Screaming Pre-Order Deal On Windows 7
I have been a frequent detractor of Windows Vista. However, after playing around with the Windows 7 beta for a while, I am very encouraged about this new OS. For a limited time, Microsoft is offering pre-order sales of Windows 7 home and pro upgrade packages (these require you to already have Windows on your computer). Prices are $49.99 and $99.99 respectively, which represent a 50% discount to the planned prices of these products at roll-out. I already bought 3 copies from Amazon (that is the limit, apparently, that Amazon is setting). Delivery is not until some time in October.
Amazon links: Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade and Windows 7 Professional Upgrade.
Andrew:
Over the last 2 months I've been dual booting Ubuntu Linux 9.04 and Windows 7, and I've come to the conclusion that Linux has finally beat Windows out in the usability department.
Why the heck should I need to find and install drivers just to print to a generic HP printer?
Printer setup time on Linux: 1 min. (Plugged in and recognized, automatic driver installation.)
Printer setup time on Win7: >30 min. (Plug in, recognize, search for driver, don't find driver, manually find driver on internet, manually install driver, restart computer)
I'm never going back to Windows for my non-gaming needs.
June 26, 2009, 1:16 amIan Random:
I agree with Andrew. Although my day job involves Winders, when I come home I use Linux Ubuntu exclusively. I used to install Winders just for practice to do my taxes on, but XP activation and online tax software ended that.
June 26, 2009, 1:45 amtomw:
Why? Why are you spending on yet another version? Do you have the expectation that they'll finally get it right this time? That they have successfully chased and defeated all the bugs and security lapses? Do you think it worth your time to learn *again* how to open and close windows? How to perform a search? How to navigate up and down within the folder tree?
They changed all of this stuff, and I, for one, have no idea why. I ended up clicking on the disk icon to navigate back up the tree, because another method was not obvious to me, and I have worked with computers since the IBM 7094, and Windows from the original 5 disk distribution. Maybe 6.
These people just can't say enough bells and whistles, let's just make it work without locking up or generating a BSOD daily. They have to disrupt multiple corporations, and cause them to spend Millions or Billions to purchase, install and retrain all their personnel for a new release.
Why?
tom
June 26, 2009, 4:44 amJohn O.:
Newegg.com is running the same offer as well.
My thoughts on the discount is that its all a huge PR campaign by Microsoft to get people to like them again. Which may or may not work depending on how much people like or accept the new changes in Windows 7.
-- John O.
June 26, 2009, 4:49 amIronman:
I've only had limited experience with Windows 7, but the home networking features are impressive compared to the older versions - it's really cool to be able to print from a laptop on the wireless connection without having to put the printer directly on the network.
June 26, 2009, 7:19 amAdam:
I'm loving the hell out of Windows 7, and I thought you'd have to drag me kicking and screaming away from XP.
I had a Mac laptop and sold it - organizing files in OS X via Finder was like trying to herd cats. Every issue I ran into with OS X got me replies of, "Well, you can just download this or this." At some point I realized, "Gee, with Windows, I don't have to do all of this shit - it really does 'just work'."
As for Ubuntu, I threw it out the window ten minutes into my first experience with it (I'm still somewhat fond of Arch and Gentoo), because the open source video drivers I had simply didn't work, and upon installing the proprietary drivers Ubuntu decided to alert me every ten seconds or so that I was evil and helping the corporations and the man.
There's only so much communist I can take.
Windows 7 has been running on my desktop since beta was announced, and I'm having zero problems with it.
June 26, 2009, 7:28 amDoug:
I don't discount the competitive effects of Linux, but Apple's upgrade price to OSX 10.6.x to a mere $29 had nothing to do with it? You know, THAT Apple, who's beginning to nibble at MSFT's lunch? While it's impossible to compete with "free" (Linux), there is no mistaking that MSFT is focused --- make that OBSESSED --- with the Apple threat.
June 26, 2009, 11:33 amDr. T:
"Screaming Pre-Order Deal On Windows 7"
Yeah, if I had to run Windows I'd be screaming, too.
June 26, 2009, 3:05 pmDavid Smith:
I've been running the beta Win7 and now the RC and liked it enough to buy one pre-order copy of Win7 Pro.
June 26, 2009, 6:00 pmepobirs:
Doug, get real. Apple's cash cows are the iPod and iPhone along with their attached software businesses. Their revenue on PC operating systems and software is tiny compared to Microsoft. Apple would have to grow by a multiplier unprecedented in all business history to cause any serious concern on MS's part. They could give away their OS revisions and it would not affect the market much due to the hardware lock-in. The main way in which OS upgrades improve Apple revenues is by making the newer hardware generations more desirable. Which is fine if you're in the complete system business like Apple. Microsoft's business is more complicated due to their not having end-to-end control over the platform. Apple is somewhat at Intel's mercy on some areas but this is less of a problem than depending on IBM to deliver rapid improvement without being able to offer enough sales to make it worth the higher cost to compete head to head with Intel on PC parts.
A bigger problem than apple's single digit market share is Microsoft's own installed base. The newer stuff has a lot to offer developers for making better software but until the installed base is high enough, a lot of developers won't commit to producing apps, outside of games, that will only run on newer systems.
June 27, 2009, 1:04 amMichael:
Did you buy 32 or 64 bit?
June 29, 2009, 6:59 pmEricP:
Thanks for the heads up, I just ordered it. I'm a software developer who manages over a dozen Linux servers. For desktop, I like Windows. I skipped Vista and still run XP. I've heard nothing but good things about 7 from the people I work with. I'm looking forward to Windows 7 64bit.
June 29, 2009, 8:51 pm