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Vista sales propel Microsoft's profits to almost $5 BILLION

money.cnn.com — Microsoft's profit soared 65% to $4.93 billion, boosted by deferred income from coupons for the new Vista operating system. Revenue rose 32% to $14.4 billion, exceeding the company's forecast.

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  • Inqu, on 10/12/2007, -18/+229I guess, contrary to popular Digg belief, Microsoft isn't going away any time soon.
    • replica, on 10/12/2007, -25/+130Very true. Microsoft is stronger than ever.
    • krawkula, on 10/12/2007, -83/+26Not if Dell, Gateway and the numerous other PC sellers have anything to do about it. I have a copy of home premium in my pc shop thats been there for months(well almost 2 months) while I have sold over 50 copies of XP Home in 2 months. When someone asks about it they always add "Ive heard bad things about it".
    • Inqu, on 10/12/2007, -39/+94Sorry to hear that, I've done pretty well myself selling Vista with great results reported by the end user.

      It's not all doom and gloom. The vocal minority is rarely the majority.
    • Inqu, on 10/12/2007, -40/+10that's it anti's, digg down the truth. hurts that bad, huh?
    • Mootabolife, on 10/12/2007, -59/+29I fix computers at work, and from my experience, Vista isn't great. I've already had it crash multiple times (explorer), and much of the OS seems unpolished. Linux needs to step up to the plate so we don't get this half-assed attempt passed on to the masses every 5 years.
    • elvenseven, on 10/12/2007, -25/+5So I guess they wont mind if I run some Paradoxs =)
    • pipdip, on 10/12/2007, -23/+13Well... maybe they'll put some of that profit into some new and interesting ideas. I guess that's the only way to justify paying Microsoft so much in profit. ;)
    • kutza, on 10/12/2007, -57/+114I like Vista and I like MS. They by far make the best products; regardless if you like open source or not, it's true. As for the price I agree it's pretty overpriced for the individual, but just go to launch events, they give away their SW for free (I have over $2500 worth of software given away free just from the last 3 MS events I went to).

      @Mootabolife Vista isn't perfect, but it's better than Linux. Linux you basically learn to deal with bugs and issues all the time, that's what they mean by a steep learning curve. However, my 11 year old sister can pick up a copy of windows and have at it. Linux is great, but it's nowhere close to being an end-to-end solution like Windows.
    • Okayyou, on 10/12/2007, -37/+6Where is Hillary Clinton calling to take their profits and put them in some open source software fund? The hypocrisy.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1PfE9K8j0g
    • ScornForSega, on 10/12/2007, -8/+87(Exxon): 5 billion? lol, nubs.
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -33/+31It's all the money they get from licensing to OEMs. If more high-volume OEMs like Dell, Gateway, and HP would start SERIOUSLY offering alternative OS's, Microsoft wouldn't be rolling it in as much. Problem is, MS has these nasty clauses where they'll threaten to pull licensing if you offer them any competition.
    • crazybrit, on 10/12/2007, -19/+5@inqu: because then it wouldn't be a minority.

      @Kutza: No. They don't.
    • Hazardc, on 10/12/2007, -16/+56kinda goes against every article every linux/mac fanwanker has posted since vista was released eh?

      i use everything, just think it's stupid people knock vista so much, it's not that bad. i still use xp for the most part though... vista on the new box. not going out of my way to pay a bunch of money for everything else.
    • mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -18/+29Msft stock went up nearly 5% after hours.

      Vista is pretty neat.. but in the month I've used it, it's clear that it is still very buggy. I actually had to do a full system restore earlier this week.
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -38/+12@ Kutza

      Maybe it's worth $2500 to retailers. But to me, Microsoft software is positively worthless. I wouldn't use it if it were free.
    • emiles, on 10/12/2007, -6/+71@pipdip:
      I'm a student in the physics department at UC Santa Barbara, and Microsoft is currently funding a group of top-notch researchers who are looking into new forms of computing (so-called topological quantum computation and yes, it's as fancy as it sounds). Just letting you know that not all of MS's $'s are going into marketing and buggy software.

      http://stationq.ucsb.edu/
    • hendzen, on 10/12/2007, -13/+59I dual-boot Ubuntu(Fiesty) and Vista(Home Premium), even though it's expensive, you can get a great deal by buying the system builder OEM editions.

      I find myself using vista more and more however. I hate to admit it, myself being a supporter of free software, but vista kicks ass. I love the interface, the support(which has been flawless), and the availability of high quality software and drivers. It's nice not having to search through forums on how to get some random component working. I
    • NanoStuff, on 10/12/2007, -20/+11"Microsoft is currently funding a group of top-notch researchers"

      Isn't Intel and Google also funding the same research? Nothing against Microsoft, just getting it out there :)
    • tamrix, on 10/12/2007, -24/+12This just proves how much they are overcharging people for Vista.
    • neuropsychguy, on 10/12/2007, -7/+18"It's nice not having to search through forums on how to get some random component working."

      I'm not trying to flame (I like Vista much better than XP actually) but at least you can search through forums with Linux. I had a few fairly major "random component" problems with Vista and there were no forums for me to search for solutions. :( The problems weren't anything that Microsoft could help with either so availability of support on that end was moot.

      You make a great point though.
    • Szandor, on 10/12/2007, -24/+20Well, goody gumdrops for them.

