Quote Originally Posted by 'elsegundo',index.php?page=Thread&postID=166879#po st166879
I understand what Ellusionist is trying to say, but not all end users are that ignorant.
Many of them are, but that's how it is with consumers (and I include myself in there); they expect the manufacturer or retailer to help them. This is reasonable to an extent, though these days there's so much information out there that you should be able to get somewhat of a clue before you buy. But reality is what it is, and people will trust that if an OEM installed Windows Vista, it'll work the way Microsoft said it would in those TV ads. Well, when it doesn't, who is going to get the blame? Microsoft, mostly. And they deserve some of it, as well.

The Windows XP rollout was similar to Vista, IMO, with a lot of complaining and resisting. I believe that MS also extended Windows 2000 installation options for a while. To me, the biggest indicator of how bad Vista's rollout went is the fact that MS rushed Windows 7 development and seems to have it on track for a 2009 rollout, and they seem to have listened to the complaints. That's pretty huge, because there has to be a significant cost attached to what they're doing now, and they're willing to pay it in order to make Vista go away. Score one for the angry consumer, I guess. It does seem as if Windows 7 will be an excellent upgrade.

My intention is to buy and install it later this year, after it has shipped. I will then build my next monster computer station and run Win7-64 bit. Since I've reduced my debt over the past year quite a bit, I'll be able to afford to splurge. Core i7, gobs of Gigs, tons of Teras, so on and so forth...