Its not supposed to.I have Windows XP SP2 and I wanted to upgrade it to Windows Vista Ultamate and the question I have is will updating to Vista Ultimate kill off all my files, programs and drivers.
No, I've upgraded OS from Windwos 98 to XP one time using the Microsoft Upgrade CD and it left all my settings and programs intact. Just as long as you aren't using a full install disk... you'd need the upgrade disk since you don't want to wipe your hard drive but only upgrade.
Now the only problem I can see would be if you're going to 64 bit version then some of your drivers might not like it and same for programs but I don't really know much about 64-bit other than a lot of hardware doesn't have drivers for it. Also you'd need a 64-bit capable processor but you probably have that anyway. If you don't plan to run more than 3GB ram then you'll probably use the 32-bit version anyway so hopefully you wouldn't have problems..
And Linux is free. What's your point?This is how a MS prices their Vista products. The Home Basic edition $199.95, the Home Premium $259.95, Business $299.95, and what some of you are saying to get; Ultimate $319.95. Whereas S. Jobs pointed out that Mac OSX has the same four editions going for the low price of $129. Plus announced just this week you could get all in the same box Mac OSX, iLife 09, and iWork 09 for $169. Which is still lower by $30 compared to the Home Basic, that's $30 that I could use towards the upcoming Pokemon Platinum pre-release.