I'm getting a new pc and one of the things offered is a windows XP version with an upgrade coupon for Vista. What exactly does that mean? I can get a free upgrade to Vista later on without having to buy a new os? If yes, is there a catch here? I'm a ***** when it comes to windows upgrade so this question might sound stupid, but i still like to know what deal is.

Yes, you get a free or a discounted version of Vista.

The catch is the fact that Vista is not that great really and most certanly has many bugs in it. Not to mention that it will run a lot slower than XP unless you have a really kickass computer.

...i wouldn't consider that a catch..a free OS is a free OS. Everything is going to have bugs in it, just as xp did at first. I just bought a laptop and im pumped about my free upgrade..going to save me $200+..can't complain about that.

You know, there are many free OS with far less bugs..

The big catch is that the upgrade can't change the OS from 32 to 64 bit, and vice versa.

On the other note. I am using Vista right now. I received a 6 month trial from the 2007 Vista, office, and groove conference. IMO Vista is mainly just a graphical and security upgrade. I wouldn't suggest upgrading unless you do have a fairly beefy machine. I would suggest going with two GB of memory though, its a very big resource hog. As far as gaming is concerned I am fairly surprised that it hasn't affect my performance in any of the games that I play (Oblivion on high settings, Fear maxed out settings, and WOW maxed). The readyboost system is also extremely useful but its picky about what flash keys it will take. All in all I wouldn't suggest paying for it or upgrading to it until you have no other choose. Although, IMO by then Linux should run most games without a hitch though, or atleast if the developers continue going in the same directly as they have lately (like ATI having Linux drivers that somewhat work).

And how many of those will support dx10? 0.

The catch is you have to pay like $11 shipping. Or something similar, I got through 3/4 of the process for getting mine, but it doesn't have to be postmarked until end of feb or march, so I procrastinated.

And who cares about DX10? How many games actually use it? And how many computers can actually run these games?

Besides, there is more to computers than kids' games.

Paid 10.50 for mine, it comes with two cd's (one for uninstalling second for installing) your key and information. I'm using it on the lappy but i'm having an issue disabling the touch pad (will save that for the reason i'm here). All in all, its not a bad set up, like a child it takes time.

I got mine in the mail last week. Just 1 dvd, not sure why you got 2. Mine is installed right now. How well its working is another story.

well no one said Dell made sense. lol

so do u only get the coupon if u buy xp now,new??

I purchased a laptop for my daughter for Christmas and it had a coupon for a free upgrade to Vista Home Premium. After I finally (Mr. Procrastinator) went on-line and ordered it two weeks ago, I just recently received an email informing me that it would be here in about 7-10 days. I didn't have to pay for shipping or anything. STILL, I refuse to install it until the stability issues are ironed out and the driver support is 100%. I'll just add it to the other 4 disks that I have. I run a computer shop out of my home and believe me, after customers are informed about what will and will not work, no-one wants to install it. Many people say that they aren't having any problems, but I find that a little hard to believe. Of course, it all depends on the hardware installed, but for my personal system, my X-Finity card won't work right, my 8800 GTX won't be stable, and I really doubt that a lot of my programs will run since I've been to the manufacturers sites and there are no patches for their current products. Seems they want us all to purchase NEW programs. Thank goodness for Capitalism!!

topps999 - I don't know, it may not even be going on anymore.

sghiznaneck - My 7800gs worked fine until I installed C&C3 demo, then tabbing out and going back into the game (because otherwise I can move the cursor to my other monitor and lose game control) crashed C&C3. So I did the logical thing and downloaded the drivers from nVidia. Now the game doesn't crash, but any time Vista pops up that famous 'cancel or allow' box I get incredible screen corruption, so bad you can't really even see the dialog box until you hover over cancel or allow. Other than that and my networking with OS X issue everything else seems fine..... But I knew I'd hit road bumps going in, and its partially why I 'upgraded' I was looking to learn something.

its all gravy, i was planning on buying vista unlimited when the sp1 comes out