Great Debate 11am ET/8am PT Apple, Congress face off over taxes: Cook testifying

Topic: Software

Dell: Want XP? That'll be $150 please!

Summary: How much extra will people people pay to avoid Vista? Dell has pushed the price of avoiding Vista up to $150.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

By for Hardware 2.0 |

How much extra will people people pay to avoid Vista? Dell has pushed the price of avoiding Vista up to $150.

More and more. In June, Dell (DELL) started charging customers an extra $20 to $50 for a downgrade to Windows XP. By October, Dell's XP premium was up to $100. We checked in on Dell's site today, and the retailer is now charging a whopping $150 for what Microsoft (MSFT) says is outdated software.

Here you go:

Note: If you go for the higher-end Inspiron 530s systems you can get XP for $120! 

Pay $150 extra to have XP installed on a $279 machine? No way! I really have a hard time believing that there are people who are that attached to XP.

Would you pay an extra $150 for XP?

Topics: Software, Dell, Microsoft, Operating Systems, Windows

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Talkback

599 comments
Log in or register to join the discussion

  • The alternative

    Is to go to Newegg and spend $90 for an OEM copy of XP home (or $139 for Pro, which narrows the price gap further). Then in most cases you're carving out a Saturday to see if anyone else has found a list of compatible XP drivers (since OEMs are giving fewer and fewer XP drivers for their newer machines). Finally, assuming that you can gather all of that together, the next step is either another hour in nLite making an image, or at least burning it all to a few CDs. All of this assumes that your computer doesn't go all quirky during install and/or normal operation (some HP laptops have even more steps so that starting up doesn't involve re-installing sound drivers every time; other machines won't output sound out of the internal speakers). After going through all these hoops you're going to want to grab a copy of Ghost or Acronis, because most OEM's won't talk to you unless you're running their officially blessed operating system.

    So basically, if I were to buy a new computer with Vista with the desire to run XP on it, it's going to cost people like you and me - computer savvy people who know what we're doing - $90/$130 and a Saturday to do it. So Adrian, I ask you this in response: Is your Saturday worth $20 or $60? If not, is having to do an Acronis shuffle each time you need warranty service?

    I'm not entirely justifying the incredible cost of this process. Plus, if you want to argue that Dell is charging you for Vista even though they install XP, you're probably right - but they're doing the same thing if you make this a DIY project, too. I enjoy challenges like this (which is a good thing because this is pretty much my story within the next month when I replace my laptop), and I'm assuming that you do, too. To the average person that either hates Vista out of experience or hates Vista out of hype, it's worth the $150 to have someone else do it and have it under warranty.

    I one time had a customer at Staples who insisted on getting XP on her laptop. It involved a new NIC, GPU, and sound card. After retail Windows XP, parts, and labor, she spent north of $400 to have this done. There *are* people that attached out there!

    Joey
    voyager529
    Reply Vote

    • I get your point ...

      ... the hassle of doing a load of XP once could be a pain (although in my experience XP loads onto new Dells quite easily), but Dell only needs to do this once (and remember, the $150 is on top of the price of the Vista OS).

      I really need to keep my old XP discs ... they'll go on eBay one day and make me a fortune!
      Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
      Reply Vote

      • The other half

        Hey Adrian, thanks for responding.

        The first part is that there are plenty of people who freak out at the prospect of installing Windows at all. Second, the cost of the machine includes Vista, so whether you get XP from Newegg or through this Dell offer, you're paying for both either way. Third, one can reasonably speculate that should the user opt for an XP loaded machine that the recovery partition would reflect this. Finally, be careful what you throw on eBay. Remember that OEM licenses are tied to the motherboards that they are activated on, so technically you can't resell them.

        Joey
        voyager529
        Reply Vote

        • Stick vs Auto: This Has Nothing to Do With Cost!

