Tune in May 6 for debate on Microsoft licensing
By
Brian Livingston
Craig Crossman's Computer America radio program, which is broadcast in the U.S. and Canada and on the Web, will carry a special program May 6 on the controversy over the clean-install feature in Windows Vista.
You can listen in to the show and even submit questions you'd like the host to ask.
As you may recall, I reported in a
Feb. 1, 2007,
article that Microsoft developers had included a set of dialog boxes that clean-install the upgrade edition of Vista on a new PC. At the time, Microsoft was saying that this feature required the purchase of the full edition, which costs an additional $100 or so in the U.S.
After Service Pack 1 for Vista was released in March 2008, Windows Secrets associate editor Scott Dunn was the first writer to report (in an
Apr. 3, 2008,
article) that Microsoft had left the clean-install procedure in Vista. I wrote in follow-up columns on
Apr. 10
and
24
about the reactions in the computer press and from Eric Ligman, the senior manager for Microsoft Partners.
Computer America co-host Carey Holzman has now invited Eric and me to debate this issue on his May 6 broadcast. I've accepted, but I haven't yet heard whether the Microsoft executive has agreed to participate. If not, I'm sure the program will get an equally provocative guest to fill in for him.
Here's the date and time, and how you can listen via broadcast radio or over the Web:
Computer America Radio Show
Tues., May 6, 2008, 10 p.m. Eastern/7 p.m. Pacific
To listen live on the Internet:
visit Computer America
and select Streaming Audio.
To find a local radio station:
visit Business Talk Radio
and search on your ZIP code.
Not all members of the Business Talk Radio network carry the Computer America show, so if the station in your area isn't broadcasting the program, give yourself a couple of minutes to switch to the streaming audio feed. Thanks for your interest.
One final column before Fred Langa retires
I was hoping this day would never come. But today, we publish Fred Langa's last column before he retires for good.
We knew something was up when Fred (at left in motorcycle helmet) stopped writing articles for five months: Apr. 19–Sept. 27, 2007. He took the time off to ride his beloved bike on a discovery tour across the U.S. and Canada and give four lucky readers his patented "Housecall" treatment.
After that, Fred wrote columns for another seven months, but this is really it. He's been writing professionally, mostly about the computer industry, for an unbelievable 1E years! (That's 30 years, for those of you who still count in decimal rather than hex.)
In an e-mail message, he recently told me and other Windows Secrets contributors, "Part of me will miss the tech writing, but part of me wants to buy an abacus and toss wooden shoes into the gears of high tech."
Fred's articles have been appearing recently in the paid section of our content. But this week, we've decided to make the last column of his long career available to all our readers, both free and paid. We're sure that our paying subscribers won't mind having one fewer column in our paid content, just this once.
I'll let Fred tell you the rest in
today's column.
Get some rest, my old friend. Ride, Fred, ride.
Brian Livingston is editorial director of WindowsSecrets.com and the
co-author of
Windows Vista Secrets
and 10 other books.
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