      I'm still going to use my Mac and enjoy OS X and Ubuntu.
    • KuntaKinte, on 10/12/2007, -15/+8It's because micriosoft has many friends overseas, all their enterprises receive bill's products, if countries in south america (dominated by microsoft), europe, asia ect. started using linux or other acutally useful op systems, maybe there would be some damn competition.....*prepares for the onslaught of microsoft fanboys diggin me down*
    • digboy99, on 10/12/2007, -6/+33Proof that what you see on Digg is sometimes not reality, but instead, the efforts of certain people trying to push agendas. I wonder how many other B.S. themes there are floating around here.
    • rstrb8r, on 10/12/2007, -12/+20"Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said consumer sales of Vista surpassed the company's own expectations by $300 million to $400 million."

      They count OEM licenses (even though OEMs are offering more Linux options more than ever before because of the lack of Vista sales) and upgrade coupons (even if the coupons aren't used) as sales? Microsoft's new slogan should be "The Spin Starts Here."

      I expect RoughlyDrafted.com to provide some real data in the coming week. This PR stunt will fail.
    • Tsen, on 10/12/2007, -36/+31@Kutza
      No, MS doesn't make the best OS out there. Period.
      I'm still waiting for them to implement a file system that doesn't fragment. They're the only mainstream and modern OS that does so, AND they seem to have borked their defragmenter tool with Vista, so the problem's even bigger.
      They implemented a composite window manager, but it drains away so much system resources that you need a 256 MB or greater graphics card just to be able to run it. Meanwhile, Linux and OSX both have composite managers that can run on five year old PC's flawlessly and with more effects.
      They still haven't fixed their security flaws, either. Their problem is they don't have a concrete separation between administrative tasks and user tasks like Linux, OSX and other Unix-like systems have. They tried to implement such a separation in Vista, and produced a patchy, overreactive "User Account Control".
      So, if you like MS's new "Plausible Deniability!" (tm) security that doesn't actually protect you at all, just spam you with popups, then so be it.
      But trust me, MS has a LONG ways to go to be a truly top of the line OS.

      BTW--I switched my family's home computer to Ubuntu Linux a year ago, and my 12 year old sister plays games all the time in it. The learning curve is a lot less steep than MS fanboys like to pretend.
    • Tsen, on 10/12/2007, -35/+35Well, I'm sorry that the MS fanboys apparently dislike my comment, but unfortunately, my post wasn't opinion. It was fact.
      FACT: NTFS fragments. Ext3, ReiserFS and HFS Plus don't.
      FACT: Linux composite window managers implement more features and more customizability with lower system requirements.
      FACT: Unix-based OS's are more secure than Windows because of the clear definition and regulation of administrative actions.
    • PueSi, on 10/12/2007, -19/+28Ext3 does fragment, *****.
    • estvir, on 10/12/2007, -9/+5"I told you so."

      - Estvir
    • chingy1788, on 10/12/2007, -15/+9Vista is great, its now the default OS on my crappy laptop
      first I was worried about stuff not working on it, so far its just the AV which I got from uni there will be updates soon for vista
      everything else (eclipse, divx, AVR sim, MS Office 03, win RAR, Putty, Win SCP, Cisco VPN) just works peachy. I have yet to install games on it though
      Drivers, I needed to get that off the internet, but eh what can you do, not like a driver made years ago should work on something now
      Some times it doesnt shut down properly but maybe thats due to Drivers
      I had Kubuntu on it before, didnt really use it... Finding all the programs I want are annoying there are so many Linux distros I dont know which File I'm supposed to DL... theres one for Red Hat, Fedora, CentOS, and so on, non says Kubuntu or KDE on it...
      I had Ubuntu and Linux MCE for my media centre, finding out how to get TV out working was a bitch, I went to forums asking for help, no one replied, so a google search, and a few crazy commands i will never remember, later then I got TV out working...
      Installing Linux MCE... it kept asking millions of questions... about servers... I dont even have server... after installing it didnt even run... then theres the matter of setting up the network so I can share files, setting up Ubuntu to read the NTFS partition... more googling and no help from 2 forums (cybertechhelp, My Uni's Forum for Comp faculty) later I gave up and just went back to XP...I upgraded to vista soon after, Everything works great, i dont even have to touch display settings to get TV out working
      Though there are yet again driver problems... my TV tuner doesnt work... sigh... it is an analogue one so i guess its time to upgrade anyways

      I think everyone who uses a mac thinks their superior to anyone using Vista... as in a computing lecture, i had my budgety vista laptop out and was playing around with the features two mac users walked past and snarled at me, saying look vista then walked by... placing their mac on the lecture pad...
      damn bastards...

      I think Linux has potential, but with so many distros it gets confusing...

      Mac is probably easier to use than Windows but there is a lack of games on it... that and if you want MacOS you need to buy a Mac Comp... For me its either Vista business ($0 from MSDNAA) or $1000-$2000 for a new Mac... and that choice is pretty darn obvious
    • donelson, on 10/12/2007, -21/+11Sad, really, all those Poor B*stards, buying Vista in the mistaken belief it will somehow make their lives better.

      More Microsoft certainly does NOT equal an Easier Life, in fact...

      Quality of Life is inversely proportional to the square of the Amount of Microsoft.
    • chingy1788, on 10/12/2007, -9/+9@donelson
      Neither Does Linux
      Linux is like a box with a million buttons and a million features, good may those features be.
      But there are a million buttons, which one to push? The buttons are merely numbered. and you have a manual with so many pages its a headache just looking at it. Not to mention there are different versions of this box and each buttons' functions are changed slightly.