          This has nothing to do with cost. As usual, this is simply a 'whatever the traffic will bear', issue.
          <br><br>
          Were you around in the days of automobiles with a choice of automatic transmission or standard transmission (stick shift) in the family car? A plain vanilla 3 speed stick used to cost more than an automatic even though the automatic was way more complex and cost way more to build. Why? Because the automatic was the standard item and a stick was a special request. If you wanted it, you paid extra for it. Just that simple.<br><br>
          Seamus O'Brog
          Reply Vote

          • Disagree - It's a Win-Win for Dell

            Chances are if someone is buying the cheapest PC they can, they don't care about the O/S. Small businesses will be flexible enough to work with whatever they get. Larger companies will be more structured and PCs and XP are simply part of the budget.

            I think Dell is just realizing that they can charge just about whatever they want and XP enthusiasts and larger companies will fork it over.

            It's not about custom ordering - any major PC manufacturer has their process automated to an unbelievable degree. Their cost of using XP is minimal since they use their "Home" series PCs to test out the stability of workstation configurations for their "Business" lines. The R&D costs aren't any greater than they were when Vista was first introduced.

            Now, Dell gets to rake in the profit off of XP while slowly pushing people to Vista. That slow squeeze will end sometime and XP will be unavailable. By that time, Dell will have quite a bit of profit, and will be able to weather any losses from irate customers (provided by that time, Vista hasn't been magically fixed).
            jhilgeman
            Reply Vote

          • YES I WILL PAY

            As a PC Support Technician and IT Consultant, I will gladly pay and recommend XP for my clients. It is the most compatible product on the market today aside from MAC OS which seems to be more reliable than Vista.

            Our company has lost money in sympathetic support for clients who decided to cheap out with preinstalled Vista.

            After a horrible Vista experience, we almost decided not to support some Vista issues, including troubleshooting compatibility issues, some intermittent wireless network problems, microsoft network file/printer sharing issues, and blue screen issues.

            basically, if you want to use vista, don't plan on installing pre 2007 microsoft software and pre 2008 third party software. it's just not worth the time. just make sure it says Vista compatible.

            btw, i don't like vista. do you? and how could you?
            scofrezo
            Reply Vote

          • I Agree

            I am a Student in Networking, and i dont see how people can deal with Windows Vista and its incapatibility issues and Network configurations instability. Dealing with the hassels of Vista rather than paying for XP? I think I will just pay for what i like the best. If you love some problems and like wasting time troubleshooting and wasting time when their is already something that works, by all means, be my Guest.
            camelacey
            Reply Vote

          • Hmmm, how long have you been a student?

            Vista is fully compatible and rock solid stable both on the machine and with regards to it's connections to our network.

            Help desk calls for Vista are a quarter of the calls for XP.

            Maybe your instructor is at fault?
            rtk
            Reply Vote

          • YES I WILL PAY

            Sorry - VISTA still does not have compatible drivers for a lot of legacy and proprietary software and may never. At our business, we dug deep, bought Dell's and paid the difference (of course, it was a lot less when we did it). XP is solid - outdated, yes - but it works for what we need.
            scott@...
            Reply Vote

          • Well, bad luck I suppose...

            Umm...I've been using Vista for over a year now and
            I've only had two programs that wouldn't install. And
            I'm not the sort of person who installs five programs
            when they get the computer and is done with it,
            either.

            I'll admit that I've known people who just had bad
            luck and none of the programs they used would install.
            From what I've noticed, nearly all programs that were
            written in the time of XP run on Vista. If you had
            trouble getting them to work on XP, it probably won't
            work in Vista.

            And don't think XP is immune to all the problems
            people complain about with Vista. I bought an HP in
            2005 (with Windows XP, mind you) and it started having
            BSODs, crashes, random reboots, and other really
            weird, unexplainable things. I reinstalled Windows
            THREE TIMES---and the problems were still there. I
            sent it in for repair twice, after spending what
            seemed like days on the phone with tech support who
            knew nothing about the problem. It STILL had problems.
            I got a new computer from HP for free, extended
            warranty period--some problems were fixed, but others
            were still there.

