Users petition the PM to step in over Vista pricing

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More than a thousand angry users have added their names to an online petition asking the government to put pressure on Microsoft to cut the cost of it Vista operating system (OS) in the UK and bring prices in line with the amount US users have to pay.

The petition continues to gain support and the volume of signatories is likely to increase before it ends on April 20.

"There is a huge difference in the price that people in the US and the UK are paying for Windows Vista the new Microsoft Operating System," says Paul Milne, who submitted the petition.

"The US version of Vista is exactly the same as the UK version. There is no difference. Therefore I can see no reason for there to be such a huge difference in prices between the UK and the US other than Microsoft's belief that the UK customers will pay more than their US counterparts. I ask people to sign this petition in the hope that the Prime Minister will bring pressure to bear on Microsoft over their pricing as it is my belief they are simply overcharging the people of the UK and therefore are ripping us off."

This is not the first time Microsoft's US/UK price differences have caused user uproar.

Back in November last year, IT PRO's sister title PC Pro obtained

figures that highlighted that UK users wanting to get their hands' on a copy of Office 2007 might have to contend with price tags that are up to 72 per cent higher than those enjoyed by their US counterparts.

Since the e-petition service launched late last year, users have taken up the opportunity to vent their frustration online in vast numbers. As of the middle of this month, almost 4,000 petitions were active, with more than 2.5 million people voting with their PCs by adding their names their signatures to them.

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