      @tsen
      To use those features you need a lot of patience and a lot of time.
    • Tsen, on 10/12/2007, -15/+22"Ext3 does fragment, *****."
      Yeah, at 90% disk usage or greater. NTFS fragments no matter how much of the disk is filled, and if 85% is full, it can no longer defragment.
      Peachy, eh?
    • GyroTech, on 10/12/2007, -4/+18@PueSi

      I've run a fileserver with ext3 over an LVM partition (basically a load of old hard drives slapped together to look like one partition) for over 3 years now. Two of those years were spent at uni in a shared house with 4 major geeks... We used it to store all our music & movies, as well as backup copies of games and BitTorrent downloads. In all that time and with heavy useage, it's only ever reached 3% fragmentation. My Vista box however, hits that within a month of useage.
    • BlackAdderIII, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Firstly, congratulations to all of the people who support this product, for this apparent success. OK, that's out of the way.

      Secondly, why are people crowing about "other operating systems".

      Even if this were all people walking into shops and buying Vista, and none of it was due to their games business, Office and so on, it still wouldn't collide with even the most insanely optimistic growth projections for Linux or OS X, so it doesn't do anything to discount their growth either way.

      If I were you guys, I'd concentrate on being positive and enjoying the moment, and not on trying to use it as a negative tool to disprove something it can't disprove.
    • Salgat, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3If they only have to sell this little copys of Vista to make a profitt, then they are clearly ripping us off..
    • eclectro, on 10/12/2007, -5/+4I am marking this article as SPAM for all the BLATANT astroturfing and modding taking place in this article.
    • betterth, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14@donelson

      Someones been drinking the anti-MS kool-aid. Look, I understand you want to feel accepted, but perhaps, trolling on Digg insulting one of the most profitable companies in the world isn't the best way. Sure, you may get dugg up a couple of times, but mostly people people are laughing at you, not with you.

      As for "the poor bastards that bought Vista" there are many, many of us running Vista who, I guarentee, are more successful and more technically intelligent than you are. I run Vista and could not be more happy.

      Have you even used Vista, or are you just so inherently biased that you hate because it's cool to?

      Vista has made a large jump in productivity for me and I could not go back to WinXP now. The little things, like integrating search and run into a single box thats accessible by a single button have made the difference for me. I love Vista and have _absolutely_ no regrets -- I've used it exclusively since Beta2 and gone through all the release candidates until getting it after release.

      And for the record I'm a gamer and I game just fine on Vista. Again, another feature I love, the "Games" portion, you open the start menu and click games. A box opens up with all the games you install. It auto-detects new games for you. Oh look, I have Diablo 2 installed. Windows downloads box art for the game, downloads the recommended specs, then shows me my specs against the required specs. It does this for every game I have installed, even those I've installed via Steam. Very handy way to find all my games quickly and in one place.

      But I digress -- Congrats Microsoft, may stronger competition lead to better OS's.
    • geoken, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3"FACT: Unix-based OS's are more secure than Windows because of the clear definition and regulation of administrative actions."

      The little shield icon on apps and control panel applets that require admin rights seem to make the distinction pretty obvious to me.
    • Monolith2, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10***** owned. I dumped $50k worth of Apple stock when it hit 90 a couple months back thinking it would stagnate, and ive been kicking myself for it. Luckily i put 90% of that money into microsoft. God, i love tech.
    • ZetaVu, on 10/12/2007, -7/+5Amazing how fast the pr flies

      Ok, 1.2 bn came from presales, in other words, they are counting a previous quarters profit twice, recall they counted this same profit previous quarter press releases? Well, they are including it again (quietly removing from previous quarter) just to artificially inflate numbers.

      Then you are still left with 17% growth over previous year, of course that was suppressed last year in anticipation of vista and inflated this year because of vista. The 10-12% expected is historical, not representative of a new product launch. The comparison to xp is inaccurate because xp competed with three other pc products, 98, 2000, and nt. Also, xp came what, 2 years after 2000?

      An accurate assessment would be ratio of vista pc sales vs total computer size. How does that look? What? no mention of that? m$ needs to show market sustainability. Also with virtualization, (and the fact that vista costs oem about $30-50/unit) everyone may as well get vista on their computers and then reinstall whatever they want.
    • charliecharlos, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3Buried as spam, MS won't be doing any marketing here.
    • EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2bury -- double post
    • EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6"I'm not trying to flame (I like Vista much better than XP actually) but at least you can search through forums with Linux. I had a few fairly major "random component" problems with Vista and there were no forums for me to search for solutions."

      *****. Try starting on Usenet at microsoft.public.windows.vista.* http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?sel=33656486 The TechNet forums can also be a good resource: http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/default.aspx?ForumGroupID=204&SiteID=17

      There are also dozens (if not hundreds) of privately run web sites with Windows Vista forums as well. Just because you couldn't be bothered to run a Google search doesn't mean there aren't any Vista forums.
    • BlackAdderIII, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2"""As for "the poor bastards that bought Vista" there are many, many of us running Vista who, I guarentee, are more successful and more technically intelligent than you are. I run Vista and could not be more happy."""

      You can't "guarentee" anything of the sort, you successful intellectual powerhouse, you.

      Rhetorical flim-flam based on a guess doesn't guarantee anything. What a shame nobody could have told you that before you decided you can game "just fine" on windows Vista.

      Box art my ass, what gamer with a brain wants "box art" in exchange for gaming performance? We already have google image search and amazon, thanks.


      If you're running Vista you're a granny, a biff or someone who's compelled to support Vista.
  • Lynn, on 10/12/2007, -16/+73$5 Billion in cash profits every 3 months is not a good sign for the MS haters. This has pushed Microsoft`s cash horde to $40 Billion.
    • threemagic, on 10/12/2007, -29/+24There's a lot of negative statements here... it doesn't really matter what YOU think of Vista.

