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Re: Puzzling over Vista

  • Subject: Re: Puzzling over Vista
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 16:54:55 +0000
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Organization: schestowitz.com / MCC / Manchester University
  • References: <46j8epFbdvrsU1@individual.net> <1141140910.789866.209870@v46g2000cwv.googlegroups.com>
  • Reply-to: newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • User-agent: KNode/0.7.2
__/ [ Larry Qualig ] on Tuesday 28 February 2006 15:35 \__

> B Gruff wrote:
>> No doubt it's partly because they don't know themselves, and partly
>> because if you haven't got anything to sell yet, you try to build up hype
>> about your "forthcoming attractions", but I have been wondering about
>> likely MS pricing, how they will do it, what the implications are, etc.
>>
>> My understanding is that Vista will be "One disk to rule them all", in
>> that that they seem to be contemplating a single "distribution", crippled
>> to a greater or lesser extent, depending on how you yourself choose your
>> licence.  Is this the impression that you good people are getting?


Yes. Get something light and then extend it, provided you can make ends meet.


>> For example, I assume from what I have read that one could buy a P.C. with
>> the Ultimate in Crippling (do they call it Starter?) pre-installed.
>> As one found that one needed more, my impression is that you could just
>> give MS your credit card number, and receive a key to unlock whatever
>> you'd paid for.


The mechanism of unlocking, which I imagine will be centralised on-line
(exclusively so), raises interesting questions. What if the computer in
question cannot be connected to the Internet due to its hardware limitations
or function?

Either way, a process which is based on negotiation on-line and relies on
proprietary, obscure protocols, could help Microsoft centralise licensing
(/a la/ O/S registration) and prevent piracy. Maybe the intention of the
fragmentation is to better conduct the troops from base, metaphorically
speaking.


>> If this is the case, the scenario could prove quite interesting:-
>>
>> - perhaps pre-installers (OEMs) will only ever install the Most Crippled
>> version, and leave the buyer to unlock what he wants - or unlock it in the
>> shop for him by paying MS for the extra (extra=a positive, a positive
>> being removal of some of the negative) via the customer's credit card?
>> Note that the OEM gets a fixed fee, MS gets all of the "extra" licence
>> money in this scenario.
>>
>> - so perhaps the installer (OEM) is now on a Fixed Fee for the install,
>> and for that fee is responsible for making sure that the hardware that
>> he's
>> selling has the drivers installed.  Not unreasonable, one could plead -
>> why should he get more for selling the more expensive version, when his
>> "value added" is static?
>>
>> - but what about the Free-Standing (Full Product) as opposed to
>> pre-installed version?  Is it possible that MS could make free (gratis)
>> CDs available, or even offer a download over the Internet, of something
>> that required a credit card (and selection of appropriate crippling level)
>> during the install?


You mean like a Windows distro? With on-line ISO's and checksums? I doubt it.
What about the packaging?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAGr3mVVUwE


>> - if it's *not* as I describe, is it time for baa-lamb et al to be
>> advising MS and the OEMs on this topic, since it was he/they that used to
>> plead how expensive/impossible it is for large OEMs (such as Dell) in
>> particular to offer a choice of OSs with any given machine without
>> drastically increasing
>> the price.  I'm sure MS would consider their advice invaluable, in that it
>> would appear that MS might be on the verge of making a marketing blunder
>> in this respect.


What, again?


> You had me up until your last sentence... - "in that it  would appear
> that MS might be on the verge of making a marketing blunder in this
> respect."
> 
> Mainly because MS has some of the best marketing people in the world
> working for them. Both directly in their own marketing department and
> in marketing firms they hire for specific add campaigns. It's a bit of
> a stretch to think that people posting here to COLA know more about
> marketing than MS does.


Microsoft might understand marketing well (how to aggressively abuse the law
rather), but even the perfect marketing team cannot compensate for a poor
product. Here we speak about an operating system that has not much to offer
and will most likely fail to sell.

Best wishes,

Roy

-- 
Roy S. Schestowitz      |    "I think I think, therefore I think I am"
http://Schestowitz.com  |    SuSE Linux     |     PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
  4:50pm  up 1 day 13:01,  8 users,  load average: 0.68, 0.60, 0.80
      http://iuron.com - Open Source knowledge engine project

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