I'll wait for the OEM's to be released for builders.

I plan to keep my Vista Ultimate... it would be like down grading to go to win7 pro or something like that. I tend to like my Vista a bit. Plus if I use Win7 it will be on a new system I plan on building here once the new boards and chips hit the market. I'm still playing the waiting game so far.

Thanks Messiah1

I checked out the link in messiah1 reply #206 and must say that isn't a bad offer, in fact it is very good. 

What is bad about all of this though is that I purchased a new computer in April (old XP computer died for about a week which is now working again) that has Vista Home Premium 64 bit on it. 

Now I have to decide if I want to upgrade (chase after another OS).  I wonder if I should wait until at least SP1 comes out for Windows 7?   

Does anyone have any release dates for Windows 8?

Bahhhhh, bahhhhhhh, bahhhhh  

5 years I believe, M$ goal is for new OS

Gee, has Vista been out that long?

The issue is that I can't see any reason to spend that much money on something when what I have (XP) works rather well (suits my needs).

For 50$ (the price of a video game) I'd consider picking it up.

It's nice to have choices though isn't it?  For the price of two video games, you can get a version of the best OS that MS has put out yet.

Complete, ultimate, everything possible I think should top out at like $179 then scale everything down from there. Seems fair. Would love to see some type of whole home license packs also.

Daikaze, that is the issue for most folks.  I wouldn't be running Vista if it wasn't because I purchased a new computer. 

Having the most current or new item is important to quite a few folks, especially those that make thier living from working in the IT field, that is very understandable,  Then there are folks like myself and possibly you that are just more concerned that the computer works and does what we require of it.

The consumer market is big with lots of different requirements and needs and from what I've seen the support is there for just about any configuration you want to run.

No is not, it's a new OS that builds over Vista.

If you add them up, this is Windows 8

1. Windows 2.0

2. Windows 3 & 3.11

3. Windows 95

4. Windows 98 & 98se

5. Windows ME

6. Windows XP

7. Windows Vista

8. Windows 7

Ohhhh, WHAT!,

219$ for a boxed version of Ultimate if you have a Windows version.
I have 3 questions:

Do I understand correctly that this would then be an upgrade,
Or can this 219$ version be installed on an empty drive without having to install Vista first?

If not, what is the difference, if any, between the 219$ version,
and the 319$ "Full" Ultimate (Windows 7--the editions for those without a copy of Windows) version?

And finally, I couldn't see in that report anything about a System Builder version.
Does anybody have the low-down on pricing for System Builder versions?

How about 50 bucks. And make a version that will run on my rig.

You forgot a couple of versions of Windows NT in there, which is the actual progenitor of Xp, Vista, and 7 anyway.

Version numbers are arbitrary. XP wasn't even a full blown new version according to the version number, it was 5.1. Windows 2000 was 5.0. NT 4 and Windows 95 were *both* 4.0, but they were considered entirely different products. IIRC, Windows 98 was 4.1.

Windows 7 actually would have been 6.1 (Vista is 6.0), except Vista is so unpopular that marketing changed it to be a full "new" OS. Internally it's an improved Vista, much like 98 was an improved 95 and XP was an improved 2000.

In the first few months of Vista's release, the drivers Nvidia "intended" you to use were a buggy PoS that actually topped a list I saw as the #1 cause of ALL Vista crashes.

They really can't do much worse this time, especially since they don't have much new to do since they have no DX11 capable hardware coming out anyway.