      Microsoft made 5 billion in profit. You don't do that by being a bad company...
      • alienunknown, on 03/04/2008, -0/+0Define what a "bad company" is? Microsoft is making high profits so yes it is a good company for it's share holders but for the rest of us, microsoft is ***** over it's users which makes it a "bad company". Look through history and try and find the "good companies" that make high profits...
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -36/+25"Microsoft made 5 billion in profit. You don't do that by being a bad company..."

      You haven't been following the anti-trust suits for the last decade? Make no mistake, Microsoft making 5 billion in profit is in no way equatable to the quality of their products.
    • magic6435, on 10/12/2007, -15/+30"anti-trust suits for the last decade"

      You don't seem to be making the connection in your argument about quality..... what do the anti-trust suits have to do with damn good software.
    • DeathAngel0125, on 10/12/2007, -16/+16@magic6435, if they make such a good product, why do they need to resort to illegal and unethical business practices to sell it?

      The problem with so many IT people is that they're terrified of learning something new, so they continue to promote whatever they know. It has nothing to do with the quality of the product, TCO, or any business-related rationale.
    • MacSuxWindozSux, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12Well you switch and you don't know where anything is... stuff doesn't operate like it used to.

      Some stuff is better when you learn how to use it... some stuff is worse.

      Thats how it goes when you switch from one thing to another.

      Most people don't want the hassle, unless theres a really big incentive... like switching from IE to Firefox.
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -9/+12"You don't seem to be making the connection in your argument about quality..... what do the anti-trust suits have to do with damn good software."

      Let's put it this way. The MAJOR information systems in the world's largest databases... you know the ones that absolutely HAVE to be available and work 100% flawlessly always, no exceptions, without interruption? Microsoft's software is no where to be found.
    • Tsen, on 10/12/2007, -13/+20"Microsoft made 5 billion in profit. You don't do that by being a bad company..."

      No, you do that by building up a monopoly.
    • sc0tt, on 10/12/2007, -8/+16@ skyshock21

      "...The MAJOR information systems in the world's largest databases..."

      Heh, I'd call Fuji film, Barclay's and tesco.com all pretty darn big database users. MS-SQL Powers all three, and many more too. MS do make good software products and a lot of them too. Their business practices may not be what they should, but the fact is - they make quality software.
    • estvir, on 10/12/2007, -6/+12> .. not a good sign for the MS haters.

      Schestowitz is right now preparing to post another 30 "NEWLY LEAKED ANTI-TRUST MEMOS: BILL GATES SAYS HE DOESNT LIKE LINUX :< :< :
    • estvir, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5Oh, and wait for quix and phocion to try and spin it or insult everyone in here who isn't randomly bashing Microsoft.
    • fkr3, on 10/12/2007, -6/+6Schestowitz is busy burying his thick little head deeper in the sand till this blows over and he can resume his "M$ is teh sux0rz" campaign.
    • BlackAdderIII, on 10/12/2007, -6/+6"""You don't seem to be making the connection in your argument about quality..... what do the anti-trust suits have to do with damn good software."""

      He doesn't have to make any connection between anything.

      Once you've gone and found out what "Anti-trust" MEANS, you'll understand what relation it *definitively* has with the quality of product the consumer gets.

      Jesus, that's a big part of what the concept means... why did you comment if you didn't know that?
  • OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -32/+11Ha! Microsoft trolls. I knew MS was full of *****. Read it and weep:

    "Microsoft on Thursday reported a 65 percent jump in third quarter profits, buoyed by sales of its latest operating system, Vista.

    Exactly how many Microsoft has sold, however, is still a mystery.

    ...

    Liddell declined to provide exact numbers on how many units of Vista the company had sold. It was reported in March that Microsoft had sold 20 million licenses for the software."

    http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2122837,00.asp
  • rappermas, on 10/12/2007, -19/+9How is this a surprise? There's not much choice. It's not..."will I get Linux on my HP Laptop or Vista Home?" It's more like..."Am I enough of a tool to shell out half my paycheck for Ultimate when I'll be installing Linux anyway?"
  • shakeeb, on 10/12/2007, -20/+52Ha, my dad just bought some MS stock options this morning, and he doubled his money after the market closed.

    New TV =)
    • ChanceLonestar, on 10/12/2007, -47/+4pretty sad when a company can force teh industry to make ur dad buy u a new hd (xbox3hudred60) compatible tele, ur such a bloke!
    • ryanissuper, on 10/12/2007, -6/+17You can buy a stock, but you can't buy stock options.
      Stock options are a guaranteed price you can buy a stock at. You earn this privilege normally for having worked at a company.

      Also, I don't see how your dad could double his money when a stock goes up 5%. I only see how he could make 5%.
      • teckieee, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1haha 5% looks like your B&W tv is stayin
    • lat47, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12ryanissuper - "You can buy a stock, but you can't buy stock options."

      Sure you can. There are puts and call on MSFT. Happens all the time. Small swing in the stock makes a big swing in your investment. Very risky. Very profitable.
      You are thinking of incentive stock options for employees. Totally different thing.
    • slippytoad, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1That's blood money
    • peppino, on 06/03/2008, -3/+1How could your dad double his money on Microshaft stock options in just one day? Microshaft's stocks only rose about $1.50 since Monday.

      https://www.etrade.wallst.com/v1/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?symbol=MSFT
    • hoos30, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3ryanissuper: That is the most incorrect statement that I've read in many months of reading Digg.
  • th3wiz4rd, on 10/12/2007, -7/+16Yay!
    • jennamalia, on 10/12/2007, -4/+26You own MSFT stock, too? ;)
    • Gogogo111, on 10/12/2007, -16/+8Who owns Microsoft's stock? The float is too high. It's gone no where since the internet bubble.
    • mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19Yeah but the risk is very low and plus they pay dividends. It's probably the most stabilized stock in existence. People don't buy MS for a quick dollar, they buy it for the long term.
    • Gogogo111, on 10/12/2007, -13/+3That's sort of the point. It has gone nowhere. For the long term, its not going anywhere in the next 5-10 years easily. There is much more buyable and better stocks out there.
    • neuropsychguy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I only own MS stock via a mutual fund. It is included as one of the major stocks in many mutual funds because of it's long-term stability and the fact that it pays dividends.
    • neuropsychguy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Agh, I hate replying to myself but it should have been "its" not "it's" in my post.

