What do you think...

[Atech66]

After purchasing a Lenovo PC preloaded with Microsoft's Windows Vista, Emma Alvarado was shocked to learn she would have to pay $59.25 in order to downgrade to Windows XP. She's now taking the matter to court and has a filed a lawsuit against Microsoft.

"Microsoft has used its market power to take advantage of consumer demand for the Windows XP operating system by requiring consumers to purchase computers preinstalled with the Vista operating system and to pay additional sums to 'downgrade' to the Windows XP operating system," the suit alleges.

The suit is an interesting one, though probably an uphill battle for Alvrado to convince a judge that Microsoft is in the wrong. The software maker had originally intended for XP to go the way of the dodo bird at the end of June in 2008, but has since offered more than one stay of execution due to consumer demand. Both Vista Business and Ultimate come with downgrade rights, but it's up to the OEMs to decide if they want to offer it as an option, and if so, for how much. Pricing varies by OEM, which might make Alvarado's claim that Microsoft extended its XP cutoff date because of "tremendous profits" hard to prove in court.

I am curiouse of your opinions.

 

[KSoD]

This is just like people going after Google and TPB.

XP is old. Get over it already. It is going into extended support as it is. They should have stopped the sales of it a long time ago like they said they were and stop letting stupid pressures from OEM's to allow them to continue to sell them.

Microsoft isnt making a profit from the XP sale. It is already sold to the OEM for the price. It is the OEM that is making the money cause they are the one charging for the service.

Microsoft only makes money for the SALE OF THE OS not for the install of it. The Sale goes to the OEM. What happens to it from there is beyond Microsoft's control.

This will get thrown out cause there is no way she can prove without a doubt that this is cost from Microsoft. Microsoft doesnt get the money from the install of the OS on the machine. When will people learn the difference in point of sale and such factors that go into these things.

This would be like me blaming Goodyear for the cost of new tires put on my Car. The tires were purchased by the store. From then on Goodyear has no effect on pricing or anything else. You are then paying the company for the service.

So maybe is she was suing Dell or HP for charging her more. Then i could understand. But plain and simple, Microsoft is not making this money. They only make money from the Sale of the OS. Not for the cost of installation.

 

[Lexluethar]

Are you serious? Microsoft in the wrong here?

She knew that Vista was preloaded. And whether computer savvy or not she's gotta realize that you can't just put whatever OS you want on a computer w/o costs involved.

Tell you what, Microsoft needs to explain she could very easily go to Geek Squad to have them install XP, they'll charge her 300+ dollars plus the CD Key to install XP.

Sorry but XP is old, out-dated, and won't be around much longer. I know people don't like Vista and I'm fine w/ that, but realize that from a corporate standpoint Microsoft can't continue to support an old OS.

Maybe i'll sue microsoft because they won't help me install Win 95 on my old desktop.

Frivulous lawsuits urk me to no degree...

 

[Luke]

Lol, that made me laugh.

Does she really think because she wants to downgrade to an older os that the support for should have ended a long time ago, that the oem is not going to charge her some?

Also like said microsoft has nothing to do with the downgrade cost, it is the oem that is setting the price for that. The exact same thing goes on with stores. They buy an item from a manufactureer then they up the price to sell for they make profit. That is like fighting to make them keep it at the price they purchased it for. That is a little different but generally the same thing.

The arguement should be that microsoft SHOULD be charging this for xp...the default right now is vista for all systems being sold. Not xp, so to go to xp, which microsoft wants you on vista because it is their latest os, the price should increase because it is older.

It is like hardware, try buying a 939 cpu right now, or an opteron, the prices are threw the roof.

The whole argument here is just completly ridiculas.