Windows Vista will ship on a single DVD regardless of which variant of the operating system you buy.
Microsoft still has some more tricks up their sleeve for selling more software and keeping more of the money for themselves.
Windows Vista will ship on a single DVD regardless of which variant of the operating system you buy. That opens up the possibility of buying a low priced Vista from a store then choosing to get one of the higher priced versions simply by ordering online direct from Microsoft and getting a new product key to unlock the features on the DVD you already have.
This isn’t a big surprise; it was one of the long term goals of the product activation technology introduced into Office and Windows. So it’s no surprise that the same thing may well happen with Office 2007. You could buy Office Standard 2007 and later decide you need Access 2007 as well – to do that you just buy a product key from Microsoft and install Access from the DVD you got with Office Standard 2007.
It’s simple and easy for you, and good for Microsoft too. Not so great for retailers who rely on those types of sales to get people in the door.
Microsoft has already announced that OEM’s (sellers of computers with pre-installed software) will be able to include a trial version of Office 2007 which can be converted to a fully working version. In that case the upgrade will done via the OEM’s web site.
The ability for retail customers to convert to other versions directly would be a logical extension of that but without the commission of the retailer. All the upgrade money goes into Microsoft’s pocket.
