Software for launch event attendees (physical event)

A number of people have been asking the following quite reasonable question: We know that we're giving away 1000 copies of Windows Vista and Microsoft Office for the online launch event, but what about people who are attending the physical event at Thames Valley Park? Are they getting the software too?

Originally we weren't going to say anything about this because if we said "come to our event and we'll give you free software" it would fill with people who were not developers, and were just coming along for the software. However, as the event filled very quickly we can't see any harm now in telling people that yes, if you come to the physical event, we plan to give you a choice of Windows Vista or the 2007 Microsoft Office system - but not both.

Also note that you won't get the software on the day, instead we'll ship it to you at a later date. This is because we won't actually have the software by then rather than for any other (more nefarious) reason.

So hopefully this is good news for you whether you're attending physically or virtually :-)

And to all of those people who emailed me with this question: Thanks for asking the question and I'm pleased that I'm now able to tell you openly.