considering how restricting the EULA seems to be, why would i want a hard shell case to last me forever? so that i can mount it and show people how much Microsoft has ripped me off?
wish they would have just used a normal paper envolope and saved on the cost and passed it down to us

… and tomorrow we get another entry with picture of the design of the *inside* of the box ? i can't wait to see that.

besides: how is it supposed to be ? not clear from the pix, looks huge to me. [ as if i did care … ]

They look HUGE. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you've got a few pieces of paper and a single disc inside. WHY ARE THEY BEING SO WASTEFUL WITH THE SPACE?!

The packaging looks lovely, indeed, but really, couldn't they make it super slim and ship around 5x more per carton? This seems ridiculous.

...to protect the software inside for life-long use.

I'm a MS fan, but that's just insulting. I doubt any definition of "life-long" equates to "until we service pack this disk to utter obsolencence", or "until we choose to stop supporting it" or "until we need another shot of cash in 5 years and release Windows Mega - Super Awesome Edition - Home".

it looks like its based on the office for mac packaging

it would be nice if they gave out prize's in the first 1000 packages

Let me show you a box that Vista WON'T be appearing in.

Mine.

Aren't they just a bit full of themselves, feeling the need for a press release just because they designed their packaging.

If you make it any smaller, it could potentially become a loss prevention issue.

As is, most retailers will have to stash these in a case or spider wrap them.

Also, it's worth noting that this looks strikingly like the Microsoft Office for Mac packaging, which is anything but new.

The key word is "permanently". Those boxes are shaped that way for a reason. Time itself is thwarted by the complex curvature. Microsoft knows mankind's sucessors will eventually stumble upon one of these Pandora's boxes and foolishly unleash the pox that was/will be Vista. Then in a desperate attempt to save themselves, be forced to use their futuristic/alien/mutant powers to reconstitute the Redmond behemoth.

I think they're not as huge as the perspective makes them look. I'm hoping they're about the size of a super-thick DVD case ... sorta like the big plastic snappy cases that some VHS movies came in.

If they ARE as big as they look, then yes, they took a cue from the Mac Business Unit at MS. Maybe Office for Mac will share the new box next time.

Hello? Dang, I lost everybody with the VHS comment.

Nice looking bookshelf style keep box. What could possibly be wrong with that? Go find your coffee for crying out loud!

Oh man, the repercussions that this is presenting!

The huge price increase that this will force the product to take. Third world countries will fear for their economies and entire computing cultures will crumble!

What DO they mean by "life-long". Are they saying that the LIFE of this software is MORE important than my children and I. How insulting to make my family just another one of Microsoft's unimportant one-in-a-million "service pack".

And the size and packaging! Are they out of their mind. Its huge! They should instead probably melt down the excess plastic and make homes for millions of homeless. But no. They give no, FORCE me to get a hard plastic case(HARD PLASTIC!!!) and invade my bookshelf space with THEIR product to show how superior they are and how now THEY are the dominant force in MY HOME!!!!!!

Microsoft, you are truly evil. How dare you!

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Oh I forgot....ITS JUST A FRIGGIN BOX!!!!

relax people.

I got the golden ticket!

i think the packaging looks really good. personally, i am a package design intern/student right now. so naturally, these packaging/unpackaging post are some of my favorites. but i think an important thing to keep in mind is that these cases are holding a $200-$400 (i forget exact costs) product, and probably cost only TWICE as much as a dvd case with a $15 product. As for looking like mac packaging, its just plastic and has curves.

Also, over a large production scale like Microsofts bajillion copies its going to stamp out, this thermoformed plastic will be cheaper at the end of the day because they are not directly printing on the packaged (like a carton for example). Instead, they are printing an insert or sticker or whatever it is which is tons cheaper because your are just direct printing from a huge roll of paper. Basically, this package, over a large scale is probably cheaper than the carton. and dont even get me started in shipping benefits. %RH is not near an issue with these as it would be with paperbased packaging.

in school we learned the 3 basic functions of packaging: contain. protect. inform.

...damn adderrall. class adjourned.

Yay Vista will be released after my birthday in january, cause no one likes business edition, I think I'll get hhiome premium just cause it includes windows media center, and windows aero...but heres a tip to save around 5 bucks, if you dont care for home premium, get home edition and then download media portal, it's a program that is 100 percent like media center except free. All you need is a windows media center remote then.

The box is a nice sentiment for those of us who may have to use the program twice and then just keep it for posterity...you know, since the program is useless if you have bad luck with computers and A) have 2 crashes or B) need to switch it to more than 2 computers. Other than that, the box is pretty. Maybe I will get one when someone uses their limit on the disk and feels compelled to chuck it in the garbage. Heck, maybe I will collect them all ;)

I can't wait to get my pirated copies of the final version!

Maybe the packaging is supposed to double as a MS Trapper Keeper.

I can't wait to get my pirated copy of the final version, then after I install it I'll throw the dvd into a old cigar box where I keep the rest of my Microsoft products.

I can't wait

"lifelong"?
Does that mean that you have to use the installation cd every week/day to reinstall Vista?

Or would it be like most games and the cd has to be in a drive to be able run Vista?

That's the only reason I can think of. After using XP for about 6 years now I've only used the disk once and seen it twice. At least the new design is better than the old fancy cardboard sleeve inside a big fancy box.

I can't wait to get my pirated copies of the final version, then after I install it I'll throw the media into an cigar box where I keep the rest of my Microsoft products.

