What is Digg?Sponsored by Dragon Age: Origins
Can't get enough Dragon Age: Origins? Play the flash game. view!
DragonAgeJourneys.com - Play the free companion flash game to Dragon Age: Origins.
495 Comments
- fjsferreira, on 01/14/2009, -39/+589Yes, and all new car models improved upon a previous one should be free too.
- LiquidSpark, on 01/14/2009, -86/+609Buried for stupidity.
- angryfirelord, on 01/14/2009, -29/+254Look, just because you run Linux doesn't mean that every other operating system out there has to be given away for free as well. What would be the motivation for Microsoft to do it? Kindness? Not as long as your company's survival depends on it. Besides, Microsoft heard the bad news and now they're trying to fix it for Windows 7. If you like it, buy it. If not, then don't worry about it.
- a1cd, on 01/14/2009, -17/+191So I like bought this iPod right and now there's a better one out...
- briansearles, on 01/14/2009, -22/+135Vista haters need to cry harder.
- aimhelix, on 01/14/2009, -14/+119Needs more cowbell.
- Trifold, on 01/14/2009, -9/+114You know what else should be free? Money.
- cliffzdude, on 01/14/2009, -4/+98"Giving Vista users a free upgrade wouldn't affect that much" (financially)
Nice financial analysis. Deep. Insightful. Fully cited.
/s - FuzzyBunny, on 01/14/2009, -14/+86Interesting article, if it weren't based on utter stupidity. FTFA: "Madness? Nope. Microsoft doesn't make that much money from OS upgrades"
From ZDNet: "Microsoft has announced a new sales milestone for Windows Vista: 100 million RETAIL copies sold." [emphasis mine]
At an average price of $100 each, that's $10 Billion. Oh yeah, and that article's from Jan 2008. Who wants to bet they've sold at least that many this year as well? So let's say, for the sake of argument, that Microsoft would be forfeiting roughly $20 billion in revenue were they to follow this guys advice. Who in their right mind doesn't think of $20 billion as "that much money"? - IKORKYI, on 01/14/2009, -16/+79seriously, some people are whiny little bitches. windows costs you less than $1/day if you only use it for a year. That's less than the internet you are using (not counting dialup,dsl), your cable tv (not counting limited basic), less than the amount the average starbucks consumer spends dialy, less than i pay in tolls going to work in 2 months, less than it costs to use an iphone data plan for a day.
and just look at what you get for that. its amazing what mircrosoft, apple, and the open linux community can offer. computers and their subsequent os's are a true 21st century amazement.
and vista isn't as bad as windows me - natey3, on 01/14/2009, -19/+66Because you're a cheap bastard?
- cslawren, on 01/14/2009, -14/+59This is a stupid article. Microsoft, like Apple or any other smaller OS producing company are in this for money, and they can't continue to provide products without selling new ones. Also, in response to the story description, Windows 7 should not be free simply because third party hardware manufacturers didn't publish drivers like they should have *cough* creative labs *cough*. Why should the software manufacturer be punished for bad software development on the part of hardware manufacturers? Manufacturers had the Vista beta for a long time, and they should have taken advantage of the time they had to develop drivers, and they didn't. That's not Microsoft's fault, and is certainly no reason to give away an operating system. Buried.
- Kalan, on 01/14/2009, -7/+40Using the same logic, Snow Leopard should be free as well. Apple pretty much said there will be no new features, just killing the bugs in Leopard and making it stable.
- DJWilsonX, on 01/14/2009, -10/+40I think people who thought vista sucked and now 7 is way better just because of one more aero "shake feature", new taskbar and finally a new redesigned Windows Explorer shell make no sense at all. people who didn't buy vista because they went on the "it sucked" bandwagon....are just impatient noob users.
