Re: Gateway Upgrade Policy for MCE 2005

From: Mike Brannigan [MSFT] (mikebran_at_online.microsoft.com)
Date: 11/10/04 

Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 08:20:34 -0000

"Whiting Toler" <whiting_hatesspam@whitingandtracy.com> wrote in message
news:4ced01c4c6bd$d67cacb0$a601280a@phx.gbl...
> Please see the Gateway Support FAQ at the bottom of this
> post. Is this what MS intended the early adopter
> experience to be? This amounts to a bait-and-switch by
> Gateway with MS having plausible deniability via its OEM-
> only model.
>
> http://support.gateway.com/s/software/MICROSOF/7513249/751
> 3249faq220.shtml
>
> Can someone from MS please respond directly to this?
> Also, please tell us why MCE could not be sold off the
> shelf with a Hardware Compatability List as waas done
> with the NT line? Furthermore, what's to stop MS from
> offering the upgrade directly, this wouldn't require the
> OEM to support it and MS could include "upgrade at your
> own risk" disclaimers. I think all of us (Gateway
> customers or not) should continue to ask these questions
> until we get a satisfactory response.
>

According to the link you have posted - it appears that Gateway have chosen
to only supply MCE 2005 on new systems. This is within their rights to do
this. At no point in your purchase of your existing Media Center PC from
Gateway did they promise a free (or chargeable) upgrade to an future MCE
products.
One reason that MCE is available as an OEM product is that given the
hardware restrictions and requirements the best people to support this
product are the OEMs who will ship a device of a precisely know spec (from
them) which will allow them to provide the best degree of support for that
known platform.
It is possible that Gateway have chosen to only offer MCE 2005 as a
preinstalled OS as this will allow then to know precisely the configuration
of those devices from a support perspective.

As regards your question about just making MCE available retail with an HCL,
most of our NT based opertaing systems have had an HCL in the past and this
has not prevented persons trying to install products on unsupported systems
etc. If MCE was made available retail then the burden of support would fall
back to Microsoft and we would have to deal with a most diverse set of
hardware configurations for a product that does have specific requirements.
This would lead to both customer dissatisfaction and also the retailers
potentially receiving a high number of returns of products due to end user
purchase without understanding the full ramifications of their actions. You
should note that the vast majority of purchases of operating systems are not
technically savvy persons capable of installing and configuring their own
hardware and operating systems. OEM only shipments allow for a better end
user experience for the majority of customers. For the technically savvy
their is always the option of the self build route (and obvious support
issues this will bring) so toady you can already purchase MCE 2005 as an OEM
CD set - this is a choice open to you.

So as it stands now - if you OEM chooses to not provide an upgrade path and
you are willing to take the risk and loss of support then you can perform
your own install with the purchase of the OEM CD set from anyone of a number
of outlets. So in effect the second half of your question is that you can
buy an upgrade that you install at your own risk. 

-- 
Regards,
Mike
--
Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights
Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
newsgroups
"Whiting Toler" <whiting_hatesspam@whitingandtracy.com> wrote in message 
news:4ced01c4c6bd$d67cacb0$a601280a@phx.gbl...
> Please see the Gateway Support FAQ at the bottom of this
> post. Is this what MS intended the early adopter
> experience to be? This amounts to a bait-and-switch by
> Gateway with MS having plausible deniability via its OEM-
> only model.
>
> http://support.gateway.com/s/software/MICROSOF/7513249/751
> 3249faq220.shtml
>
> Can someone from MS please respond directly to this?
> Also, please tell us why MCE could not be sold off the
> shelf with a Hardware Compatability List as waas done
> with the NT line? Furthermore, what's to stop MS from
> offering the upgrade directly, this wouldn't require the
> OEM to support it and MS could include "upgrade at your
> own risk" disclaimers. I think all of us (Gateway
> customers or not) should continue to ask these questions
> until we get a satisfactory response.
>
>
>
> "Q: Can I upgrade my Media Center Edition 2004 operating
> system to Media Center Edition 2005?
>
> A: No. The Media Center Edition 2005 operating system
> software that is offered on new Gateway computers is a
> completely new operating system, and is not available for
> upgrades. This software is only available from Gateway on
> new computers, and is not available through Microsoft or
> through retail channels.
> The only way to receive Media Center 2005 from Gateway is
> to purchase a new computer with it preinstalled."