If Vista delivered to you Free of charge?

I just wondering, if Vista happened to be delivered to you free of charge.. you don't need to pay even a cent. Would we hear all the complains and the critics on how bad it is n so on... this concern for those people which always complain about how bad it is n so on... to those who already satisfied with the OS... I don't think it matter...

So please give your thought... this is just a random survey...

 

If it is FREEware, i don't mind.

Vista Ultimate please

 

Same here. But I don't have the proper hardware to run anything more than basic.

 

I wonder if it will be so popular that people will ignore all the common flaws in it right now ? like you both said... its FREEware... so everyone can have all the aero thing or even the dreamscene on ultimate for FREE as long as they have appropriate hardware to run it...

 

If it was free of charge, I wouldn't complain but nor would I install it on my PC. At least not yet.

 

What to say, what to say.

I'd probably not use it even if it was free because of the current obvious bugs, plus the annoyance of learning another new OS, they appear to have moved things around just because (from what I could tell from trying it on a friends PC for a bit).

XP works just fine, haven't had any issues so yeah, until Vista is absolutely required I'm not going to bother switching (and even then I am still trying to move to Linux instead).

 

Complaining about that would be like complaining about Linux. It's free, you only gained, not lost.

I probably would install it too, but that wouldn't make me change my mind about Vista being far from what it should have been.

Matt

 

Incidentally, I in fact got Vista for free. Hi there, MSDN Academic Alliance! To answer your question, yes. I probably already have complained about Vista at some point. I'm all for Vista though. I like the OS, but it has its bugs and small quirks that can, and will, be irritating at times.

 

Its not like i don't agree that vista have all the flaws... but I just want to see... if people gonna use it like linux as it is a FREEware... cause linux too is not that perfect... i'm a linux user too... only thing.... i can get linux for free... which make its a big different...

but as I just want to know... if people will actually use it(eventho they know it has all the bugs here n there)... if it is FREE... that's all...

 

Getting it for free== downloading off bittorrent and using a crack? >.<
Lol.

 

Uh I'm not sure you guys are aware of this but Microsoft does give free or nearly free copies of Vista to university students, especially if you are in a related major.

For instance, I got my Vista Enterprise x64 edition free via MSDNAA.

But to answer the poll, yes, I would still complain because there are certain issues that need to be resolved---driver compatibility for instance. I mean, Firefox is free, but you don't see people not complaining about glitches and bugs in that right?

 

I almost forgot that I got my copy free to... that upgrade express thing was a great deal.

 

Oh...me too. I got mines via the not-so-Express Upgrade 2 months after it launched. But with the shipping cost i won't exactly say it is technically "free".

 

Viruses are free, too. So are trojans

No way in heck I'd touch it. I don't want to be treated as a criminal and have my computer try to keep me from using it in an "unapproved" manner. It's my computer, thank you very little.

 

i will complain too... but the right word for me would be to "suggest". even up to now, no OS is perfect... as i said, it would be boring if it's not. no challenge, no work, no pay... right?

here in my place (just a rumor), most programmers do infact make bugs out of their works so that they work longer, work with overtime pay and such or say, a time trigger bugs, etc. ...

 

virus developers and security software manufacturers are very happy with this issue in windows.... they earn large amount of money and they give nice compensations too to mom and dad so that they can send their children to a better school.

again, bad or good publicity for windows - is still GOOD publicity for Windows.

 

Ok, I think this is kind of a curious thread, like someone was reading my mind. See, i DO run Windows Vista (Ultimate version) and yes i DID get it for free. To be completely honest, it has been far more stable, faster, and much easier to use than windows XP ever was for me. In fact, i got my free copy and it sat around for over three months collecting dust in its retail box. Then, about a month or so ago when XP crashed, i said to hell with it, i'm sick of this. no more XP crap. i literally that very day, installed vista and dumped XP. since then i havent had a single Crash or problem yet. Vista has been a true breath of fresh air, and i love it. i wont ever switch back.

Before, i never had mediacenter. i am finding i really like that feature and dont wanna do without it again. i am finding the wireless support IS a lot better in Vista just like they said it would be, and it DOES work a lot better. im finding that the data security and backup features are a TON BETTER than even in windows XP, and it works flawlessly. im also finding that managing the computer is a lot is alot more user friendly than XP ever was.

In short, there are some hiccups with Vista, but overall its a drastic and dramatic IMPROVEMENT over XP, and i think worth the jump.

ev

 

The shipping fee of $10 is hardly equal to the cost of a full version of Vista. However, I agree, it definitely was not express.