I will be very willing to buy windows 7 when it comes out. if only they would give me back classic mode
-Ubuntu user - bluerei, on 01/14/2009, -5/+34Same reason I buried me. Oh, wait-
- Heretushi, on 01/14/2009, -17/+44Hell yeah! My next house should be free too! Hey, what the hell, companies should send me checks for viewing their ads too. Yo, Digg, send me a check ASAP, I have to suffer through the bad articles people submit, and since I require a compensation for this and your site is free to use, that makes it logical that I should receive money. What's that you say? If I don't like it, I shouldn't use it? THAT'S MADNESS MAN, I DESERVE TO BE COMPENSATED FOR WRONG CHOICES I DO. That's just how I roll.
And that's one hell of a good article.
/sarcasm - h1forlife, on 01/14/2009, -9/+36It is stupid, it should not be a free upgrade, but I do think that the upgrade version of Windows 7 should be on the cheap side. I know right now the Vista upgrade is around 130 (who knows how much it was at launch), but I would be happy with a 100 upgrade, and about 150 retail. Hopefully they only do two versions this time around, the Ultimate and the Home Premium.
- saboola, on 01/14/2009, -1/+28There should be only two versions, you are right on that, but not the two you picked.
Ultimate becomes standard, and whatever their "Enterprise" version is called, becomes the business edition.
That's it! - ahhell, on 01/14/2009, -2/+28If what you said is true, then it ***** should be free.
Microsoft didn't charge for XP SP3 and it was just bug fixes and patches. - InorganicMatter, on 01/14/2009, -23/+47How many people outright bought Vista and upgraded from XP? Not many at all. Maybe they should get a coupon for half-off Windows 7 at the most, but not free. They knew what they were buying.
Now, how many people had Vista forced on them when they bought a "Vista Ready" computer (which wasn't actually Vista Ready), and have been struggling with it? Lots. Tons. Those people do indeed deserve a free copy of Windows 7, but Microsoft shouldn't be made to pay for it, since the Vista debacle was mostly the fault of OEMs. I propose that Dell, HP, Gateway, and all the other OEMs who falsely advertised Vista readiness, be made to give free Windows 7 upgrades to their customers, since they are the ones who caused the Vista mess to begin with. (Take this Dell Insprion laptop I have: 1.6GHz, 512MB, 80GB hard disk, and supposedly it's "Vista Capable." Suuuuuuure.) - inactive, on 01/14/2009, -2/+26Money is free....If you are the Federal Reserve
- cromulent742, on 01/14/2009, -3/+27Brought to you by the same people who were outraged when apple lowered the price of the iPhone
- robbiekhan, on 01/14/2009, -5/+287 "is" Vista with a few extra details added into the new Explorer UI. It shares the same compatibility, the same core components and even at the moment, the same drivers for many hardware that 7 doesn't automatically recognise.
I can't see it retailing at the prices Vista started out at because now Vista has established itself in both 32 and 64bit platforms where all the big brands of hardware have 64bit and stable drivers available - something that wasn't the case even a few months ago -
I have had Vista Ultimate 32 since day 1 and will be one of the handful of people who has never had a major problem. It did (still does...) have its share of bugs like folder views forgetting custom views randomly then needing my help in deleting the BAGS MRU folders in the registry to solve it until 6months down the line repeating the process as well as the infamous UAC prompts for Administrator actions which 7 resolves by recognising when I, the admin user, is logged in and when a limited account is.
On the whole SP1 fixed the bulk of the issues people had with Vista and people slowly got round to accepting Vista but there still remains a portion of the e-globe who will hate Vista because of what it went through little realising XP went through the exact same phase and perhaps the same people were a part of the then brigade of hate for XP and would not upgrade from Win98/SE...
Now I'm on 64bit (no need to spend a penny, just borrow a friend's Vista64 DVD, use your product key) and I can't see myself upgrading to Windows7 at all unless it's the price of a new release PC game or thereabouts because as it stands I'd only be upgrading to gain the extra few GUI features built into Windows 7 since the bulk of Vista problems were driver and pre-SP1 related and have since been resolved. It would seem illogical to upgrade from Vista-64 to Windows7-64 at above reasonable cost because you'd just be upgrading the current stable platform to the same stable platform with some new features and new name.
