Wake me up when Linux gets nearly the tablet features of Vista and can run Photoshop and Painter. :p

Or I could just install Linux and not worry about violating any rules (or getting viruses, …) :-)

This is just a variation of double tango method for clean install with upgrade disc people have been using for months (I just did for someone myself recently).

But then again, you could just buy OEM version for around $100 and not bother with all that. Sure it’s married to that hardware, but in most cases, people install Vista to a new machine anyways.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I was under the impression that the retail SP1 discs weren’t SP1 updates discs so much as Vista with SP1 already included? Akin to the Windows XP SP2 discs that were sold: Windows XP with all the updates up to SP2 already included at install? In which case it’s not nearly as exciting…

Also, in the case of the bootstrap installation… it’s intriguing, but in the end I really can’t imagine all that many people taking advantage of it. The only group of people I can see violating the spirit of the rules would be people who are building a computer for the first time and have no licensed copies of XP or Win2K. Most purchased computers will already come with XP or Vista, and if they’ve built computers before for themselves or others they’re likely to have previous versions on hand; besides, OEM would be cheaper. Businesses are also unlikely to build their own systems anyways.

Let me know when MS will *pay me $100* to take Vista. Before then: Zzzzz…