Maybe M$ could do good with some positive PR by offering $7 upgrades from Vista to Windows 7...

There's no Vista user who wouldn't pay $7 to upgrade to 7!

The least Microsoft could do would be to attempt repairs on Vista, in the form of good service packs.

I'm sure most would pay $77...

...in keeping with theme of "7"

"Francis told the IDG news service that the Redmond company was still not sure if the manufacturers will be able to ship Vista once Windows 7 launches."

I think what he meant was, he wasn't sure manufacturers would be able to dump Vista off on any customers once 7 was released. Who in their right mind would buy Vista over 7? Sure, people bought XP over Vista, but that's because Vista and XP weren't very compatible. Too many companies were late with drivers and software updates that Vista never got out of the starting gate. 7 and Vista, on the other hand, use the same kernel, and are far more compatible than Vista was with XP, so there's really no reason not to choose 7 over Vista (for new computers, if you already own Vista, no reason to buy a new OS for an old computer).

On the other hand, Microsoft should push 7 over Vista and discourage manufacturers from selling Vista once 7 is released. They did the same with Vista over XP. If Microsoft makes any push for Vista after 7 is released, it will be quite obvious some VP over at Microsoft just can't admit Vista was a flop.

When was the last time you used vista?

wow that's a short time. XP lasted longer than that and willbecause of the netbooks. I guess it is true that windows 7 really is vista second edition.

clearly ispyamoose doesn't use vista or if he does he is running it on an archaic PC. vista has always been stable for me but people agree it was been stable sense service pack 1

Vista runs fine on a good machine

an old crap bucket with 512mb ram isnt gunna cut it

Thing is, people wanted XP after Vista came out because there was such a sharp difference in driver support, application compatibility, and performance. But if Windows 7 beats out Vista in all of these areas, while even sharing much of the visual appearance of Vista, then it's just Vista R2 and there won't be much/any demand for Vista to stay available.

Sure, XP's been available for a couple of years into Vista's lifespan, but that's by massive public outcry. Now Vista will be available years into Win7's lifespan for no particularly good reason?

i would do so in a heartbeat. hell i payed for a vista upgrade i think i deserve an OS thats released 2 yrs later. i love vista on my desktop, but i don't even both using my vista laptop because of the absolute incredibly slowness of it.

Was that meant to be sarcastic? I used Vista about a week ago on my laptop (2.5 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4 GB ram, GeForce 8600M GT). In my opinion, Vista has some great features, but a lot of bloat. SP1 improved things a lot. SP2 doesn't look to be that great, at least when it comes to optimization.

I use Vista, but only when I feel it is necessary. Indeed, Vista has some good features, but I still use XP most of the time. After SP1, Vista is stable (for the most part). And no, my PC is not ancient. I have a laptop with a 2.5 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4 GB ram, and a GeForce 8600M GT.

I just prefer XP because it is faster. Every program I used with XP ran slower on Vista.

I love Vista, a lot. It works great with a Intel Core 2 Quad and 6GB RAM. It got a lot of bad press for people running it with 512MB of RAM and wondering why it was slow. But even though it is a good OS, it's time for MS to move on. Stop marketing Vista as the greatest OS, because people stopped listening. They need to offer XP Pro only for businesses who need it, XP home for Netbooks (for people who want to run more than 3 apps, and Windows 7. Forget Vista. And XP pro should be only sold in a box, not preloaded on any PC's . If businesses want XP, they should buy a PC with Win7 Pro XP Edition or whatever MS calls it.

Yes, it really doesn't make any sense to continue selling Vista much longer after Windows 7 comes out. I'd say that by the end of December system builders could make their final orders for Vista, with the last copies being shipped at around the end of January.

I guess that is what is going to happen anyway, even if there is no limitation on Microsoft's side. There will be no market demand for new copies of Vista being sold.

Windows 7 is built on the core of Vista, virtually everything that works on Vista runs as well if not better on 7, Windows 7 has the ability to virtualize XP from Professional Edition upwards at no extra cost to the end-user (compared to Vista anyway), and it runs better on low end machines than Vista. So where will the market demand be ? Businesses ? Perhaps, but most are still clinging on to XP for a good reason. Those that made the transition, will have all the time until de end of the year to test out 7 RC for incompatibilites over Vista, so very few will remain that will need a new copy of Vista by January next year. Of course, this however has nothing to do with the support lifecycle. On that topic Microsoft will of course provide all the patches and service packs until the end.

I bet there are a lot of people over at Microsoft that would love if 7 was made available to Vista users at a very SPECIAL price. I bet they are anxious to bring back their good image. I wouldn't say $7, but somewhere in the region of half the cost of Windows Vista Home Premium OEM. That would be a fair price, not too scandalous to anyone - neither Microsoft or the consumer.

I'm with tpi2007. I'd pay ca. $50 for a Win7 upgrade from Vista. But sadly, I don't think M$ would make any money on it at that price.

