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Reading the list of what’s not in Home Basic, you have to wonder if this isn’t true. Just more reasons piling up to switch to Linux or a Mac. Or stay with XP (demand PC makers produce PCs with it installed instead of Vista?).

Acer: Vista Home Basic is a lemon

Microsoft is effectively smuggling through a price hike for Windows Vista – by making the entry-level version so poor that no-one will want to use it. So says Jim Wong, senior veep at Acer, the world’s number four PC maker, who told UK hack Jon Honeyball: “The new [Vista] experience you hear of, if you get Basic, you won’t feel it at all. There’s no [Aero] graphics, no Media Center, no remote control.”

Wong notes that the Premium Version of Vista is 10 per cent more expensive than XP Home. This will increase PC build costs by 1-2 per cent, which the PC makers will have to soak up, he says.



  1. SN says:

    So current users of XP Home who upgrade to Vista Home Basic will be getting what is essentially Vista Starter Edition.

    I always knew it was only a matter of time before Microsoft started selling its Starter Edition of Windows in the US.

  2. Roger M says:

    Only a massive user rejection of their strategy would work.
    Do I believe it will happen? Nope.
    But personally, I’m going for the alternatives. Feel free to join……

  3. Scott Gant says:

    I’ve heard, though I don’t know if this is true, that the average computer that the average person buys from Dell or Gateway or where-ever will be loaded by default with the Vista Home Basic. That if you don’t specify at the time of purchase that you’ll be getting the crippled version of Vista…as mentioned in the post (no Aero etc etc).

    Will the vendors now have to go out of their way to label the choices for everyone because you can bet when the people get their new computer and get something that looks like the old XP, there’s going to be a lot of confused people out there. Or will they just default to the upgraded version of Vista to save the headaches? Perhaps have the Home Basic version as an option to lower the cost if the buyer is so inclined.

    Me, I’m switching to OSX. I’m waving buh-bye to Microsoft and heading out into the Apple waters. Perhaps I’ll be back one day, but to me it seems that MS is more worried about DRM and not trusting their users much more than Apple is. And I’m just not ready to go back to Linux.

    We’ll see what happens.

  4. James Hill says:

    I’ve stopped using my Windows VM on my Mac, and have not missed it a bit.

  5. OmarTheAlien says:

    For the next year or so I’ll stay with XP, or at least until I get ready to build a 64 bit system. By that time Vista will have sorted itself out, the 1st service pack will be out, and I’ll be better able to decide which way (out of many) to go. Besides, I’m just getting the boxful of miscreants in the computer I’ve just built to play well with one another, and I need to get a year or so of actual work out of this deal before I go off into the wild blue again.

  6. Matthew says:

    How is this not a monopoly.

  7. Jimmy the Groundhog says:

    Yeah, I just got a Windows XP machine, so as to avoid Vista for awhile.

    Check this out: http://tinyurl.com/yn5uod

  8. JT says:

    It’s a monopoly when PC manufactures don’t give buyers a choice of Operating Systems. Start giving the option of buying the same computer for hundreds of dollars cheaper with Linux preinstalled. It will really highlight the hidden cost of Vista to the overall price. If Microsoft balks at the idea, start a new anti-trust case against them.

  9. Jimmy the Groundhog says:

    Sorry that Tynyurl doesn’t work with Firefox version 2.0 yet.

  10. The other Tom says:

    @Jimmy the Groundhog

    Spammer NO spamming!

  11. Uncle Dave says:

    #9: Actually, it does as you can see by the tinyurl I created using FF2.0

  12. ECA says:

    They are only going to SELL you every part of Vista that you want…
    I dont care if its the cheap version of the expensive version…
    You will need to pay for all the other parts to get FULL versions of anything.

  13. Jimmy the Groundhog says:

    Uncle Dave, you must have the good version of Firefox 2.0, I’ve just got the Beta that was supposed to be exactly the same as the new version.

  14. bob fadrowski says:

    i am still using windows 2000. i still have not had to re-install the operating system in 5 years. windows 2000 is rock stable with no virus problems in 5 years. windows xp is the worst operating system ever written. i expect that windows vista will be a disaster. my plan is to use windows 2000 until the year 2010.

  15. Whaapp! says:

    “There’s no [Aero] graphics, no Media Center, no remote control”
    Since when is such bloated crap considered part of an OS?

  16. AB CD says:

    Yeah, and I’m sure many of you will be complaining about the copy protection for this crappy OS, whining that you can’t get a pirated copy for yourself.

  17. tallwookie says:

    DUH!!

    Home = Crippleware

  18. I compu-live mainly on Linux but if I ever get Vista, the Home Basic is reasonable choice. Also, the only reasonable post here is #15. All these “important” things H.B. edition misses are irrelevant bloat and I see this as a positive action by MS. They are offering (and should call it so) bloatless edition for a reasonable amount of discount. Now it they only removed IE&friends from it…


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