      *Fastidious about grammar.
    • mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Heh, I noticed that but I wasn't going to say anything ;)
  • Koppie, on 10/12/2007, -25/+19Linux user:

    Linux users are eternal optimists. I'll keep wishing for Microsoft's failure . . . it'll happen one day!
    • MrPlug, on 10/12/2007, -10/+18replace Linux users with Alternative fuel activists, and Microsoft with Oil companies... right... sure it will happen.
      Any day now.
    • zybch, on 10/12/2007, -6/+16And 'some day' the earth will get sucked into the sun, its just NOT going to happen any time soon!
    • superkendall, on 10/12/2007, -11/+8Microsoft will never fail. They will just become irrelevant. In fact they are very close to that point today, they provide little in the way of technical leadership for the industry.
  • crazybrit, on 10/12/2007, -18/+5digg down.
  • digitallysick, on 10/12/2007, -30/+12Marked as inaccurate , who would buy vista? and why? its like windows ME was to win 98
    • MrPlug, on 10/12/2007, -14/+11yea sorry, i bought it, installed it for a bit than remember how well XP worked, now my Vista dvd sits in my desk drawer beside my old cassette walkman.
      I wonder which one will get used first?
    • oriondr, on 10/12/2007, -10/+7Who would buy it? Someone who was buying a laptop and had no choice in the matter :P

      That's what I did, I wanted Windows XP tablet edition, but they wouldn't give it to me, so I decided to settle with vista home premium, and I've been pleasantly surprised given all the negativity (especially when your main source of news is Digg :P); it is fairly stable and fast, and I think with a few patches here and there it will be a very worthy operating system.
  • spookyttws, on 10/12/2007, -16/+11Vista sales....?
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -16/+8They mean sales to manufacturers. I'd be willing to bet individual retail sales paint a STARKLY different picture.
    • victorc26, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7And you do know that's where Microsoft gets most of it's profits from the Windows market, right?

      Not many people upgrade their current/old computers to the latest version of Windows. Most people just eventually buy another computer with the latest version of Windows installed. 1 year after launch (New Windows version), 98% of all pre-built systems sold come with the latest version of Windows pre-installed.
  • mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -17/+6Ha.. my dad was in a really good mood after I told him about this earlier today.. (he owns tens of thousands MS stock)
  • bluenullity, on 10/12/2007, -14/+3No surprise there.

    Cause you know I was really sweating about my job there.

    *SNORE*
  • grumpyrain, on 10/12/2007, -3/+25I would suggest that Office 2007 may have had just a little to do with it as well.
  • ofenza, on 10/12/2007, -26/+13I'm a Mac user and recently decided to install Vista on our home PC because it couldn't be as bad as people said. Unfortunately I came to realize it is and installed XP again. I found Vista to be pretty annoying with all that UAC warnings. Also I think it went a bit backwards in some aspects such as the control panel/display properties etc...
    • mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -7/+29UAC can be disabled by unchecking the box in the user account control panel.
    • mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -4/+23Here's a screenshot: http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/3241/uacbf1.png
    • quazywabbit, on 10/12/2007, -14/+8doesn't disabling UAC defeat the security of Vista? I myself have never used it nor do i plan on using it.
    • grumpyrain, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11> doesn't disabling UAC defeat the security of Vista?

      It turns off the UAC prompts (like pressing Allow every time). Basically brings security back to a XP SP2 level.
    • Gizza, on 10/12/2007, -3/+21I find it hard to believe that anyone who complains about the UAC has actually used Vista. After the initial setup, installing drivers, program etc, you barely see it. Maybe fairly often in the first week of use and then after that its very rarely.
    • pabster, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3"Basically brings security back to a XP SP2 level."

      Er, no. Vista is infinitely more secure than a fully patched SP2 installation, whether UAC is enabled or not.

      There are a plethora of kernel changes and "under the hood" changes which make Vista significantly more robust in the security department. This is even more true for the x64 version (ASLR and PatchGuard)
    • grumpyrain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1> Er, no. Vista is infinitely more secure than a fully patched SP2 installation, whether UAC is enabled or not.

      It may be more secure in the fact they have had a chance to rework some things based on the 2003 codebase and a lot of the folders and registry sections are virtualised, but you really need to understand that turning off UAC turns off more than just the UI prompts. Certain processes like Internet Explorer no longer run inside their protected mode sandbox, which means that for the purposes of most people, it is no more secure than XP SP2.

      My comments were also obviously only related to the 32 bit versions of Windows. Yes, patch guard is helpful for making it harder for rootkits to get installed, but most Vista sales are 32-bit versions.
  • lu0s3r322, on 10/12/2007, -56/+8microsoft stock $29.10

    apple stock $98.84
    • Gogogo111, on 10/12/2007, -5/+19Yeah, Apple is a strong company, because they have a product out that everyone uses. The iPod, and with good earnings and a low float, it's a pretty nice stock.

