Dell is charging consumers up to £60 to install Windows XP on some new PCs and laptops.
According to its UK website, consumers seeking to purchase a Vostro desktop or laptop will have to fork out between £10 and £60 extra to get Windows XP as well as Windows Vista Business or Ultimate on their machine.
Although Dell has stopped selling systems with Windows XP pre-installed in a bid to comply with Microsoft's June 30 cut-off date for selling XP licences, the PC manufacturer is taking advantage of the downgrade rights built into Vista Business and Vista Ultimate.
Downgrading lets Dell install Windows XP Professional on new machines, although Vista is still shipped with the system so that buyers can, if or when they want, 'upgrade' from XP to Vista. Vista Business and Vista Ultimate are the only generally-available editions that allow downgrades, and can be downgraded only to Windows XP Professional. By Microsoft's licensing terms, the less-expensive XP Home cannot be installed as a downgrade.
Dell was the first major computer maker to announce it would downgrade Vista in order to continue installing XP after June 30. A few days later, Dell's global small- and medium-sized business software manager, Jenni Doane, said in a blog that while free downgrades would be offered on Latitude, OptiPlex and Precision systems, there would be a 'small fee' on Vostro systems.
Adding Vista Business to a Vostro 1000 laptop, for example, costs an additional £50 above the price with the default operating system, Vista Home Basic. Selecting the downgrade option - Windows XP preinstalled and Vista Business installation media in the box costs £60, however.
On its consumer PC site, Dell doesn't specify whether it is slapping downgrade fees on three systems that can be configured with XP: the 630 and 720 H2C desktops and the M1730 laptop, all part of Dell's XPS high-end line. Dell has said that it will not offer downgrades for any "currently available Inspiron laptops and desktops". Inspiron is Dell's best-selling consumer brand name.
Although Microsoft will stop providing new XP licences to computer makers after June 30, and stop selling boxed copies of the operating system to retailers on that day as well, it has relaxed its own availability rules twice in the last two months for some hardware categories.
In April, it extended XP's availability until June 2010 for light and inexpensive sub-laptops such as the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) XO and the Asus Eee PC. Two weeks ago, it did the same thing for a new class of low-cost desktops dubbed 'net-tops'.
Comments
Jon said: vista is the best
Peter Ridgers said: To get back on topic - there are many twinload offers out there now VistaXP Pro - yes they cost a bit more than a straight Vista machine but XP on a machine with the resources to run Vista is a dream Does anybody out there agree with me I purchased a FujitsuSiemens Dual core twinload - ran Vista for a day then downgraded to XP - it is now a fantastic machine and I will never go back
Peter Ridgers said: It is very difficult to know where to start criticising Vista there are so many things to dislike XP has become an industry workhorse I cant see Vista replacing it - its too dd slow restrictive and resource hungry Hey I just configured Ubuntu 10 desktop on an Intel 386 with 256 MB of ram - try doing that with any version of Vista
Keith Rider said: Quite agree Vista is a nightmare networking wont let me do anything Thank god for USB keysI am going to get another HD and put XP on it Far better
Catweazle said: There seems to be a consistent typo in the article It says downgrade from Vista to XP Pro it does of course mean upgrade
Chris Eves said: Another case where consumer choice is strangled by ill-directed business decisions To be charged for a supposedly lesser OS is a bold move by Dell Even Microsofts rules regarding licenses are aimed at reducing choice Vista hasnt been out for long and already thats seeing a replacement out soon XP worked for a lot of people It wasnt as loved as previous windows but it was robust enough to survive MS need a major paradigm shift when it comes to selling software
David Makepeace said: I struggled on with vista for over a year but after three weekends with vista crashing for varius reasons - would you believe windows disk cleanup totally destroyed the OS - I bought XP home and installed it - I have a MUCH faster totally stable and delightful machine to use I can download from my school server again and enter reports into the database from home - Vista wouldnt let me do anything useful It is the worst piece of kit ever and I do not know why we are not putting together a class action against MS for delivering a product not fit for purpose I wont upgrade to Vista EVER and Ill seriosuly conisder not staying with MS software in the future they have such a strangle hold though
nibbles said: Was thinking about upgrading but I tried this Ubuntu instead - lots easier than I thought and it did everything I needed Saved myself a bundle by not having to buy a new computer for that Vista