Dell Now Charges $150 Extra for Windows XP

[David Baxter PhD]

Dell Now Charges $150 Extra for Windows XP
The Raw Feed Blog
Friday, December 05, 2008

Dell has been periodically increasing the additional price for new systems with Windows XP, and now it's up to a whopping $150. No, that's not the total amount they charge for XP. That's what you pay after paying for the copy of Vista that you don't want.

Stated another way, that's the penalty Microsoft and Dell charge you to punish you for not switching to Mac OS and Apple when you want to avoid Microsoft's hideous Vista OS.

Is it any wonder Microsoft's OS market share has dropped to below 90% for the first time in 15 years? (Props to Silicon Valley Insider).

 

[NicNak]

I prefered XP as well. I could dig into the computer and rid my computer of bits of program upgrades I didn't want and sift through the system a lot better.

Vista seems to be made to be more "self sufficient" and I put massive quotes around that. I can't dig into the "guts" of Vista, like I could with XP.

Top it off XP is a smaller program and Vista doesn't offer me any more benifits for the larger disk space it takes up on my system.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

I was fortunate in that I bought a Dell with XP last spring while you could still downgrade for free.

I don't want anything to do with Vista, personally. I'll wait and see what Windows 7 looks like.

 

[NicNak]

Luckily I havn't had Vista slow down on me, but this laptop is used only for web surfing. Nothing is stored on here.

I have the minimum system requirements to run Vista (baught a cheapo laptop haa haa)

I really wish they would provide the option and not force a specific system on people. Ofcourse within reason.

The other laptop I run has Windows 2000 office. Has a full gig of ram and it runs like a gem! It is the closest I have seen to an "auto on" as I think yourself and Daniel were discussing in a previous post.

It is an old Compac that a friend sold me. He rigged it up pretty good.

He had mentioned to me that certian computers don't have the proper drivers to run certian programs. Like the Compac I have only has the drivers to run max Windows 2000 Office.

I often wonder if the current laptop I have could be "downgraded" to windows ME. I do have that disk and even thought it was an unpopular thought, I found ME to be quite compatable with me!

I am not a gamer my any means. So it was fine for me.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Just say "No!"...

Windows ME was the worst OS ever, in my opinion. :yikes:

 

[NicNak]

I will heed your valued advice, Dr Baxter. Especially with a "Just say No!" and this icon.

ME was the operating system in the first PC I ever had. So I am a rookie interms of how good one is from the other.

I won't downgrade to ME. I pinky swear :blush:

 

[stargazer]

That's outrageous about the extra $150 to get an XP machine. It's as though Microsoft is punishing *us* for *their* sins!

Windows ME was the worst OS ever, in my opinion.

I agree. I only lasted one year with Windows ME. It got to where I couldn't even start up the system - or it would take twenty minutes to do so.

My status now is that I feel forced to remain on Vista until either Microsoft comes up with Windows Seven (or whatever they're calling it now) or else I bravely abandon my change-resistance and switch over to Mac like everybody's suggesting I do.

For a while, I had a nice Toshiba laptop with XP (a rental) but I traded it for a Dell with Vista Premium because the Toshiba only had 512 mb of RAM and I needed 2gigs to run my music notation software along with certain other programs I need to do my work. The Dell is wonderful except for Windows Vista - in fact, I'm thinking of buying it if I can ever afford to get out of this rental situation.

I also suspect that Vista Premium is superior to Vista Basic (which was my first experience with Vista, and was horrible). Also, I know people who are completely content with Vista Ultimate. Still, I'll look forward to Microsoft releasing a new O.S. - hopefully with a little more humility this time.

 

[amastie]

I'm tempted to go for a Linux OS - at least on my main PC - to see if I can get used to that. I've been using my laptop almost exclusively now for months even though it's much older, because it fits in my kitchen where I sit most of the time.
amastie