299, then it was $999. But then last
week it was marked down to $688. At that time they had 6 of them, and I
was going to watch them closely. Well, last night, they had one left and
another customer was looking at it seriously (he had the computer guy
over to show him the features of all of the laptops on display), so while
he was looking, I bought the last boxed unit (I'll probably pay for that
in the afterlife, but the display unit was still available). To make
matters worse, I'm holding it here unopened in case a really, really good
deal does materialize over Black Friday weekend. So I could return it.
[smiley icon with horns needed here]

But what attracted me to the A105-S4002 (compared to a Dell E1505) was:

-The CPU is a Core Duo T2300. Almost all of these laptops have T2050's,
and occasionally T2250's, but the higher end T2300 is rare. I know that
Dell offers Core 2 Duo and it's not Core 2 Duo, but the difference
between the laptop Core Duo and Core 2 Duo is very small, single digit
percentages only (very much unlike the desktop CPUs).

-It comes with Windows XP PRO ... not MCE, and not Home. The real
significance of this is that I'm probably going to use the "anytime
upgrade" to get Vista Ultimate. But the FREE upgrade from XP Pro is to
Vista Business, while the upgrade from MCE (which the E1505 comes with)
is instead to Home Premium. Getting Business instead of Home Premium is
going to save me about $60. Plus, of course, the copy of XP on the
laptop is Pro.

-It has the dual-layer DVD super-multi burner drive and also a built-in
multi-format flash card reader.

-And, of course, $688 (straight-out, no rebates) was a really good price.

On the downside, it's only got 512MB of memory and an 80GB drive. But I
already have another 512MB memory module and a 100GB drive that I can
install.

There is one other critical difference between the Toshiba A105 and the
Dell E1505 (which are otherwise very, very similar laptops): The A105
has one PC card slot and one express card slot, while the Dell has no PC
card slots at all. For me, that was a fairly major consideration, I
think that Dell really screwed up by dropping PC Card slots so quickly.

I'll sit on the A105 still sealed for a week or so in case something
spectacular comes up. But it's going to have to be really spectacular to
cause me to return it.


Keith wrote:
Now that Vista is RTM, when will Dell begin shipping PC's with Vista
pre-installed?

"they will probably send you and upgrade version, not the full version"

For all MS operating systems, you can do a full install with an upgrade
version. It will either find a qualifying previous product on the hard
drive, or if it doesn't, it will ask for a previous product media to
validate the upgrade. In either case, that's not an issue.

I think that the "Vista Express Upgrades" are actually being fulfilled
by Microsoft through a common program with a generic media, using what
is essentially (or exactly) a retail upgrade product, rather than by
each OEM each with their own media. When I did such a program a couple
of years ago with Office, to my surprise I actually received full retail
product (boxes and all) directly from Microsoft.

For XP, you can even do a full install with Toshiba "recovery" disks if
you know how to extract, manipulate and use the "I386" folder. I expect
this to remain the case for Vista.

But, in truth, I have a bunch of PCs and will have a bunch of copies of
Vista media in virtually all forms (e.g. both OEM and retail, upgrade
and full product). What I really will need ... all that I will really
need ... will be the product key, not the media (and, to be legal, the
COA). That's because with Vista, all "editions" (basic, premium,
business, ultimate) will come on every media (DVD, in the case of
Vista). What gets actually installed will only be a function only of
the product key.

I think it will work out the way I plan. I can't be absolutely, 100.0%
certain until I see what I get, but I'm pretty sure it will work. Then,
after I get the "Business" version installed, I'll use the "anytime
upgrade" to upgrade to "Ultmate", probably for about $60.

As to bugs in Vista (which I think would be more correctly described as
compatibility issues and the lack of drivers for many devices than as
actual bugs), well, that's precisely why I will want to install both XP
and Vista in a dual boot configuration.


Yvon wrote:
COrrect me if I'm wrong. But the will probably send you and upgrade version,
not the full version.
So you might not be to use it in dual boot.
I use vista RTM now since friday. There is no rush to upgrade to Vista
beleive me!
Still many many bugs!