      Just don't be an Apple fanboy okay? Your avatar is a little misleading.
    • MoeB, on 10/12/2007, -6/+51Apple Market Cap: 85.19B
      Microsoft Market Cap: 284.96B

      hmmm
      hmmmmmmmm
      HMMMMMMMMMM
    • shteinb, on 10/12/2007, -2/+24Stock price has very little to do with a company's size or power. Berkshire Hathaway class A has a price of over 100,000 a share, you think its thousands of times more powerful than MSFT or Apple? If you want a reasonable measure of a companies power you can look at profits, market capitalization, or the number of outstanding shares(and consider their price).
    • noseeme, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18Haha, even seven year olds know that doesn't matter when it comes to a company's net worth, or overall power.
      See: "Stock split".
    • mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Apple's share volume is much smaller than Microsoft's, thus the expensive price. (you are buying a larger proportion of the company with each share of Apple than you are with a share of Microsoft).
    • mobilebuddha, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17i'm sure the share price alone is the BEST indicator of how well a company is doing, financially.

      /sarcasm.

      go back to stock market 101 please. you fail.
    • hardwired, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Now what does Market Cap has anything to do with this...? Other than size...I rather look at growth.
      If any indications, http://fortboise.org/Top100/

      March 2001, Microsoft is at 286 Billion, so they actually went down or stay status quo after 6 years.
      Apple never made it into Top 100 until Nov 2005 at 50 Billion...to 85 Billion today.
      Does that tell a story?
  • vondur, on 10/12/2007, -20/+10That is remarkable, considering how sucktacular VIsta is.
  • lodeghost, on 10/12/2007, -6/+11Still nothing compared to Exxon's $38 Billion profit last year.
    • grumpyrain, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19Maybe not, but I would settle for a measly 0.5 billion dollars a quarter for myself.
  • ericdano, on 10/12/2007, -19/+6Eh, next quarter we will see their sales go down. That is a promise.
    • noseeme, on 10/12/2007, -13/+3No *****.
    • grumpyrain, on 10/12/2007, -3/+17Sales never go down. They just go up by less ;)

      And yes, everyone agrees this bubble has a large thank you card to the Vista vouchers.
  • pairanoyd, on 10/12/2007, -18/+5Isn't there a law against reporting false earnings? This is misleading to the people that buy and sell stocks.
    Vista is a steamy pile of monkey ***** and no one is buying it, if so, why did Dell begin to offer XP again after first eliminating it?

    I call ***** on this story..

  • oldghost, on 10/12/2007, -12/+38Don't the "M$" haters realize that all their bitching (attempting to sway people
    away from Microsoft's products?) has had ZERO effect ?
    Suck it!
  • DavidBGie, on 10/12/2007, -19/+20I love these Microsoft success stories! It pisses off the people I don't like the most like anti-capitalist and/or Linux, Novell and Mac dweebs.
    • Szandor, on 10/12/2007, -8/+18Yeah, 'cause all us Mac/Linux/Novell users are anti-capitalist pinko commies.

      Idiot.
  • arr3n, on 10/12/2007, -11/+3Did anybody else find the OLPC video more interesting than the MS article?
  • noseeme, on 10/12/2007, -7/+12NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...
  • HideoKojima, on 10/12/2007, -12/+42Steve Blowjobs could never match that.
  • weberik, on 10/12/2007, -13/+9The obvious question is: How much of that profit came from non-enterprise consumers who were upgrading existing hardware, and how much came from IT shops that had been holding off on buying new hardware until Vista finally made it to market?

    From the article:

    "Microsoft... deferred about $1.7 billion in revenue from its second quarter to its third quarter to account for upgrade coupons given to customers prior to the January launch of Vista and Office 2007."

    This seems to indicate that Microsoft is counting upgrades from both Q2 and Q3. I can understand why they would do this, but by including them both in the Q3 results, it also makes it look like perhaps Microsoft doesn't want observers to peer too closely into exactly how people are getting Vista. The mere fact that new PCs come with Vista doesn't mean that consumers are buying those machines specifically to get Vista.

    It would be very interesting to compare Vista upgrades as a percentage of total sales, then compare that to the same figures for Windows 95, 98, and XP. Then we might get a better idea of whether, in spite of the massive revenues, Microsoft might be losing its ability to push consumers into OS upgrades.
    • nmeadata, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Deferred income as profit, what a novel idea, we have x amount of xp users that will upgrade at x amount of dollars someday, so we'll call that profit today! My accountant hates it when I call it cooking the books.
  • sgr215, on 10/12/2007, -14/+12I've used Windows all my life but oddly enough Vista actually made me consider switching to Linux. I can't really put my finger on why but Vista really didn't impress me. I then decided to create a triple-boot system with Vista, XP, and Ubuntu. I decided to restrict myself to just using Ubuntu for a week and since then it's become my main OS. I now find myself using Ubuntu 80% of the time, XP 19% (I can't give up NewsLeecher. If only there was a Linux version) and finally Vista %1(If that). Perhaps when Vista gains more software/hardware support I'll feel otherwise.
  • Palaceguard, on 10/12/2007, -5/+16Of course Steve Jobs can't match it, he's too busy with the iPhone that only cingular/at&t customers can buy.
  • CompanyMan, on 10/12/2007, -6/+18I guess thats to all the nay sayers here on DIgg! proving somebody is buying Vista

    • consonance, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15The truth had to come out sooner or later... It was me. It was all me.

      I bought ever copy of Vista I could find. I bought exactly 12,325,000 copies of Vista Ultimate. That's where they got their $4.93 billion. I'm sorry, I just love Microsoft!
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2Yes. HP, Dell, and Gateway. The consumer has no clue they're paying these embedded licensing fees because they aren't offered any alternative at the retail store.
  • victorc26, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11That's the point. Most people don't really know more than Windows itself when it comes to the operating system.

