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Free Windows Vista Business & Office Professional 2007 ?

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so now Bill Gates has your SSN and personal info and there are probably ten copies of each product available for the tens of thousands of people viewing their ads ... umm, videos
... damn clever these viral marketeers.
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Software companies give away free software all the time, especially to people they think will help sell the product. The discs themselves only cost a couple bucks to produce the packaging. The only thing they're really "out" is a small number of potential sales. The way MS thinks about it is if they get Vista into the right people early on, each copy of Vista will generate more sales as those people will be able to develop software for Vista, recommend it to their company/customers/etc.

I work as a software developer and IT consultant for small businesses. If I had a copy of Vista I'd be a lot more likely to advise customers to upgrade (or at least plan on upgrading) their business computers to Vista in a year or two. If I don't have a copy, I'm much more likely to tell them to stick with what they've got. They're not just giving it away with the click of a web-form, they're giving it away to anyone willing to watch the three boring-to-anyone-but-a-MS-developer videos. That's going to filter out anyone but the most dedicated, which are really the people they WANT to have the software in the first place.

In short, giving away 10,000 copies of Vista is NOTHING if it gets to the right 10,000 people (or even the right 5000 out of 10000 people).
 
Anyone get past pending on video files they managed to view so far? Do you have to complete the survey thing they send you in the email? The instructions for getting it free don't say you have to do that as a requirement. I believe the survey isnt compulsory.
 
Originally posted by: Luthien
Anyone get past pending on video files they managed to view so far? Do you have to complete the survey thing they send you in the email? The instructions for getting it free don't say you have to do that as a requirement. I believe the survey isnt compulsory.
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"Once you have selected an offering to view, that offering will have a status icon. If you have a current offering underway, you will see the ?In Progress? icon. Once you have completed viewing or participating in that offering you will see a ?Pending? icon while we verify your participation. Once we have verified , your ?My Stuff? page will have a ?Completed? icon next to your offering."
 
Finally got all three watched and have recieved the first email confirmation/survey. I'm awaiting the last two then hopefully I will get Vista Business. I didn't bother going for Office.
 
I registered, and on the side it says "Welcome Tyler", but I never received any email or anything. Where do I take it from here?
 
Why the hell would any of you guys be putting in a real SSN#? /me shakes head laughing... fools.
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Well, laughing boy, how bout when MS reports your "income" of software worth $900 to the IRS with a 1099 and the SSN is wrong, although the name and address are right? You are now guilty of tax evasion and violation of federal law, and now eligible for a free vacation at a federal facility. They'll even give you a nice orange jump suit. Oops. Unlikely that they would prosecute, but I'm not gonna mess with the IRS.

I am not going to be greedy and just go for Vista to be on the safe side.
 
They might not prosecute, but I can tell you from experiance they might give you enough penalties and interest to where you would have been better off buying vista.
 
Originally posted by: SantiClaws
Why the hell would any of you guys be putting in a real SSN#? /me shakes head laughing... fools.
Click to expand...

Well, laughing boy, how bout when MS reports your "income" of software worth $900 to the IRS with a 1099 and the SSN is wrong, although the name and address are right? You are now guilty of tax evasion and violation of federal law, and now eligible for a free vacation at a federal facility. They'll even give you a nice orange jump suit. Oops. Unlikely that they would prosecute, but I'm not gonna mess with the IRS.

I am not going to be greedy and just go for Vista to be on the safe side.
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not going to be greedy? if this site proves to not be MS, then these people have correctly assumed your greed will entice you to give out your SSN#.

claim it on your taxes and you're good to go. you can only be charged with tax evasion IF you don't pay taxes you owe. don't be a dumbass and give out your SSN# to a site that NOBODY is 100% sure is legit. you want to pass out your identity to some as-of-yet unknown entity, go for it fool.

 
don't be a dumbass and give out your SSN# to a site that NOBODY is 100% sure is legit.
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Anyone that knows what a nameserver is, and what pointing the site at Microsoft's nameserver knows that the sight can ONLY be put up by Microsoft. They are the only ones that control their nameservers.

Maybe you can't do this research yourself, or don't trust what others are saying. That's fine and I don't blame you. But I know for a fact that this website is a product of Microsoft.
 
Originally posted by: Ginfest
Finally got all three watched and have recieved the first email confirmation/survey. I'm awaiting the last two then hopefully I will get Vista Business. I didn't bother going for Office.
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anything yet?
 
If you take both pieces of software, your tax liability will be about $240 at the end of the year (federal and state taxes on a combined $800 "prize" - that's what Microsoft says they will report to the IRS). If you take one or the other, you don't have to provide your SS # because Microsoft will not report it (since it is under the reporting threshold), so you're basically at your honor to report it yourself. (Just like you're supposed to report all out-of-state mail-order purchases you made all year and pay your state sales tax on them.)

So if you choose both pieces of software, you will eventually pay $240 or so - not to Microsoft but to Uncle Sam.
 
So, those who are concerned about paying taxes on the software: Can't you register and sign up for one before the end of this year, and then register the 2nd title after January 1 2007? You won't exceed $600 in a single year, unless they're not talking about calendar years.
 
Well, let's worry about tax next. How the hell do I get through the registration? I am a man on a mission now. I've spent 45 min trying to get through it and still can't. 🙁

I must have clicked "back" and "next button" 300 times already.
 
So after reading the entire post, this is what I understand so far:

1. If you don't choose BOTH, then you DON'T have to provide a W-9 form (no SSN required), right?
2. No official words from Microsoft of the promotion.
 
I really don't see why this wouldn't be legit. Last year I got Microsoft Visual Studio.Net Standard edition from a sponsor. All that was done was watching a few webcasts.

Finally the site is acknowledging that I have the three webcasts that I've registered for viewed and are now in "Pending" status. According to the help page, all that is needed now is to confirm my free gift.

Free software FTW!
 
Did all those people who got an email confirmation do the survey at the end of the video? I am not aware that there is a clickable link in the video. Am I missing something?
 
Ugh...watched 3 videos, 2 of them showed Pending and now none of them are being shown as having been watched even though I did the surveys at the end.

Edit: The "My Stuff" page is showing all 3 videos as Pending. Weird they are getting really slammed.
 
I never recieved email about the other two surveys🙁
And I've been unable to log in to anything other than "Guest" since last PM so I have no idea if I have recieved "credit" for all three videos.
Anyway, I have fired off a couple of emails to the support links provided so we'll see-if I get "free" Vista fine, if not well it was worth the try.
 
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