Perhaps many people will do it though, just to get the remaining after-taste of "Vista" out of their mouths.... - acknotSW, on 01/14/2009, -0/+23Well said!
A friend of mine, who worked for MS at the time, gave me a full release version of ME for free about a month before it came out and I never forgave him for it. - FuzzyBunny, on 01/14/2009, -4/+27Based on what evidence do you make that claim? You're take an ambiguous and un-cited statement about Microsoft's operating revenue and weighing it against an un-quantifiable benefit like customer goodwill and concluding that it would be in their best interest to give away their product. Do you see how ridiculous that is?
- inactive, on 01/14/2009, -9/+30Let's see if Apple releases Snow Leopard Upgrade for free, because from what I have heard, Tiger -> Leopard transition wasn't smooth either. Browsing the mac forums a lot of people complain about bugs in Leopard. If Apple release the free upgrade, MS will be forced to do the same.
- inactive, on 01/14/2009, -2/+19if you get an ipod touch you can use the free "tally counter" app to see how many times you say "like" in each conversation.
- FutureGuy, on 01/14/2009, -5/+22I just called my car company with that suggestion and they hanged up on me !!!! screw them.
- Premier, on 01/14/2009, -5/+21Microsoft was aware of the vista ready and vista capable branding, they were the ones who decided to approve it, not the oems.
- Paulish, on 01/14/2009, -0/+16"Who in their right mind doesn't think of $20 billion as 'that much money'?"
Congress. - inactive, on 01/14/2009, -5/+20Windows Vista is not as bad an OS as everyone says it is. The main reason why everyone thinks W7 is such a huge step above Vista is because they have this "Vista sucks" engrained in their psyche. Funny how the same people have buried Vista have unknowingly helped MS with W7 hype. I can't wait for W7.
- jsd8cc, on 01/14/2009, -7/+22Open source?
- durant0s, on 01/14/2009, -4/+18how about one version that is half way decent.
- sexybobo, on 01/14/2009, -4/+17Yes but apple charges for software updates to the ipods as well.
- IKORKYI, on 01/14/2009, -1/+13maybe microsoft learned from the mojave experiment?
that commercial is funny to me. all it shows is that people dumb enough to not know that they were actually using windows vista are somehow not dumb when it comes to reviewing it.
is microsoft making fun of their own marketing? are they trying to show that industry professionals' opinions on an OS don't count as much as people's who can't even tell its vista? i don't get the whole message at all. - sideshowRAHEEM, on 01/14/2009, -3/+14I wanted to digg you for the Tommy Boy reference but you got the quote wrong. Its not "JoJo the Indian circus boy with a pretty new pet" it's "JoJo the IDIOT circus boy with a pretty new pet" who ever heard of an Indian Circus Boy. I'm gonna go ahead and give you a fail on this one.
- dortiis, on 01/14/2009, -1/+127 still has an option to turn off the pretties if thats what you mean.... its still there in the advanced tab.
- mizike, on 01/14/2009, -2/+13"just killing the bugs in Leopard and making it stable."
That's a gross over-simplification. There will be few new features for the end user, but there's going to be plenty of new stuff for developers and there are going to be major "under the hood" type changes which amount to a lot more than just bug and stability fixes. Many of the core applications are also being completely re-written, apparently most of the system apps (mail, preview, etc.,) in snow leopard are about a third of the size of the same apps in leopard. - IKORKYI, on 01/14/2009, -5/+16you did have a good operating system. you had ***** 3rd party driver support. if the drivers worked flawlessly, you'd really start to nitpick to find faults.
