vista ultimate raping AUS buyers

[phkninja]

The otther bit is anyone in Europe gets a reduced version. It doesnt have Media Player integrated due to an EU ruling in 2004. MS was fined for forcing users to have to take Media player bundled with Windows. So in effect we are paying more for less.

BTW the internet is great for purchases, but when i asked about shipping prices to Ireland only sites within the EU would allow me to purchase it from them. I ended up buying from Dabs.ie, and got an oem copy of Vista and a USB Flash drive for approx €237 thats with VAT and delivery (VAT at 21% in Ireland) (as the Intel aint released the PCI board with Flash memory to speed up vista. I can use the 4GB flash drive instead. This is a stop gap till hybrid drives come out )

[Spooky]

Why don't you folks in countries other than the U.S. try one of the following:

1. Have a friend in the U.S. purchase it for you in the U.S. then send it to you.

2. Purchase from one of the on-line U.S. places on the net, have it shipped to a friend in the U.S. then have the friend send it to you.

3. Same as #2 above but instead have it shipped straight to you. This may mean you pay extra import tax or something in some countries, where as #2 above in those cases will be less expensive.

4. If your going to be in the U.S. (vacation, visit relatives, work, etc...) buy it while your here. Better yet, if there are several of you in the same country, and if one of you will be visiting the U.S., get together and have the person visiting buy for all while he/she is here.

5. If you know someone who works for FedEx who knows folks in the U.S. who work for FedEx, have them contact their fellow FedEx employee in the U.S. who works for FedEx and arrange for them to 'jump seat' a purchased copy to you as an employee crew member baggage. Advantage to this is its classed as personal baggage for the FedEx aircraft crew member and exempt from customs import tax. I actually did this once for something, its perfectly legal. Works with other shipping companies also. FedEx employees do this all the time for each other.

6. If you know someone in the military ----well i'm not going to go into this one but the possibility is endless here including getting it for free.

There are a lots more ways too.

Edited February 2, 2007 by Spooky

[pugwash2004]

One interesting thing I noticed about the pricing, it's a lot cheaper to buy a Vista Ultimate upgrade with an OEM copy of XP Home than it is to buy the full retail version. I'm not sure if you get both the 32bit and 64bit version though.

- I've just checked, the upgrade version is 32bit and 64bit unlike the OEM versions.

Edited February 2, 2007 by pugwash2004

[Randy_Rivers]

One small note you dont have to buy vista cause its new,why sweat it use xp till bugs and prices come down did u buy the first vcr when they were a 1000 dollars .

[phkninja]

Randy ~ I didnt have to buy a vcr when they first came out. My dad was given one by a sales rep (he used to repair tv's and radios, and also sell new technology).

Anyway some of us need to buy vista, as we make machines for others and they want vista installed

(OEM version of Vista is €187 in Ireland)

[Joe K]

I suspect the price difference involves hidden taxes and tariffs. I know in Europe vat tax is added numerous times and each new level includes previous taxes. And it may reflect the extra cost of things like removing media player to pacify different countries.

Joe

[phkninja]

Its not as much to do with Taxes, as it is to do with greed. MS has one of its main offices in Ireland. Ireland is currently the second most expensive country in Europe, but in the most expensive you get value for money, and according to the international bank in about 2 years time we will be the most expensive because our inflation rates are higher than the rest of the world. The reason for all this is we had a boom in our economy and companies have gotten greedy

[Biohead]

The full ultimate version in the UK is not £200, but £370. Even the UPGRADES RRP is £250!

And Europe's versions DO come with Media Player. They offer the Pre-N version as an option (and an option found almost nowhere at that!) and don't force us to buy it.

At the recent rates of virtually $2>£1, that makes our copy of Vista Ultimate $740. You Aussies have it pretty cheap!

[tilstad]

$622 in Norway. Dang, with these prices for people with cracked xp versions, I don't think many running those will buy the legal version being it is so expensive. And who other then tinkerers/Pc builders/hardware enthusiasts/wares users/hackers need a full version non upgrade? I can't think of anyone...

Actually, I feel that people like us, should get the lowest price, since it's us who on regular basis perform free OS support to family and frinds and help people we know get their systems up and working again. And what do we get for that? Double the price of OEM "grandma version"...

Screw them, I was actually prepared to shell out this time, I even tried bying the xp cd key on their site, but got the message "with your cd key, you can't buy a fully legal cd key..." Huh?

Think I'll stick with the one I downloaded instead.

[tilstad]

I really don't see the logic in this. When joe shmoe, average pc user, or grandma buys a pc system, they'll get to use that (OEM) software until the pc rusts apart. Most pople buying pc's like thist don't change nothing on their pc, and usually only buy a new pc if it's a good reason, like a new OS. But most often not just to get somewhat faster hardware, and same OS. But better hardware AND new OS, then they buy. So in general, most people buy only one licence of an OS before the next version.

The pc hardware enthusiast on the other hand, he has to buy a new OS licence every six months if thats how often he likes to change his hardware. Why? I mean, why can't we also be permitted to use the OS for it's supported lifetime like Joe Shmoe and Grandma? In win XP's case, I would then have had to buy 12 Xp licences in the 6 years it has been around to be legal. Hey, thats not fair!!

What harm do it do when I sell my old hardware piece by piece on ebay and buy new, and then reinstall the same licence I had before? Oh, sure They have been so kind that I could just buy the "Full" version then, for 3 times as much. Well thank you microsoft!! Gee, what a friendly gesture. I bet it's a way of saying thank you for me supporting all my relatives on your buggy and crashy OS.

What's next? Will i have to buy a new Microsoft OS licence every time I buy more than one pair of RFID'd shoes in one year? "Because the EULA says so!"...?

"We're sorry, but your Vista licence has expired because you have installed a new cpu, and bought a new jacket in the same month. Please purchase a new licence to be able to logon"

Greedy bastards.

[Francesco]

The prices are higher in all Europe. I remember reading on an italian website that it's up to the vendors to decide the price and that they can lower it up to 60%. If you want to buy the ultimate you can buy the american version and then download the localized language pack (you can find them on windows update).

[whistl3r]

There's no way I'm paying over half a grand for an OS. Not a bloody chance in hell.

So.. why would you consider buying it? There is no technical or recreational 'need' for Vista, Yet... Most Corporations have not even blinked an eye over Vista, it's worthless and does not provide the necessary needs. Vista has minimal support for applications and drivers. If you're a techie and like to become knowledgeable with the OS then I'd suggest subscribing to TechNet or MSDN Operating Systems.

If you're just anticipating on using the memory intensive, unessential GUI and buggy Product; Just wait... In a year or two the price will split and may have more support

Besides, purchasing the product from Ebay does not guarantee a 'VALID' operating system license. It's too easy to copy the key and send it off to the Blackmarket.

Edited February 5, 2007 by whistl3r