            Then I bought a new HP and it's nearly problem-free.
            The bottom line is, some computers just don't work
            right--and just a few people's experiences shouldn't
            be the only indicator of how something is working.
            scorchgeek
            Reply Vote

          • Stick vs Auto does not fit.

            You must be less than 40 years old to think that an automatic transmission was the factory standard. Automatics always cost more during the days of car lots filled with both stick and automatic. It was only when the automatic became the norm that sticks ended up costing more. In some cases, the stick required emissions equipment modifications that were not required for the automatic.
            But when you paid extra for the stick shift, you were not also paying for the automatic transmission.

            DELL is charging for both XP and VISTA, even though you only want XP. This is to be expected when an industry starts operating on narrow profit margins. DELL is just gouging to make up for the low margins on their low end products.
            Idadho
            Reply Vote

          • re: paying for both

            Maybe not with the transmission, but try upgrading the radio on a new car. You pay for the whole cost of the upgrade system and they take the radio they took out and don't give you anything for it.
            jsanko
            Reply Vote

      • Cost of Vista

        I seriously doubt that there is much of an Vista cost in a $279 machine ... Dell is probably getting it for next to nothing, and trying to get folks interested.
        Brent R Brian
        Reply Vote

        • Cost of vista 2

          Like that machine is anywhere near powerful enough to run vista anywhere near is preferred operating specs. Vista is a powerful OS. the days of Windows 2000 is over.

          People will but the $300 machine then talk crap about how bad it ran, then compare it to mac, then all the mac fanboys will rally, this is all following a pattern.

          Find an interface you like, get some hardware behind it, and learn to use it. Its not that hard to have an open mind.
          Pembo
          Reply Vote

          • Powerful Vista

            Vista is not a powerful operating system. Vista is a large operating system. Huge difference. I use both and the utility of Vista Pro over XP Pro is invisible. In support of my observation is the fact that Microsoft announced that Windows 7 will be a leaner OS for what ever that is worth.
            whcressall@...
            Reply Vote

          • I use a 300 USD machine.

            It runs crysis on medium high settings, plays all modern games and has an 8800 GTS graphics card.

            300 USD goes a lot further than it used to. Oh, and it runs Vista with full gpu ui.
            Spiritusindomit@...
            Reply Vote

          • 2000 v XP v Vista

            > the days of Windows 2000 is over

            Would someone like to tell me just why 2000 is deficient?
            dgrainge
            Reply Vote

          • 2000 would be just fine...

            In fact, I'd still be using it if I didn't have a few (and only a few) applications that required it, and even that requirement was artificially induced (the software COULD have been developed to install on 2000 without any compromise).

            I moved to XP in 2007 for two reasons: 64bit OS, and application compatibility (now that I've counted, it's only 3 out of about 40 applications on my system).

            I went to 64 bits to support large 3D datasets and multiple image/art/video/audio applications simultaneously, each requiring 1Gbyte of RAM or more. Even though they are mostly 32bit apps (save 2), 64bits with 16Gbytes RAM 'becomes a must' when you get used to it, and bang hard on 8 to 10 applications at once on 3 monitors.
            JasonVene
            Reply Vote

          • Almost thesame reason I went Vista x64..

            But I payed a hefty premium on the hardware!

            If you don't need the RAM why not pay less for XP? DELL and some other OEM are the only ones that are going to be supporting the OS after Microsoft drops it soon.

            To bad someone wasn't selling Microsoft Windows XP Pro 64bit Edition with a promise of support; I would have probably purchased that instead!
            JCitizen
            Reply Vote

      • In answer to your Question Adrian

        No. No I wouldn't spend that way.
        fr0thy2
        Reply Vote
CNET Join | Log In | Privacy | Cookies Close