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Renegade 13 said:
Thermo, why do you think Vista will help improve sales of hardware? Is it simply a case of the new OS requiring better hardware than the previous incarnations?
Also, with reference to ATT trying to charge users...I assume that they are American, and would not effect those of us up to the North? As far as I know, they're an American only company, so...I hope!
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Historically, new OS’s cause users to go out and buy a new PC. Most Joe users don’t want to fool with doing a install at home. And MS says that they will not push the upgrade pkg very hard, preferring to have users upgrade to faster hardware at the same time. Most likely a lesson learned from the XP upgrade problems they had. Drivers are going to be an issue on upgrades early on, so they probably didn’t really want to support a bunch of old hardware either. And, you can bet that the Intel guys and the Dell girl will be pushing the benefits of a new system running Vista, so MS will sit back and let them spend the ad money. MS has already said that the OEM’s will get Corp Vista months before anyone else, and Dell says they will get the home version 90 days before it is boxed.
In the business world, there will be a lot of demand for the new security features and the cooperate world is not big on upgrading existing hardware. At my job we get free upgrades, but almost never actually do any. Higher management prefers to use a new OS’s as a reason to justify new hardware. In the cooperate world, the IT equipment budget is almost always the target of the first axe swing, so the managers have learned to be creative when seeking funds. Security being an issue, it is also become a way to deflect the axe.
ATT owns Backbone Fiber all over the world. If they are allowed to bill for usage, they will pass it on. Even if you don’t pay them directly, you will pay some way. It might mean a higher ISP fee, or where you live, probably some type of user fee added to your ISP bill. And if they get this influx of cash, it will be feeding time for the sharks. The big fish will gobble up the little fish. It’s already started in the US and EU.
This is a really bad thing, so if you live in the States, you need to start shooting off email to your Senators and MC’s. Hopefully, this will take an act of congress and require a bill before both houses. That will give us the opportunity to show our dislike of it. But at the moment, AT&T is trying to get it done with just a hearing at the FCC. And if they get what they want, word is that the EU is ready to fall in line behind them.