 

It's definitely just a rumor. All the programmers I've ever met just want to make the best product that they can. Some are more competent than others, to be sure, but the vast majority want to do good work.

Besides, most developers are salaried. Overtime isn't compensated, it's just more time away from your family/friends/games/hobbies/whatever.

 

again... the programmer will want to make the best product they capable of that time... but from time to time... they will realise... they have made some mistake with their program n want to improvise it somehow... but i just wrote this generally in a programming side... cause I do programmed some software too... yes always do the best i can at the current state... but its not the best of the best... so sometimes, without realising it... i will make some mistake too... who dont right...

about the university distribution, i heared that too... but too bad... i'm majoring in different field... so they don't come to our department... but to know that some of you got the free express copy too... that's really nice...

 

Like a few others, I actually did get Vista for free through the MSDNAA. Yay for being a computer engineering major.

I've throughly enjoyed my experience with Vista. It feels much snappier and more responsive than XP did (probably because of the SuperFetch stuff), and my gaming performance hardly dropped at all. With my x1800xt and the latest Catalyst 7.5 drivers, my average in the FEAR benchmark (max settings @ 1680x1050) dropped from 48 to 47, oh noez!!1! I haven't really had any problems; I'm happy with it.

 

I would still complain about its flaws if they were there. But I wouldn't be as harsh in the criticism of Microsoft because it would at least be something they were doing to help their customers. As it stands, one thing that I dislike about Vista so much is that it does little to nothing important over XP or the other choices. Vista just hides it all behind a new UI so it looks like you're getting something new, and overshadows genuinely good features like ReadyBoost, ReadyDrive, Live thumbnails, and more integrated media with an overtaxing DRM infrastructure that slows even the newest PCs down, ridiculous anti-piracy WGA measures, and (in my opinion) a reduction in functionality.

Of course, keep in mind that if Windows were free for everyone, it would likely not have WGA included, and would also not likely support as much hardware, media, or DRM. In other words, it would be more like an alternative to Linux that you still wouldn't have the right to edit as you wanted.

 

I can agree with most things in your post to some extent.. But a reduction in functionality? Care to elaborate?

 

I did get Vista for free. But I still don'y like it. Price doesn't determine the quality of software.

 

I wouldn't complain I would take it and smile and then throw it in my desk drawer for later when vista gets itself sorted out.

 

I would only complain about the flaws of the OS.
After all, even if it was free like Linux, it still will contain flaws, without complaints of issues, the OS would not develop.

 

there is no reduction in functionality is Vista. XP had a drive encryption program under XP Pro. does it do it as well or to the degree bitlocker does? not even close. does XP have IPvers6 compatibility? not even close. does XP pro have complete pc backup out of the box as part of the OS? nope, thats why xp users still have to go buy norton ghost or acronis true image. reduction in functionality? i dont think so.

Lets talk about a defrag utility that no longer sucks up CPU usage in vista the way it did in XP. how about the better search functions of Vista over XP? last time i checked linux may have had some of these options avail as an aftermarket but i dont think all of them were native to the OS.

So, wheres the reduction in functionality? ive also found Vista more stable than XP, and after watching a close friend's teething troubles with Linux, i think i will pass. and hes no dummy. we are in the same classes and are both networking/ IT majors. Thanks, but i think Vista is still the best OS out there, IF YOU have the computer to run it.

ev

 

During my experiences with the Vista pre-releases, I found the UI to be limiting in many cases. I wasn't a huge fan of the "breadcrumb" address bar, and the lack of an "Up" button was a feature I severely missed.

In addition, going beyond the Vista-XP comparisons and on to the Vista-Linux/OS X comparisons, I'm not a big fan of the lack of Command Line interface. While a modern GUI is of course necessary to any modern OS, I personally find the command line to be much more useful in certain situations. Often times, a task that could take 5 seconds to complete in a terminal can take more than 5 minutes to search through a cryptic GUI to access. That's just personal preference though.

EDIT: I would just like to add that bad drivers, huge resource usage, and the high price also detract from the functionality of the OS. Less backwards compatibility and the lack of as much compatible hardware and software as XP is also shunning users away. But perhaps the worst part is WGA; an OS is hardly functional when it won't boot.

 

as far as the GUI, i find it delightful and like it 'as is'.

as far as command line, i dont have any problem their either. with the telnet client installed and working and with the command prompt available in windows, it does all i need it to. and using telnet to work on routers that run a linux operating system, using command line via the telnet, i really dont miss not using it in my off time.

i run some pretty obscure stuff, and i have YET to have a SINGLE driver issue. as for high resource usage, my average cpu usage is at about 23 percent, and my ram usage at about 50 percent and i have two gigs. again, i see little or no problem.