    A LOT of people out there don't even know what the OS even consists of. When they buy a new computer, they just expect it to run, that's it. They hardly pay attention to what version of Windows is installed. You're thinking those of us who know the differences between Windows XP, Vista, Linux distros, and OSX make up the market. But we don't, we probably make up around 20% of the market, if that.

    Even though Vista is actually a great build, and I've been running it happily since January. That's not why Microsoft is going to win the OS market share again this time around. It's because most people think all computers are the same [when it comes to the OS]. Fun fact, an absurd amount of people don't even know what Windows is exactly.
  • yaosio, on 10/12/2007, -16/+2More proof that nobody wants Vista!
  • xelloss, on 10/12/2007, -5/+14I bought Vista Home Prem for 119 on sale I personally like Vista and have XP as back up, but all my games run and installed fine. I have no issues running my basic computer needs other then Zone Alarm not working but I can wait.
  • TDR25, on 10/12/2007, -12/+4Vista's actually selling?
    • victorc26, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7Yes. Like I said earlier, that's where Microsoft makes most of it's sales in the Windows market.

      Those copies of Windows that come pre-installed on pre-built machines aren't free; Windows is included in the total MSRP price of a pre-built machine. Hence Microsoft making 5 billion dollars in profits.
  • V1ncent, on 10/12/2007, -7/+21In other news 150 new Linux derivatives just launched to cloud the waters even further...
  • MrFlesh, on 10/12/2007, -20/+8Vista is windows me 2....it's been laughed out of the business OS industry.
    • nigh7dagger, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7That's funny, because I thought most businesses were just waiting (until SP1).

      I would LOVE to see proof of businesses laughing out Vista. And I don't mean your cousin's blog about it. In fact, I bet it's just how they were laughing out NT, 2000, XP, 2003, etc. Oh, wait, I forgot that Microsoft has what, like 90% of the non-server market share.
    • Branden, on 10/12/2007, -6/+9@MrFlesh:

      How about you actually try Vista before you pull crap out of your ass and look like an idiot.
  • wdoyle0447, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6Nothing wrong with Vista products, or other MS products but I'd rather not buy software anymore.

    On a side note I' rather buy MS over Apple any day. Bill gates does more for the world than Jobs ever has, not totals but proportionally. Jobs is worth 3-billion in change. Of course this assumes both of their contributions are made known and not anonymously. From wired.com:

    Giving USA Foundation, a philanthropy research group which publishes an annual charity survey, said Jobs does not appear on lists of gifts of $5 million or more over the last four years. Nor is his name on a list of gifts of $1 million or more compiled by Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy.
  • mobilehavoc, on 10/12/2007, -5/+9Sadly, not many ways for the Apple fanboys to spin this in a negative way...that's always good reading. I think hopefully this will help them come to the realization of how much of a minority they are in reality...

    I'm happy with Vista (it's a step in the right direction) and glad Microsoft made a buck from it - can only keep things moving in that direction...
  • Splitt3rxx, on 10/12/2007, -6/+7Lets see how the MS haters can spin this into something negative. gl and hf. I see some are using the whole "It comes on prebuilt machines!!! argument" yeah, no *****, most mac sales come with the computer as well, how many people actually buy an OS upgrade? and it doesn't matter to MS anyway, it is still money for them.
  • wolphkaat, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10i run Linux and own MSFT and AAPL stock. I came to the realization a couple of years ago that if microsoft users are okay with software extortion i just as well try to benefit from it. Doesn't make a great company but I've come to learn extortion and monopoly is a great business model. plus the shares allow me to vote a minuscule amount to determine the direction of the company. And spending less money on software is more money for me to invest.
    • wdoyle0447, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2I always thought it would be awesome if money was no object and Microsoft pulled out of countries where their governments are going after them.

      A country fines MS. MS just says ok we'll pull out of South Korea or the EU, and stop selling products or support. People are too addicted to absorb a pull out without some short-term impact.
    • generalloy, on 10/12/2007, -6/+6This does show the strength MS has as a monopoly in Windows and Office products, and the problems that stem from it to consumers.

      Vista has been critcized by some for lacking innovation. OS X 10.4 is an excellent OS (years ahead of Vista) and still has probably the same amount of marketshare that Vista has right now, just being released; later, that will tilt in favor of Vista as people buy new computers.

      Monopolies as a rule don't innovate, hike prices, and harm the free market.
    • BlackAdderIII, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"""I always thought it would be awesome if money was no object and Microsoft pulled out of countries where their governments are going after them.

      A country fines MS. MS just says ok we'll pull out of South Korea or the EU, and stop selling products or support. People are too addicted to absorb a pull out without some short-term impact."""

      Yeah, that would be so awesome - you should lobby them for that.

      Imagine how cool it would be for the EU if Microsoft took their ball home.
  • DavidDigg, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3You know what's funny? If Linux were licensed under a BSD-style license instead of the GPL, we might have a viable proprietary competitor to Windows by now. This is a classic case of idealism trumping a pragmatic concern. And it was all because Stallman was radicalized by some events in his life. We'll get a decent operating system someday, but I may have to wait until I get to the old people's home...
    • generalloy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11I believe that's called OS X.
    • wdoyle0447, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2And the Windows Network Stack is a port from FreeBSD. No geniuses at MS to do their own.
    • dtfinch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7We already have BSD under a BSD-style license.
    • grumpyrain, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10> And the Windows Network Stack is a port from FreeBSD. No geniuses at MS to do their own.

      No, the whole network stack was rewritten for Vista.

