Windows Vista pricing leaked, and it's not pretty

$399 US and $499 CDN for "Ultimate".. That's crazy! The US to CDN exchange rate is hovering between 9% and 12%, and the Vista price difference is 25%!

It's bad enough that Canadians get screwed regularly at the bookstore, but this sort of price scheme is tantamount to discrimination.

Very few people by an OS at retail. Nearly everyone will get a subsidized version when the buy new hardware. The overall pricing shouldn't be any different than what XP is now.

A very good reason to buy it retail is to upgrade assembled computers. Where I come from, Portugal, personal desktops are commonly assembled by the users (only my first PC, a 8088 XT was bought from retail) and if we want to upgrade to Vista will either have to buy it or get a pirated copy (which is the most common solution, but it's getting harder).
I think that those prices, especially of the Ultimate version, are way too high and Microsoft is really inviting piracy.

This is the exact reason I have moved over to Linux on my main PC, which I enjoyed building. The best version of Vista is one month's rent to some people.

On my retail bought laptop I have a Windows operating system, but that's going to be it. No Vista for me, not even the upgrade for my laptop. I have more than I need right now.

It's kind of funny that in order to make Windows more secure, and harder to pirate they are charging more. But becuase they are charging so much, it will encourage more people to pirate Vista.

Oh well I'm sticking with OS X on my new Mac Pro that should be here in a few days anyway, so enjoy.

To make matters worse and for your hearing-makes-me-sick's sake - I, a long time Windows users, am also switching to Mac OS X. Windows is becoming a joke.

The thing that keeps me from switching to Mac is that I don't want to be one of the legions of Mac bores.
You know it will happen - one minute you're using windows and just quietly getting on with your life, then you buy a Mac and begin constantly boring the tits off everyone by banging on at ridiculous length about how much better Macs are.
If they can find a way of curing that side-effect, I'm in!

They waited so long that I am going to wait for Leopard Final Vs. Vista Final review before I buy anything.

I may damn well switch.
Never thought I'd say that.

Maffu, funny remarks! But the fact is that OS X is a very attractive OS. It's secure, fast, versatile, visually stunning and Mac developers do seem to be more creative and, dare I say it, smarter than Windows developer.
Now you don't necessarily need to buy a Mac to use OS X. There are OS X Tiger distributuions available from P2P networks that, with a little work, can be installed in most modern PCs - these are getting easier to install and there are plenty of howtos on the web.
Obviously you should buy a copy of Mac OS X, and, morally, Apple does not have the right to stop you from installing it on any machine that you want, especially since its pushing for dual-booting with Boot Camp in an attempt to divert users from PCs - it's just a taste of its own remedy. Of course that morally and legally don't always coincide.

Its funny I see more people here talking about switching to OSX instead of just staying with XP :).. You know who probably won't switch? Enterprises and corporations! I don't see any of them globally switching to Vista, not before a few years, when prices will fall, and bugs will be fixed. Because like everything new (EVEN OSX), there will be bugs.

Not only Businesses but also the majority of personal users are not inclined to make the switch to Mac OS X. Let's not make the mistake of take tech bloggers and comment posters as an indication of any trend in OS adoption, they are not representative of the "typical" user. Windows is here to stay for a long time.

@Will: Right on. It's the DRM effect in the OS world.

@Jonhhyg0: When XP came out, I was a TechTV addict with a serious ScreenSavers fixation. Leo and Patrick would go on and on and back and forth about XP. "It's great, except for this. I like it, except for that." It was a good year (maybe two, I don't recall) after XP's release that their complaints gave way to increasing praise, and only at that point did I see a need to make the switch from Win98 to XP.

I fully expect a similar scenario with Vista. It will be as tempermental as a colicky infant when it first comes out, and I ain't even thinking of switching until until it's completely potty trained.

Maffu, that is funny. I remember when Apple was the underdog... although they've always had a "hipper than thou" attitude.

There are plenty of people who would want a retail version of Vista. Upgraders are one, DIY folks, and of course, Mac users.

Keep in mind it's bound to go down a little bit, with rebates and whatnot. Also, the cost is in line with the development costs, right?

Did I miss something? XP Home is selling for $200 now, Vista Home Premium will be $270, that is with the Media Center built in if I am not mistaken. Not to mention that is retail, OEM versions on Ebay will no doubt be half of that. Granted, I would like to see the price at $50, but really, what do you guys think is a fair price?

OSX is very nice, but if you are a Mac user who wants to stay current, you pay $120 every year or two for OS updates. Not so with MS, they only make you pay for major OS changes (well, except for Millennium, though that was not really an upgrade).

And with those twisted system requirements, who can upgrade? Certainly not me, my MacBook does not have the graphics power to run it. But then, my MacBook does not do much of anything at the moment as it is in the shop as Apple scratches its head trying to fix RDS (Random Shutdown Syndrome).

I've use that for some time. and I dislike it. It needs some time fow re-working. At my point of view best OS is Windows 2003 server.

James, you are missing something - even Costco sells a retail version of XP Home for $99.

@Diddle: The XP Home Upgrade sells for $94.69 at Costco. If you want the full OS, you're gonna have to shell out $189.99. (http://doiop.com/costcoXP)

The last thing I'd ever do is switch to the Mac religion. (Firefox people have bought into the idea that tech is a matter of faith now.) Everyone I know who has an apple likes to "play" on the computer (except there's no games for macs) and they love to show it to everyone like it's a piece of furniture, but I — like millions around the planet — actually use our systems to make a living and be productive. And despite their silly commercials, there's little productive coming from the Mac side of the fence.

There's a reason the business world won't touch macs. No, lots of reasons why.

@Zaine,
Nice to see you here. I also would not consider definitely switch to a Mac, especially because there are a lot of applications in my field of work that do not exist for OS X. However I find that there are increasingly more OS X applications that make it an atractive (not only aesthetically, mind you) and productive platform. I must admit that there are a lot of smart people developing for Mac. But I also dislike the whole Mac attitude, I find the typical Mac user a bit of a snob, they think too much of themselves (just check the Mac sites, all that overhyping and Windows-bashing can make you puke - sometimes I think that their only reason to exist is to bad-mouth Windows).

Switched. Just one more thing that Windows was going to force down my throat. Not this time...Asta la vista, Vista.