As far as compatibility, Vista is a different OS whereas XP was simply nt or 2000 with a new GUI. so yeah obviously there werent gonna be issues, as it was just a rehash. Vista isnt. its a new approach and a better one. XP still isnt secure almost 7 years on, and vista is already more secure and you still think XP is better? remind me not to trust you with network security configs.

and over time as more and more businesses migrate to vista, there will be a lot more that is compatible. so as time goes by that argument will evaporate too.

as far as WGA and non booting systems, again, a PIRACY issue or failure to validate on time. both are correctible. one case you buy it legitimately or the other you call and activate. big deal.

ev

 

Also add the new PowerShell command interface on Vista.

 

I wouldn't complain if I could get it for free, but I'm not sure I'd install it, either. I have a Linux distro on a CD upstairs, and I've put it in twice, I think. There just isn't that much point to putting on a new OS when your current one does everything you want. Plus, Vista would take more time to install (Linux I just have to remember to put in the CD) and 15 GB of hard drive space (half of what I have free). So I probably wouldn't install it, just save the space for whatever else I want in the future.

 

I did get Vista for free.
And you're missing a poll option.
What if I complain because it deserves complaining about? Microsoft can listen and try to improve it if they like, I certainly don't mind that, but the reason for complaining might simply be to draw attention of other potential customers to the flaws before they spend money on it.

 

Would I, yes, having played with it some it's not a good piece of software, sure it's not BAD, but it's not very good either, and I've found virtually nothing to recommend it over XP, and a number of detractors that would make me definitely not recommend it over XP.

If I was advising anyone to buy a PC at present I would recommend getting XP, preferably with a free upgrade (so once Vista is actually usable they can upgrade for free).

 

I think this option suit what you try to say is it? maybe the sentence not put there that well... but i guess the meaning the same like what you want to say rite?

 

It's kinda like if you play a demo and say you didn't like it, but it was free so you are just trying to tell peeps who made it what you don't like. So I chose yes to complain just to improve

Everything needs improving

 

Id ask if they could give me XP for free instead.

 

good to know... thats what i would do too tho... as nothing is that perfect, so everything need improvement till it almost perfect... but nothing will be perfect... lol...

why don't you give a try... maybe you lucky enough to get one copy...

 

Well I almost got mine for free. I got Ultimate for $45 from my cousin who works for MS.

 

cool enough.. may i get one copy with that price too?

 

I received Vista Home Premium free of charge. After installing it over the Media Center version of XP that was installed on my HP notebook I tried it for about 3 weeks. I won't rehash the problems with it since they are well documented elsewhere. I put XP back on the machine for a couple of months and got tired of having to explain why I was reinstalling this piece of software or that every time I entered my CD/DVD keys.

I discovered that even though XP made my games work and let me do what I wanted with a minimum amount of fuss I still felt like I was under the thumb of someone else who was always trying to how I used the software I paid for, or where I used it or what I used it for. I think companies have the right to protect their product but when the typical, legal consumer starts feeling like they are thought of as a potential thief all the time it has gone too far.

You can see in my signature what the end result of my "free" vista upgrade was. Ubuntu, though it is very user friendly, still requires the user to take a more active role in the function of their system than with Windows. It will require 2-3 nights of reading and learning to get the hang of how it works so you can operate in comfort and know where to go if you get lost. This "extra work" is no more difficult than the effort put into getting XP to do certain things, however with Ubuntu at least you are not punished with .dll hell or the "is your software genuine insult" at every turn.

I decided that for me, despite being an avid gamer, that I'd rather put in the effort to get comfortable with Linux than always be waiting for the other shoe to drop from Microsoft. I've since learned that Linux is hardly the gaming void I thought it was and have begun to enjoy having so much more control over how my operating system works the way I want instead of me having to do things the way it wants.

So I'd like to thank Microsoft for the free copy of Vista, without it I'd still be using XP instead of Ubuntu

 

Linux was nothing but a complete disappointment for both myself and my colleagues where I work. Since software is an expensive investment for us (for our latest license on one of our applications it was $5295.00, USD), we decided to give Linux and "freeware" a shot. These were our experiences with Linux:

1. It was a complete pain to get running. I don't have time to study code just to install a driver. And even if I did, I refuse to have to type verbatim code just to get an OS running.

2. Hardware incompatibilty. Our cutting edge GPU's were not supported by Linux.

3. Software may be free, but is a huge heap of unorganized programs.

4. Once we did get Linux running, the supposed "freeware" that we needed was not free at all. It was cheaper than our other aps but was still not free. And it was not as stable or have nearly the features that we need.