      [quote http://www.microsoft.com/technet/network/evaluate/new_network.mspx ]
      Windows Server "Longhorn" and Windows Vista include a new implementation of the TCP/IP protocol stack known as the Next Generation TCP/IP stack. The Next Generation TCP/IP stack is a complete redesign of TCP/IP functionality for both Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) that meets the connectivity and performance needs of today's varied networking environments and technologies.
      [/quote]

      In fact, Microsoft was criticised for releasing an unproven network stack instead of the old 'devil-we-know' BSD based stack. We won't know for a year or two whether that was a good or bad decision.

      Secondly, certain other OSes borrow a bit more than just a network stack from BSD. Why is it a problem for you?
  • edebolt, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7don't sell the bearskin until you have killed the bear. MS will be a force for sometime to come.
  • jmpeagle, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Bill Gates is rich as hell and he owns less than 10% of that company.
  • TheTSArt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2When do companies like HP and Dell pay Microsoft for the OEM copies they sell pre-installed?

    If they buy a lump of them at a time, then naturally sales would be very high at the beginning, but those numbers might represent over a year's worth of sales for those companies, so the demand presented is artificial.

    If they pay Microsoft on say a monthly basis, based on what they've sold, then Vista was very underestimated.
  • etnu, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12This just in: Microsoft is a really large company that makes a lot of money.

    More at 11.
  • theNazz, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Vista is selling very well... on new PCs configured with it. I used Vista Home Premium as a reason to upgrade my hardware so that I didn't have to think about compatibility issues.

    I bought a Vista Home Premium PC with a Core 2 Duo 6300 and a Ge-Force 8800 gts for under $1000 a few weeks ago. I'm running 97% of the software that I was using on my XP Pro PC. It also has 7 channel sound and Media Player 11 to use with my HD-TV. I will make it use another OS if Vista annoys me, but for now I'm not having a bad experience with it.

    Another bright spot is that the game performance on my Core 2 Duo/Vista PC confidentially destroys my Athlon XP/ XP Professional PC... Command and Conquer 3, Supreme Commander, Oblivion, GTR-2, TOCA 3, WoW, Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, Halo (waiting for part 2 release), even Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Sim City 4... fantastic performance for under $1000. It cost more than that for an Atari 800XL with a dot matrix printer back in 1984.
  • Cherubim, on 10/12/2007, -10/+3This article just shows the earnings from the Microsoft Vista tax. Retail sales of Vista have been poor with very few people having gone out of their way and actually bought Vista off the shelf.

    OEMs and system builders comprise the bulk of Microsoft's Vista licenses. GNU/Linux distros like Ubuntu need to target this market in order to gain wider acceptance and deployment.
















  • Hamsterpotpies, on 10/12/2007, -11/+3Windoze sucks!
  • Recockilous, on 10/12/2007, -5/+4Hello
  • tifomsirk, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5omfg. and now everyone commenting is talking about how vista isnt that bad. where were you guys when the critics were panning vista.
    • estvir, on 10/12/2007, -5/+15Being dugg down by the average anti-MS moron on Digg.
    • kheldorin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Heh, the topic itself is being dugg down. If this was Apple, it would be 2000++ by now.
  • Recockilous, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4Hello

    If Vista is so good, how come monkey boy Ballmer is so ***** scared of Linux?

    /Recockilous
    • estvir, on 10/12/2007, -8/+9If Linux is so good, why are there thousands of trolls and pathetic sites like badvista ?

      If Macs are so good, why is Apple constantly making "Get a Mac" ads which are filled with FUD and inaccurate info ?

      Thanks for playing, try again next quarter.
    • Fartag, on 10/12/2007, -6/+6@estvir

      Well, people who use computers as more than a hobby (non-mainstream folks) realize it's a mistake to support a monopoly in a fundamental OS sense. They know what else is out there and don't need to buy an OS merely because it's the next level of familiar to them. It was amazing to me to see a non-negligible percentage of the mainstream even switch to Firefox browser for example, but it happened probably largely due to the ridiculous security flaws in IE that put it in headline news. This was the obvious shortcomings of IE and still it is in the lead by something like 80% now. Isn't that crazy? IE isn't technically superior in _any_ sense, yet it still leads. Claiming mass use equals quality is already obviously false.

      You'll see smart unpaid folks evangelizing for Linux everywhere who have tried it in more than a half-assed fashion and scarcity for Microsoft except for those that just happen to run Windows only and are just happy to see the thing they bought "win" (a clear majority so I expect similar digg down equivalents for years). The remainder is MS industry shills with vested interest in it winning. You'll not see non-shills evangelizing Windows OS for technical merit unless they simply haven't tried anything else seriously. If you can point out _any_ reason that the MS OS is superior to Linux that aren't due to the benefits of a monopoly then I'd be very surprised.
    • boaman, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3actually, FireFox will become the most popular browser in the world in the next 1-2 months (it you split IE6 and IE7 apart)
  • whiterocker, on 10/12/2007, -1/+84.9B profit on 14.4B revenue means it costs MS about 10B to run the company *every quarter*. Holy *****-bags that a lot of Jolt Cola.
    • orph3us, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1what was the previous expenditures and profits made? I think they spent a lot of money on development leading up to Vista, Office 07, and a whole sling of products that are coming out now. So what's next for them? What will the next version of Windows look like? Will Vista and back be made into a virtual layer upon a completely clean new code base? Or as I've heard before, should they keep the NT codebase and try to fix it up? Someone with more knowledge, whats the most logical thing they will/should do?
    • clyde2801, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1What will the next version of Windows look like? I dunno, you'll have to wait for Apple to release 10.5 to see, just like everyone else.
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