CricketMX.com

Microsoft today provided the most concrete evidence to date that it will actually ship Windows Vista. It released pricing for the operating system on its Canadian web site by mistake.

According to Microsoft's own site, the Home Basic version of Vista will ship at the same price as Windows XP Home edition US$233. Customers will then have to pay extra - $269 - for the Home Premium version of Vista that works with Media Center and Tablet PC systems.
Click here to find out more!

Business customers can expect to see a price break with the new OS. Microsoft has priced Vista Business at $341 versus $386 for XP Professional. The super duper Vista Ultimate which has Media Center tools along with the Aero 3D GUI and extra security technology will cost a whopping $449.

Of course, few people will end up paying the retail prices for Microsoft's upcoming OS. The discounted price of Windows is hidden within the cost of most computers.

Customers have been waiting more than five years for a fresh issue of Windows and are praying that Vista will be a more secure, efficient OS than XP.

Microsoft pulled the leaked prices quickly but, in an unusual embrace of reality, confirmed their existence to the press.

Vista is supposedly meant to ship sometime next year.
You can scope the pricing lists here.
The Register.

Wow it's gone to cost a lot to update your PC to M$'s Vista OS + you would have to upgrade your PC hardware if your system specs isn't good enough to upgrade to Vista.I could seeing costing up to $1000 just to upgrade to Vista.

MS Vista pricing confirmed

p2pnet.net News:- Bill and the Boyz have confirmed that Vista, slated for release next January, will go out at $200 for Home Basic, or $100 as an upgrade for people running XP.

But, "Microsoft is hoping most consumers will go for Windows Vista Premium at $240, or $160 as an upgrade, says The San Jose Mercury News.

Windows Vista Business will cost $300, or $200 for upgrades.

At $400 ($260 or an upgrade), "Windows Vista Ultimate will be geared toward people who want to do both personal and office work on their home computers," says the story.

On August 28, Microsoft Canada "accidentally" suggested pricing would be Windows Vista Ultimate, $C500, Home Premium, $C300, Ultimate Upgrade, $C300 and Home Premium Upgrade, $C200.

Meanwhile, Microsoft's Vista Release Candidate 1 (RC1) has been out there for a while, in the hands of a 'select few' apparently numbering several million. Among them was The Inquirer's John Sherwin, who in his first write-up says, "although not perfect, this release is a great improvement over earlier builds and for the first time ever, I can actually see them getting Vista finished in time for a January 2007 release".

In his second, "One area that is still lacking support is CD/DVD burning," he states.

"Yes, Vista comes with basic support for burning to disk, but it doesn't have anything near the sophistication of Nero or Roxio," he says in his second review, "so no encoding dvds for now - although I'm sure the guys are toiling night and day to get a new version out that works with the x64 build of Vista (you are, aren't you guys?)."
p2pnet