economy - Vista available from 10 yuan

Not unexpected, Microsoft's new Vista platform is already available in China, a week before the official launch. (h/t Chinameme). The Chinese edition goes fro prices from 10 yuan, the English one might be more costly.

Microsoft officials said built-in safeguards would disable parts of the program on illegal copies. Some beta versions expire after a certain time, Microsoft said, and other experts warned that pirated versions can be full of spyware and other malicious programs. Even so, if most of the pirated program works, there seems little incentive to do the right thing and buy a licensed copy.