- AelitaMoon, on 01/14/2009, -0/+10Oh! Oh! And if I make numerous bad investment choices over the course of years, and it turns out to bite me in the ass, I should be compensated for it too!! Where's my bailout!!
/sarcasm - aimhelix, on 01/14/2009, -0/+10a cowbell.
- weebs, on 01/14/2009, -0/+10...
- Rikkochet, on 01/14/2009, -2/+12The blame game can go around in circles forever, but ultimately we just have to say "it wasn't great" and be done with it. There were PLENTY of products in the past that turned out that way, too, and heads didn't roll. The first several years of Saturn vehicles come to mind. What about HD DVD?
Ultimately it's nobody's "fault" how things went - MS overpromised, OEMs didn't do any sort of due diligence before letting their marketing departments loose, and consumers didn't do their homework before purchasing things. Multiple failures led to what was considered a global letdown. C'est la vie. - briansearles, on 01/14/2009, -0/+9I like the way this man thinks. Problem solved!
- NaturalCauzes, on 01/14/2009, -9/+18Dugg for Tommy Boy reference.
- Memnochxx, on 01/14/2009, -0/+9Yeah, who else has computers besides the US? I don't know of any places.
- TheNik, on 01/14/2009, -6/+15Of any kind of software to pirate, doesn't an operating system seem like the most obvious choice to purchase? It's a required environment for using a computer, so why not throw some bones to the company that makes the best one?
Oh yeah, because you're cheap. - RoboHobo, on 01/14/2009, -4/+13If nothing else, Vista Ultimate customers should get a huge discount. Ultimate was a pretty douchey move by MS. But free upgrades for all? Retarded.
- gustsomejuy, on 01/14/2009, -3/+12Well it’s decision time for me. I have a triple boot on my every day machine. Good old XP MCE, Windows 7 Beta and Ubuntu 8.10. I’m flitting around the 3 trying to decide what to stick with. All my peers have Macs and they love it when I struggle with my laptop.
I installed Vista as soon as it came out but bailed back to XP as soon as MS started saying things like “there will be no service packs”… that notion changed quite quickly!
So, anyway my conclusion so far:
1. XP is a dependable boring and works just fine. Every website I go to works properly and I have no problem with any peripherals acting up. I know where everything is and when things break I can find answers really easy.
2. Windows 7 has surprised me to be fair. It should be called “Fixta”. It boots & runs faster than XP, is very pretty and has some great tweaks that add up to a fairly impressive first impression. IE 8 Beta does suck though it has to be said. Some things don’t work properly (OK this is a Beta) and I like to be able to see things like my LAN connection blinking away in the notification area. For the life of me I can’t figure out how make this happen in Win 7. I can’t get on with Windows Explorer either. I have to look hard to see what’s up. Maybe that will change. Also, what was wrong with + & - next to folders? It’s better waaaaaay than Vista.
3. Ubuntu 8.10 is impressive too. But you have to be a proper Geek to get it going right. I’m stuck unable to uninstall a beta version of Wine at the moment and have got bored trying. There is much to like about it. Loads of freely available free software and everything worked on my laptop straight out of the box (unlike Win 7).
4. I sometimes use OSX at work. It has some great features and I’d probably be fairly happy using it every day. The problem for me is the cost to buy all the software to get me to where I am with Windows would cost me thousands of dollars. I have spent years buying this and that. It all adds up and I just can’t justify that expense. Not to mention the hardware cost.
All are great and I’m no fan boy of any. I just want to do my thing.
Bottom line: Ubuntu is cool, great for surfing porn and visiting the *other* side of the internet. Mac is just too expensive for me to start over. Win 7 looks great but if I just want to get stuff done it is XP all the way.
I’ll try Win 7 RC1 when it is released. I feel that I’ll probably end up with a dual boot Win 7 & Ubuntu. - CoD4, on 01/14/2009, -9/+18it should be a free upgrade as well as my free computer
-
Show 51 - 100 of 510 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is