XP OEM upgradeable to vista?

[comp615]

I got an e-mail recently that said starting early october, microsoft would be offering free upgrades to windows vista for users who purchase an OEM computer with windows XP.

I am in desparate need of a new computer, but want to be able to upgrade later in time. SO my question is although the e-mail says OEM manufacturers, if I buy an OEM copy of XP Pro/home will I be able to upgrade later and to what?

Thanks!

[Ob1]

you will be able to upgrade to vista whenever you decide to make the move. if you want to try out vista, download the latest RC2 release here, its free and install on your new system. this copy will last till june, after that you will have to purchase a copy of vista at that point. microsoft is expecting to release vista to consumers in Jan 07, big corporations and OEM's in nov/dec

http://download.windowsvista.com/pre...n/download.htm

make sure you have a fast connection, this file is about 3gb. i have a 6mb connection and it took me a little over an hr. also make sure you have a dvd burner to burn this to a blank disc.

first install XP if you decide to buy it, but dont partition the whole drive, leave at least 30gb of unallocated disk space for vista. after XP is finished installing throw in the vista disc and boot to it, choose advanced and select the unallocated space to install vista, the vista disc will do the rest. you now have a dual booted system with xp and vista. if you dont want to do the partitioning that way, then get two hard drives and put xp on one hard drive, and vista on the other hard drive

[comp615]

But I mean do you think that if I bought WinXP now that I would be able to upgrade free to vista? I suppose I could use the beta till the release actually comes out also, but how well will the mobo drivers function with vista? Etc

[Ob1]

no you will have to purchase a copy of vista? microsoft is not giving it away for free, if they did then people probably wouldnt hate microsoft so much.

you might run into a few driver issues when running vista, you can check the manufacturers website for a vista driver but chances are there wont be any. i know that on my install, everything works except for my modem, but i dont use that anyway so its not a big deal to me. the vista download is about 3gb, and once installed bloats to around 8GB (Xp is around 2Gb once installed), so im guessing they might have added some more drivers to the driver database that comes with vista, but the only way to know for sure is either find someone who has your exact specs and ask them if they had any trouble with drivers and vista, or just install it yourself and find out first hand.

[doubledragon5]

I myself would wait until it is released, and all the bugs are worked out.. Then as manufacutres come out with the drivers to run with vista, then buy a copy... To me it is not worth the hastle to buy it now..