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Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate

Microsoft Office Professional 2007
Microsoft shows off new packaging for its two top sellers

The fellas over at Neowin.net were alerted that Microsoft has unveiled the packaging for Windows Vista and Office 2007. While there are only three images posted, the new design direction for Microsoft packaging is quite apparent.

According to the Windows Vista Team Blog, the compact packaging is made out of plastic and is designed for long-term protection and storage of the software. Microsoft's Nick White also indicates that the new packaging will be carried over to future Microsoft software releases.

As a refresher, here's the pricing for four consumer releases of Windows Vista:

  • Windows Vista Home Basic, $199/$99.95
  • Windows Vista Home Premium, $239/$159
  • Windows Vista Business, $299/$199
  • Windows Vista Ultimate, $399/$259

And here's pricing for Office 2007:

  • Microsoft Office Professional 2007 ($499/$329)
  • Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 ($449/$279)
  • Microsoft Office Standard 2007 ($399/$239)
  • Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 ($149/NA)

Windows Vista is expected to be released to consumers in January 2007 while Office 2007 is expected to hit store shelves sometime after.

Update 10/31/2006: Microsoft has unveiled packaging for all of the retail editions of Vista and Office 2007. You can check them out here.


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Okay price
By tuteja1986 on 10/30/2006 10:14:08 PM , Rating: 2
I am going to buy Windows Vista Home Premium + cheapest office package with Word 07. Don't need the ultimate , as its got nothing i would use. Vista home premium is like XP pro with MCE.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista : look at edition section and see the difference between all the version.




RE: Okay price
By Locutus465 on 10/30/2006 11:14:57 PM , Rating: 2
Not quite for someone who actually works IT jobs using XP Pro (like me). As a .net web developer the lack of IIS would be troubling, as would the lack of RDP and other such useful tools... Vista Ultimiate for me once I'm sure I can switch with out losing vital hardware, thank god for MSDN.


RE: Okay price
By Locutus465 on 10/30/2006 11:15:58 PM , Rating: 2
opps, clicked the wrong message... Should be attached to the one below RE Vista Home Premiam is just like XP Pro.


Vista's policy
By Omega215D on 10/31/2006 12:46:26 AM , Rating: 2
Anyone hear the news on Vista allowing for one "major upgrade" before having to purchase another license for future overhauls after the first one? Makes you wonder on how MS will sell it as a viable gaming platform as they have been doing for some time.




RE: Vista's policy
By OddTSi on 10/31/2006 2:09:42 AM , Rating: 2
I thought that turned out to be a myth and that the real limit is closer to 10? But I'm not sure if I'm remembering that correctly so don't quote me on it.


RE: Vista's policy
By OddTSi on 10/31/2006 3:06:10 AM , Rating: 2
I knew I read somewhere that it was a myth.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/26/vista-license-t...

"And instead of the single license transfer stipulation that we'd heard before, Redmond has now gone on record saying that you can re-install Vista up to 10 times without penalty -- and possibly more, though that will apparently be decided on a case-by-case basis."


Corner
By Aelius on 10/31/2006 2:25:26 AM , Rating: 5
First think I thought of when I looked at the box was that they were cutting corners.

Don't ask me why but that's the very first thing that came to me.




How Big?
By Harkonnen on 10/30/2006 10:21:07 PM , Rating: 2
How big are these cases?

Are they like the size of the cases that new pc games come in?




RE: How Big?
By Soviet Robot on 10/31/2006 2:16:44 AM , Rating: 2
They look to be the size of a double DVD case.
But new rounded translucent packaging. I think it's neat, but since I and many other people will be buying it OEM anyways it doesn't matter.


Office
By Soviet Robot on 10/31/2006 2:14:50 AM , Rating: 2
$150 for Office Stud/Tch is the standard retail price, and plenty of people buy it from my store.

If Vista Ultimate came with Office, I would buy that.
But since it doesn't(correct me if I'm wrong), Home Premium sounds good.




RE: Office
By Shark Tek on 10/31/2006 6:58:22 AM , Rating: 2
I dont know if you knew this but Vista will be packaged on Humacao Puerto Rico.