5. Stability issues. I was really surprised that Linux for us was not stable. Two of our 3 machines crashed under Linux. The third is an older machine so I guess Linux likes it better than the two new ones.

Vista so far has been as stable or more stable than XP. The software we run is very hardware demanding, and when really pushing a machine hard under XP we would sometimes crash. Rarely, but sometimes it would. So far Vista has been rock solid, not a crash yet. There have been zero compatibilty issues for us with Vista, and while we kept 2 of our 3 machines in dual boot with XP, noone here uses XP anymore. I've never been one to pick an OS based on "eye-candy" alone, but Vista is a very nice looking OS. This week I plan to do away with the XP partitions all together.

As someone who uses a computer to make a living, I see Vista as a bargain. Even for home use, I would pay double what Microsft sells it for and still be happy. It does everything I need it to do, and looks great doing it.

 

I believe that is the reason why Microsoft dominate the OS world. For 90% of individual or small business, the price of XP or Vista is a steal(well the hardware of today even more so comparing say to a fancy cell phone). Does linux work on their machines, 99% of the time they do but the time spend to make that happen would definitely cost more than a copy of XP/Vista. And as you said, the free softwares have lots of rough edges.

For a very large corp where the license cost is in the hundreds of K range and beyond, it may be worth while to spend the effort to polish linux as a company wide desktop.

 

Could you please elaborate on hardware and software specs you were using? Your post seemed very vague. Also, can you expand on your software complaints?

 

Software complaints are completely understandable. This is the reason I still use Windows myself for school and work. I can't get AutoCAD, Solid Works, or other software of that nature on Linux, so I'm kinda tied to Windows as an engineer. But all it would take is work on the part of the developers to make these applications Linux compatible; MATLAB and ANSYS seem to have done fine jobs.

As for crashing, I've NEVER had Linux crash on me. Firefox crashes a lot due to the Adobe Flash beta plug-in (which seems to be pretty poorly written for Linux), and I've had other applications crash occasionally, but Linux itself has never crashed. I can't imagine why it would for you.

The problem with drivers usually stems from buying hardware that isn't as compatible with Linux as it should be. If you want to run Linux, it needs compatible hardware. Would I buy this to run on Windows? No. Would I buy an IBook G4 to run Windows? Absolutely not. Would I buy a Compaq to run OS X? Nope. Linux is no different than the competition besides the mentality that people have for it. Stick yourself with common hardware and good distributors (read: Dell, Lenovo, nVidia, Intel, etc) and you'll get good hardware compatibility. Go outside the box, and you're going to have issues.

Personally, I don't have a big problem paying for quality software when I can afford it. All professionals have our issues with the thousands of dollars we're charged for our applications ($5k for one seat of AutoCAD... seriously?). But we pay the price because it does what we need in the best way possible. My problem with Windows is that I've never found it to be as quality as Linux in my personal usage (read: not necessarily professional usage), therefore I have a hard time swallowing a $400 price tag.

 

A basic Dell can have a price as low as 500, are you saying I am paying 100 for the hardware ? I don't think so.

It seems that a linux based Dell(with Ubuntu) and a Windows based Dell has only a price difference of around 100. For that price, I would say Windows worth that extra.

 

That $100 gets you Vista Home Basic, which is not as feature complete as Ubuntu 7.04.

 

Lucky you, you must have particular hardware, I've seen nothing but issues with Vista and refuse to touch it until it becomes far more stable and far more compatible with the majority of hardware. As for paying double, I agree, for most users double 0 dollars (what most users will end up paying for Vista) it's a bargain, paying the price that is actually quoted, hell no, I wouldn't pay that for it.

 

YOu know for that price difference I probably would too, because once I get the machine I put windows into it's own little partition, and install Ubuntu for free, where if I get a Ubuntu PC and need windows (for one reason or another) I would have to pay an arm and a leg for it.

 

That is more of a preference as there is nothing like THE "complete list" for everyone. If it is a feature I don't need, I don't care. To me, the lack of nice truetype font in ubuntu(and most free linux in general) is a downer as a desktop, other may never think that is an issue.

Any particular feature that is in ubuntu but not in Vista basic that say at least 50% of the people would say that is a must have ?

 

That's odd, TrueType fonts have worked perfectly for me since Ubuntu 5.10 (when I started using Linux).

A word processor?

Plus, Ubuntu is prettier by default than Home Basic. A nice looking desktop is a must for me. I get frustrated looking at an ugly desktop all day.