Yvon



"Barry Watzman" wrote in message
...
The retail release date for Vista is January 30th, but OEMs may be allowed
to begin shipping preloaded machines prior to that, perhaps even as early
as November 30th ... this isn't clear right now (apparently CompUSA has
definitely been given permission to begin preloading systems with Vista on
November 30th when they are bought by customers as part of an order for 5
systems or more).

Frankly, I'd rather buy a machine now than after Vista is shipping
preloaded. If you buy a machine with MCE or Pro now, you get XP ***AND***
you get a free upgrade to Vista. Since I will want dual boot, this is
better (for me) than getting just Vista.

I have been planning to buy a machine and was waiting for a holiday "super
deal" from Dell, but I think that Dell lost me, I bought a Toshiba last
night at Sam's Club, a Toshiba A105-S4002, a configuration made only for
warehouse clubs. It had been $1,299, then it was $999. But then last week
it was marked down to $688. At that time they had 6 of them, and I was
going to watch them closely. Well, last night, they had one left and
another customer was looking at it seriously (he had the computer guy over
to show him the features of all of the laptops on display), so while he
was looking, I bought the last boxed unit (I'll probably pay for that in
the afterlife, but the display unit was still available). To make matters
worse, I'm holding it here unopened in case a really, really good deal
does materialize over Black Friday weekend. So I could return it. [smiley
icon with horns needed here]

But what attracted me to the A105-S4002 (compared to a Dell E1505) was:

-The CPU is a Core Duo T2300. Almost all of these laptops have T2050's,
and occasionally T2250's, but the higher end T2300 is rare. I know that
Dell offers Core 2 Duo and it's not Core 2 Duo, but the difference between
the laptop Core Duo and Core 2 Duo is very small, single digit percentages
only (very much unlike the desktop CPUs).

-It comes with Windows XP PRO ... not MCE, and not Home. The real
significance of this is that I'm probably going to use the "anytime
upgrade" to get Vista Ultimate. But the FREE upgrade from XP Pro is to
Vista Business, while the upgrade from MCE (which the E1505 comes with) is
instead to Home Premium. Getting Business instead of Home Premium is
going to save me about $60. Plus, of course, the copy of XP on the laptop
is Pro.

-It has the dual-layer DVD super-multi burner drive and also a built-in
multi-format flash card reader.

-And, of course, $688 (straight-out, no rebates) was a really good price.

On the downside, it's only got 512MB of memory and an 80GB drive. But I
already have another 512MB memory module and a 100GB drive that I can
install.

There is one other critical difference between the Toshiba A105 and the
Dell E1505 (which are otherwise very, very similar laptops): The A105 has
one PC card slot and one express card slot, while the Dell has no PC card
slots at all. For me, that was a fairly major consideration, I think that
Dell really screwed up by dropping PC Card slots so quickly.

I'll sit on the A105 still sealed for a week or so in case something
spectacular comes up. But it's going to have to be really spectacular to
cause me to return it.


Keith wrote:
Now that Vista is RTM, when will Dell begin shipping PC's with Vista
pre-installed?

"Barry Watzman" wrote in message

... well, that's precisely why I will want to install
both XP and Vista in a dual boot configuration.

Naw... don't even bother with Vista unless you need it. No need for
dualboot.

"BillW50" wrote in message
. com...
"Barry Watzman" wrote in message

... well, that's precisely why I will want to install
both XP and Vista in a dual boot configuration.

Naw... don't even bother with Vista unless you need it. No need for
dualboot.


I'm still trying to figure out why I would need it. I'm serious, why?

alien

Barry Watzman wrote:

"they will probably send you and upgrade version, not the full version"

For all MS operating systems, you can do a full install with an upgrade
version. It will either find a qualifying previous product on the hard
drive, or if it doesn't, it will ask for a previous product media to
validate the upgrade. In either case, that's not an issue.

The issue is the OEM EULA for the Windows XP on the Toshiba, or
whatever you end up with. The OEM EULA for the Vista upgrade you
eventually will receive *replaces* that XP OEM EULA, it is not
"in addition to" the XP OEM EULA. [That's why it's called an
upgrade, because you are upgrading your XP installation to be a
Vista installation.]

Sure, you can probably go ahead and accomplish your XP/Vista dual
boot set up. But you will be violating the EULA. At least as
I've grown to understand M$ OEM EULAs over the last 24 years.
--
OJ III