If Microsoft made Vista available for legal retail download, would the masses come? Looks like we"ll soon find out.
The Redmond software vendor officially acknowledged on January 17 its plans to offer a Vista Family Pack. If you buy Vista Ultimate at retail, you will have the option of obtaining up to two copies of Vista Home Premium for $49.95 a piece.
Microsoft also announced this evening official pricing for Vista upgrades if you purchase them via the Windows Anytime Upgrade program. Via Anytime Upgrade, a user may purchase a "key" that will allow him/her to unlock a more powerful version of Vista on the operating system DVD.
But the Vista announcement Microsoft made tonight that intrigued me the most was its plan to make many of the Vista — and Office 2007 — SKUs available to consumers for download from the Microsoft Windows Marketplace Web site. The versions available for download are Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate.