Do you remember the horrid old boxes you used to get software in. Ive got many of them floating around - from the original XP box to the office box. They haven’t bore the test of time great. They invariably end up either in the bin within the week or stuffed to the brim with manuals and cds from all the other computer realted things.

Anyway - whats making me talk about this now i hear you cry. Well, with the announcement of the release dates for Windows Vista (30th November for businesses and 30 January for everybody else) they’ve also shown us what the retail boxes will look like.

I know I’d be more inclined to keep it around than some scraggy little cardboard thing. Which is apparently one of the main motivations for making out of a more durable plastic this time around. Apparently losing product keys and the actual discs is the cause of 25% of the calls to Microsoft help desks these days.

Something else that was news to me was the fact that the installation discs will have every flavor of the operating system including 32/64 bit versions. So in the future if you don’t initially go for the ultimate edition, all you need to do is purchase an upgrade online and use the disc you have to move your system up a notch or two.

I know its dirty, but I’m looking forward to it.

For now, heres the line up of boxes that are coming out (in order of ascending price).