Microsoft has released a preview release candidate for Windows Vista SP1 to a large group of beta testers. The RC preview beta [ed. note: release candidate preview beta?], which was released late Nov. 14 and includes changes to the setup and installation experience made as a result of tester feedback, was made available to 15000 pre-selected beta testers, just 3000 more than the first beta. Additionally, Microsoft has released a new build of Windows Server 2008.
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Member since:2006-07-04
"Totally wrong. Every copy of OSX is a FULL version, not an upgrade."
Ugg...
I'm saying, *in practice*, the OSX retail boxes are upgrades. Good grief.
"Any OSX you purchase can be used on a clean drive and do a full install, so the comparison is fair."
But the Mac had a Mac OS on it at some point, right? Meaning that Apple already received payment for an OS on that particular computer (even if the price of the OS was included with the original purchase of the Mac).
(Just in case your suggesting that the upgrade versions of Vista don't allow clean installs, the Vista upgrade versions have the same bits as the full versions and can be used to perform clean installs. But idiotically/greedily, Microsoft makes you have to keep the old OS DVD around so that if you need to reinstall Vista upgrade, you need to install the old OS, then do a clean Vista install over that (it's still clean since it wipes the old OS before installing the Vista upgrade, but it's stupid that you have to keep the old OS dvd around and perform two-step reinstallation process (there is (or at least, was) a work-around to this nonsense))
"Heck, you can even performa full install of OSX on a non-Apple x86 piece of hardware if you are willing to go through and perform the hack."
That's not the case in practice nor is it how Apple wants you to use it. Part of the reason for the low price is that Apple already got money for the hardware, which isn't the case in your scenario. I think your scneario is also against Apple's EULA. In which case I can come back at you with "if you are willing to go through and perform the hack you can pirate Vista and install it for free on as many computers as you want."
Edited 2007-11-16 19:50
Member since:
2006-03-14
"Since every Mac comes with a version of OS X, all retail boxes of OSX are in effect "upgrade" versions sold at "upgrade" prices. "
Totally wrong. Every copy of OSX is a FULL version, not an upgrade.
Any OSX you purchase can be used on a clean drive and do a full install, so the comparison is fair. These are not upgrades, though OSX will indeed upgrade a previous version detected.
Heck, you can even performa full install of OSX on a non-Apple x86 piece of hardware if you are willing to go through and perform the hack.