Sincere comment from a fully MS user.
I hope the paper and packaging are easily biodegradable. The whole "life long" thing seems to be far too much since the softwear won't last more then few years until it's next version. The marketing strategy seems a little "silly" the marketing strategy! Not eco friendly either!! Don't ewe have enough issues already with this subject MS?? You could be more intelligent and also save space in your consumer shelves at home.
You guys need to work in your own style and give up the graphic on the boxes that seems to be copied from the standard Blue MAC screensaver.
I'll still be a Windows user for it's practicity and integration with the WinMobile but i wish you guys had some style. Afterall how many hours do we spend looking at your products everyday...
More "inteligence" end less "size"!!!
Thanks

...for life long use

Just a thought but maybe this means, intel/AMD are finally coming up with some sort of new chipset architecture and finally doing away with this x86 business, thus making Vista the last new OS that microsoft puts out for all the current generation computers. Microsoft has been working its next OS, fiji I think its called, for quite some time now.

That being said for those consumers that don't need top of the line equipment and don't upgrade their machines every 3 or so years just might be stuck with Vista for the remainder of their lifetime.

Who knows whats going on behind closed doors.

1> I'd rather it be something re-usable like hard plastic than another worthless, forrest pillaging paper box.

2> I have no idea how people can say that this box is huge with nothing else in the picture to show scale. Does it look thick? yeah, kinda. But I think hanzo hit the nail on the head with loss prevention. In addition, you're buying $200+ worth of software, not a Crockadile Dundee II DVD. It needs to also feel valuable. I would guess the form-factor is equivellant to a thick DVD case. Maybe a tad larger.

It's nice to see how well people hide their dissatisfaction with Microsoft especially when it is a new fancy schmancy looking container

Plus, it seems that the only left that you can do is keep stacking more and more cores onto a chip but who is actually going to write software for a 64-core chip that we may or may not see in the future.

Where's Windows Vista for Men?

What, no case moders in here!? Come on, how cool is it that you can put your Vista PC in the box that Vista came in!

And you can use all the other MS boxes to replace those cinder blocks holding up your book case. Hell yeah!

I wonder what the torrent file for Vista will look like...

That's packaging I can relate to.

I'd torrent a copy first to see if it's worth buying cause the beta seemed to be buggy, so if the official vista is worth it, I'd buy it.

Hate to break it to ya, but those are mockups. Even if they are "official mockups" it doesnt change the fact that those images are fake and show nothing as to how the box functions.

They are not big, those things are about the same size as most computer game boxes. I mean the current small size ones, not those huge ass old style ones.

Yes that is how they look, and yes I have seen one.

I believe the boxes were designed to accommodate a pair of binoculars sufficient to peer across the great devide at the mountain of cash Microsoft will garner from the weary masses who, once again, will bite and pay enormous prices for operating system which will, I predict, receive hundreds of patches such that MS can yet again, being work on the next operating system which will no doubt fix everything that's wrong in Vista.

I'd hit it.

Joe Alien please build me a free, perfect OS. I want it by 2012 ... do you think you could do that?

They cut corners on the packaging, just like the OS. Brilliant!!

Get it. The corner. It's cut off.

Here in New Zealand, to celebrate us getting XP first (with the time difference, NZ is ahead of everywhere) Microsoft gave away 5 free copies of Win XP Pro from every major store selling it across the country.

The promotion was kept pretty low key, so hundreds of people wouldn't turn up, and it worked pretty well. I was #5 in one store, waited about 1 1/2 hours I think, and saved myself a few hundred $.

Here's hoping they do the same with Vista :P

its a damn box i will throw it anyways

the shape of the box reminds me of the shape of the xbox 360

they make it long lasting because they expect to not release windows vienna for another 8 to 9 years. by that time, google will have a service that fully emulates a desktop operating system, IN a web browser.....but is light enough on resources that you can use it on a PDA, mylo, game console, mobile phone with a sufficient amount of RAM, pepper pad, or your grandpa's 8086 system.

lifelong because you will commit suicide when you realize that Micros**t has collected hundreds of dollars from you for minor cosmetic changes that you really had no use for.

u miss out on the box if u get it bootleged!

So how much do you think the empty boxes will go for on eBay?

Well, first... if this was an announcement of a new Mac product package, everybody would be wetting themselves and drooling over the artsy mumbo-jumbo. But it's M$ so naturally the packaging is part of a marketing ploy to intentionally screw someone? Get over yourselves.

Second: To the people who say, "It's just a box, I throw them away anyway," You are idiots. When you buy a DVD do you take the disc out of the case and toss the case? Take your PS2 or Xbox games and toss the case? The majority of us do not. Even those of us who put our discs in travel cases, multi-disc changers, or other storage tend to keep the original case, if only for reference and future needs. This case, which looks as though the corners were rounded, should not present any problems in a typical DVD/Game shelf from the looks of it.

Personally I like the black "Ultimate" edition. Vista may or may not suck, I haven't used the final release version on a system that meets/exceeds all of their hardware specifications, so I don't know. But that black and neon packaging, with the word Ultimate just screams to the hardcore geek in me.

My laptop is built for Vista, so I just might grab a copy to see how it goes. Especially with the sexy new packaging.

Ratnikh, I hope you have your tongue placed securely in your Geek cheek.

Too late about how much they spent, already a done deal and we all know there is no life time with any software except those that it will live in the library of congress for a life time. Just cut out code numbers from the boxes and pitch their boxes in the trash, paste the numbers onto the CD holder in a couple monster soft CD albums. I have no space in my life or desire to house other peoples garbage, let's hope it is cardboard or if not it goes in the plastic recycle bins, no matter, packaging doesn't clog up my world anymore. Now if they put it in their EULA that you must retain the box and turn it in to get the next upgrade after Vista and 2007, well, that would just be sick.

Now if I could only figure out how to open the &$#^(#@)* thing . . . .excuse me while I go find my hammer . . .