I wonder how much time will take to some licenses to slip to the underworld here. :D


$400 yeah right NEVER!
By Einy0 on 10/31/2006 2:56:01 AM , Rating: 1
I wonder how much Ultimate OEM will be... I've been playing with Vista since BETA 2 and it looks snappy but software compatability is awful thus far. RC2 is much better than RC1 was. It still doesn't work with Nero 7 or Power DVD 6. I guess power DVD 7 works but I really don't see the need to make the upgrade until Blueray and HD-DVD drives get cheaper. I seriously doubt I'll be touching Vista Final until DX10 games start coming out. There really isn't any reason other than that to bother. Eye candy is nice but not at that price. As far as office goes I started using OpenOffice a few years ago and I'll never buy MS Office again. It works just as well if not better. There's just no reason to ever use MS office again... And the price for OpenOffice is unbeatable...




RE: $400 yeah right NEVER!
By dug777 on 10/31/2006 4:53:11 AM , Rating: 3
I've said i'll manage with OO in the past, but after a few weeks with it the nasty formating problems when moving between OO and Word on different computers particularly drives me insane and i realise that i do really need MS office...

It also comes with plenty of stuff OO can't do (can OO do voice typing?), looks pretty, and for most of use the more basic levels will be quite sufficient.

Off topic, i'm learning my lesson for daring to defend Sony against knee-jerk anti-sony whining on dailytech, my rating is so low the site thinks i'm a robot :P


Ultimate
By bob661 on 10/30/2006 11:54:48 PM , Rating: 3
I'll probably get Ultimate and keep running OO unless I can get it cheap again from work.




bs right there
By vze4z7nx on 10/31/2006 5:35:58 PM , Rating: 1
ok vista is gay and so is microsoft
theres no point paying for a piece of shit that gets a virus every month. give me a break.
op and dont upgrade, i was at digital life last week and the only thing thats changed is the color scheme. full of bs




RE: bs right there
By Ksyder on 10/31/2006 10:51:44 PM , Rating: 2
I've been running XP for a handful of years and the only virus I've ever got was from a keygen one time which was my own stupid fault. Sure the average person might have problems with viruses and such if they are not very well educated about computers, but if you are qualified enough to say that microsoft is a piece of shit then you should be educated enough to not get a virus every month.


By lemonadesoda on 11/1/2006 2:14:07 PM , Rating: 3
From what I understand about the new Vista License... and I'm sure a similar license system is embedded in the new Office, the question is WHY A LONG-LASTING CASE?

Since MS is moving toward a "one-off" installation, then repurchase, then they might as well ship the software in recycled plain paper envelopes. Use once, and throw away.

NO... this sexy new packaging is to CREATE THE ILLUSION of longer lasting... while the contents expire on opening.

GIMMICK. And it will fool most punters.




I will wait...
By Trisped on 10/31/2006 12:29:33 PM , Rating: 1
Vista is nice, Vista is pretty, but it is also expensive (and I expect price will drop after a year or 2)I also wonder how much of today's software is compatible. Will everything work with Ultimate or just some things? I think I will wait till sp1 or sp2. That way I know many of the major bugs have been fixed and new products should all work with it.

What happened to OEM prices? Are they the same as upgrade?




RE: I will wait...
By imaheadcase on 10/31/2006 1:13:35 PM , Rating: 1
You can get a cheap upgrade to OEM with purchase of hardware, that means basically you can buy a screw and be eligible for a OEM version.

On Newegg.com you can buy winxp SP2 and get a free upgrade to Vista Business..$150 not to bad i guess.

Expect the same with other versions aswell


By Sungpooz on 10/31/2006 2:36:04 PM , Rating: 2
honestly, I have the office 2007 beta (and so many other people do- it's even piratable at the moment), and i'd like to know what the difference really is. it's a very nice new look to it and a upgraded UI, but will the official release have that many more features than the beta?

and no packaging really shouldn't alter the price unless it's coming to us in a carbon-fiber/titanium bulletproof suitcase




By Randalllind on 11/1/2006 11:15:20 AM , Rating: 2
They said they were doing away with the Teach Student edition because people buy that over Office pro. Looks to me they just renamed it and removed teacher with home still same price.

This will open Office up to more people. I know you could buy the techer/student edition at BestBuy but unless you weren't either it was wrong to do so.

I believe Microsoft started cracking down on that.




All-in-one Discs?
By carage on 12/11/2006 3:25:02 AM , Rating: 2
If I remember correctly, all versions of Vista use the same DVD, so the only difference between the packages is probably just the license number. Perhaps someone will just buy the lowest version of Vista instead of downloading and burning a 4.7GB DVD, and then find some keygen and/or activation hack and gets Ultimate in the end.