Look, flame Vista all you want, but I think it is a very attractive OS. It is elegant and pleasing to the eye, which is more than anyone can say for a lot of other OSs out there. I think it got bad publicity because people were trying to run it on under-powered systems. I am running Vista Home Premium x64 and I really like it. I haven't had any issues with it that weren't my fault and after a little tweaking (seriously, who DOESN'T tweak their OS all the time?) I like it much more than XP. But I'm probably in the minority. Still, I'm anxiously awaiting Win7.

Has Computerworld ever fired up Vista?

You can do that in Vista now.

Agreed. Running Vista Ultimate 32 bit and the only thing I can complain about is that it has a large footprint on my harddrive and uses more RAM than usual. Runs like melted butter on my system though. Win 7 = Vista 2.0 Lite.

Hell, I will pay $77 for an upgrade from my Vista Ultimate to Ultimate 7, or what ever the top home user version is... But I would certainly want it to be a full installation disc that does not require that it is installed OVER an old installation. I am highly perturbed with Microsoft about the two copies of Ultimate that I own and could never stomach to use.

Even when Windows 7 comes out, I've opted to stick to Vista as I actually find it better. Most of the changes in Windows 7 in terms of the user interface actually makes me want to stay away from it. I think it's the point of trying to get used to it. Until then, I'm sticking to Windows Vista/Server 2008.

Or it's possible that ispyamoose IS using vista and like me has had endless amounts of trouble, even on a new system with 2.8Ghz Dual Core, 4g RAM even after SP1...But admitidly SP1 did fix up about half my problems, but it is still a headache for me. After trying the RC and Beta of Win7 I'd have to say that I will definently be upgrading!

I'm just happy the drivers are there. I don't know what i would do if i had another driver mess like vista happen =[

One thing could be bad is the official support. Even if Windows 7 that I already like much is very good and all, the company will not offer support for this new OS regardless(for a good while). It will take time but not as much than it took for Vista. I really welcome W7 and will install the RC ASAP but I doubt the company will adopt yet a new OS as quick as we do so they have to keep selling Vista for a little while. If it was only of me it's would be only W7 64 bits because keeping 32 bits OS is nonsense for me(of course you've got to keep it compatible with 32 bits code )

I know I'm definitely going to keep a copy of Vista around. I've grown quite fond of it and will miss some of the aesthetics that they changed in 7 (getting rid of icons, making it less colorful and more -blank-, etc).

That and I'm still not too happy about libraries being the default shortcuts from the start menu Pictures, Documents, Music, and Videos links. I absolutely love everything else about 7 though

I can hardly understand people that say 'Vista is great' etc. No later than yesterday I had to scrap a whole hard disk drive because the copy of Vista installed had decided that it didn't want to open a session outside of Safe Mode, that it didn't like a plain dumb USB wireless mouse, or that the perfectly working Wi-fi connection that all other (non-Vista) computers in the area used couldn't be detected - along with the dozen other wi-fi hotspots around the place.

So, I scrapped a Vista install yesterday because it wouldn't boot - after a fresh reinstall and update. Next week I'll scrap another one because it can't handle mini-PCIe wi-fi and USB mouse at the same time.

In their place, I installed/will install Ubuntu Linux, whose only 'problem' was that it didn't want to display the status of the wireless connection if the wi-fi card was switched off.

I really hope Seven will be able to use USB cordless mice and Wi-fi. And boot.

You know, last time I checked my Vista installation there was no integrated XP virtualistion.

As I've said elsewhere (I think here) that by the time that WinXP expires in 2014, there would be more people still using XP than Vista.

- Most XP users will go to Win7
- Most Vista users will upgrade to Win7
- The remaining Corp/business sector that wasn't impressed with Vista will go to 7.
- Netbooks can actually work with Win7.

Vista SP2 or SP3 will never turn into "win7". There is NO advantage for MS to do so... just like they didn't give WinXP users DX10. They want the users to BUY another whole OS. It makes more sense for them to put their resouces of talent (what good talant MS has), money, marketing, etc into Windows7.

When OCT-23-2009 comes, count on ALL consumers PCs will be Win7. Vista will never reach the market levels of XP in the business sector. Theres going to be very few end-users demanding for Vista. I'll bet money on it.

haha every generation people bitch - windows 3.11 to 95 people hated it, then 95 to 98, 98 to 2000/xp people also hated it because it was "heavy" and "buggy" (sound familiar?), now we see xp to vista with the same "heavy" and "buggy" remarks idiots make, and windows 7 will also cop it soon enough - ITS BASED ON VISTA.

Its so funny - it never gets old, how stupid some people are, living under a rock.

Its more probable that you are an amateur with computers then it is Vista's fault for your issues - your like every other noob ever so quick to blame vista for your short falls

Microsoft cant pull out a wand and wave it at your Pentium 4 and turn it into a decent computer LOL

You can right click on the app and have it run in XP SP2 mode.

That's a compatibility mode. They aren't the same. If they were you wouldn't be able to run games in XP compatibility mode because of virtualisation not allowing proper drivers.

Uhh, last time I checked I have a 2.5 Ghz Core 2 Duo.