Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Beta Overview

It is pretty messed up if the Brits are paying twice the price in US Dollars. Unless, Microsoft's operations in the UK _cost_ twice as much. For example: If I go to the Shamrock in Gainesville, Fl and buy a pint of Guiness Draught: that's gonna cost me about $3.50, in a town where minimum wage is $6/hour. If you have to pay 3.50 uk pounds for the same pint, and your minimum wage is about 6 pounds/hour -- then the cost difference is 200% in trade and nothing domestically.

The difference in the product's trade cost is your economy's fault. There's all these curves and charts in economics to explain currency and "real value" (read "ILM curve"). All in all, if they are earning the same profit rate for their UK products -- then it's Britain's fault that the product costs twice as much in dollars. It would seem that everyone there wants to get paid twice as much in dollars (ie. 2:1 currency ratio). It's generally not a good thing to have an expensive currency unless you're a self-sufficient nation; not a crowded island. That's why the US worked so hard through the 80's and 90's to bring the value of the dollar DOWN. The result makes it easier to _sell_ US products and reduces the benefit of overseas production.

At the same time, that's why China has artificially locked it's currency at nearly 8:1 under the dollar and euro (prolly should be 2.5-3.5:1 on the dollar) -- to suck money in on trade. It's great except when they have to buy something foreign. Case in point: Vista Ultimate is about 2000-2600 Yuan here ($300-400). At the same time, 650ml bottle of cold beer costs 2.50 Yuan, loaf of bread 3-5 Yuan, and the average wage is ~700 Yuan per month in the cities. So, it's not really the Brits that are getting the shaft.

Rob

Ummmm... what about Vista?

Thank for putting this so eliquently. That's the point I was trying to make.

You're only considering the home user. Think of doing 80 updates on dozens or hundreds of PCs.

Yikes!

That sounds like a ton of fun.

Shawn

Wow.. i thought vista had automatic updates! and most computers on a company are connected to the internet... So .. why bother installing something manually when it can be done automatically.. besides.. MOST of them also use remote desktop connection type software so they don't have to be physically in front of the PC.

Its a bogus argument.

Think about that for a second... how would your internet connection be if hundreds of computers starting downloading updates at once?

I work for a large company in southern California and Windows updates are very controlled. Once IT determines they are necessary and safe, they "push" the updates to clients remotely in batches. We can't even get to Windows Update...

Then in the middle of your work, a window pops up to tell you that your computer WILL reboot in 5 minutes and counting.

Yep! What you have there is essentially an "internal" Windows Update Server running "Windows Software Update Services" (WSUS). What that does is allows your internal IT department to test patches and approve them before you can download them. Still, it's nice to be able to clear and approve one big giant service pack than to sort through and evaluate dozens of individual updates!

If you have an IT dept that is their job... so even still.. a service pack is not needed... I just wish that the update for the kernel, if its done, they push it out... I want the ultimate extras to be DELIVERED.