Comments on: Microsoft sets Windows 7 pricing, upgrade programs

The software maker will allow consumers to preorder Windows 7 at a big discount, while offering permanent prices at or below the retail prices for Windows Vista.

[pooyan69]

If you have a system with 4g of ram and a modern CPU, Vista runs perfect. I won't go back to XP.
XP is fantastic if you have a slower system. Run Vista 64 on a capable system and you wont go back to XP.

[queticomn]

No thanks, I'm enjoying my openSuSe Free Linux Desktop O/S with compiz *eyecandy* window manager. I love my virus, Trojan, spy-ware, worm free O/S. I love the incredible LIVE lifetime free support i receive from the Linux community. I love my incredibly stable Linux Kernel.

No thanks M$ all pass.

Have a nice day Bill.

[Toulinwoek]

OK, I know where this comes from. Vista was a failure (commercially if not technically), and Win7 is being released on a shorter cycle than XP-to-Vista. But for this to cause people to consider Win7 a "service pack" reflects either bitterness or a basic ignorance concerning just what a service pack is. The FACT is, like it or not, Win7 is going to blast whatever Apple wants to set forth as their best. I'm not saying this because I am such a big fan of Microsoft (or a big hater of Apple), but because of the professional and user reviews and comments that have been floating around for the last 6 months or so.

The Mac/Leopard groundswell is about to taper off and fizzle, relegating Apple back to little more than a glorified record store with a dime's worth of market share in computers. Microsoft on the other hand is probably going to use the momentum they gain from Win7 to gouge folks when the next iterations of Office and Visual Studio are released. The Win7 pricing is kind of "friendly" for the next month, but that's hiding some claws I think. The regular prices are exorbitant, which will probably create a rush of early adopters and punish those who don't make it under the July 11 wire.

At any rate, I'll be upgrading to Win7 and recommending it highly to everyone.

[shane--2008]

still a high price to go from Vista Alpha to Vista Beta....

"Why does every article about Microsoft have to turn into a Mac vs PC "turf war"? Can't we just enjoy our Windows 7 PC's in peace?!?"

I doubt it. I have never seen anyone enjoy windows. But good luck trying!

[Hokieincville]

I have Vista 64 and I'd like to do a fresh install of Windows 7. Can I buy the upgrade, or do I have to buy the full version at the inflated price?

[ZenTigerpaw]

If there's anything I've learned from this argument is both Snow Leopard and Windows 7 are upgrades in there own rights. Both have fixes and enhancements. Both include new under the hood features. Its just one company is asking for money then another.

Now lets take a look: Snow Leopard is $29 and Windows 7 Home Premium is $49 while Pro is $99. Lets add the economy into the equitation and you do the math.

[OpinionatedGift]

With pricing structures like that I am even less inclined to continue my using a PC when my XP computer finally dies.

I'm done with Microsoft. They will never learn.

[notgonnatellya]

[i]I work at a University, and we did not change over to VISTA at all on the University owned machines because of what we have heard from other Universities that did this transition and it was a terrible mess. And these were pretty beefy machines only about a year old.[/i]

No offense, but unless those machines were in a graphics lab, they weren't beefy. They were almost certainly using Intel's on board graphics solution, which must have been at least 5 years behind mid-priced graphics card.

Vista ran fine on an Athlon 64 1800 (the slowest 64) witha 2 year old graphics card.

The problem is that Businesses and schools by lousy machines. My machine at work is newer than my home machine and slower in every possible way.

[absolutshame]

by thelemurking June 25, 2009 6:55 AM PDT
@ ddesy
"Vista was a failure on more than "welfare machines." It was a failure to many of us who need to support computers for a living!"

perhaps it is you that is the failure! a 3rd of all the machines that I support at work are running Vista. I have had no problems with it at home or at work. I love Vista! I rarely even use XP anymore. I get most of my stuff done between Vista and Ubuntu with no issues or hassles.

I often wonder what a lot of people who hate Vista are doing on their PCs. I seem to remember a lot of people hating XP when it first came out because it was different and nothing worked on it...
-----------------------------------------------------------

Look I run 8 gig of ram and quad-proccesor. Also run dual ATI graphic cards so my pc is far from a welfare pc, it's basically the new standard.

I have had some driver issues with Vista64 but that's mainly due to 3rd party apps and not Microsoft.

I recently tried out Windows7 RC and it was extremely slow on boot-up compared to Vista and had alot more driver issues.

I sincerely hope that Windows 7 performs much better than the RC version. If not I am sticking with Vista.

Now XP is still miles better then Vista but with support dying out soon I guess it's Vista or nothing, Ubuntu does not support my video cards or BluRay.

My advice to those having problems with Vista, build your own rig and stop buying crap pc's from retail outlets.

[Renegade Knight]

I wonder if you will be able to do a clean install from an upgrade like you can with Vista?

[angeljeanne]

I have yet to meet anyone that likes this version of MSN, sorry but I have XP and right now will use msn 2003 and all is working fine right now, I feel if it is not brok shy fix it? Good luck to those who do have or are going to get it, I am going to stay with what I have, MONEY is none existent around here. Have a good day, jmjw

[lilochris]

@Hernys

That was a terrible comment. Everything I need is on the Mac. I have Microsoft Office, Adobe, CS4, iLife 06 and thats all I need. I have yahoo messenger, Firefox, and many other freeware apps that lets me reformat files, rip my disc images and etc.

I only have XP on 15GB of the 160GB on iMac just in Case any classes I attend assign me to use a program thats only Compatible with Windows. I only needed XP just to use Internet Explorer just so I can do my Online Algebra Assignments. And that was 14 months ago, I've only booted Xp just to keep it updated since then. I can do everything I need to do in Mac OS X and probably better.

The $29 upgrade for Mac OS X Snow Leopard is actually a gift. And even there charge of $169 for the Mac Box set witch Gives you the Operating system, iLife, and iWork is a gift. Thats a lot for the money. No Windows Operating system can give you that much. Not Even a new Computer out of the box witch may be filled with bloatware or trial versions of software. The Snow Leopard Operating System will be half the size, the way the whole Operating system works and it's background operations and data processing will be completely different,. Unlike a service Pack, only major feature I noticed yet unuseful was the Windows Security Center and some firewall updates and that does squat.

Microsoft can't compare Snow Leopard to their Service Packs. Service Packs never transformed an operating system into something different as Apple Can do. Apple is underestimating Snow Leopards Purpose but they also can't over estimate.

Windows will be more expensive. Windows 7 should be the one considered a better Vista. It still has the same olds from Vista. That discount for Windows will only be temporary. Yet Apple's will be permanent.

[drbyte]

I don't know. All that money and extra PC hardware needed to get an OS that might be (at the most) $25% faster than XP pro with the same hardware. Seems like a bait and switch scheme to me.

Put xp on any machine that was running vista and you see a big difference. My clients look puzzled after downgrading to XP, asking what was Vista suppose to be. Looks only take you so far.

Windows 7 better run 25 times faster than xp pro or eventually word will spread just like it did with vista.

Does it?

[Mergatroid Mania]

How about Canada? Are we getting the same preorder prices as the USA?

Although the full o/s prices are a little steep, the upgrade prices are very reasonable.

[aluzero]

I'm not a big fan of the Mac OS, it can be more customizable and open to more third party application developers as well as hardware developers. However, KUDOS to Apple for making Snow Leopard an upgrade fee and not treating it as a new operating system. Microsoft take a good look at Apple, because lets stop pretending that Windows 7 is a HUGE difference compared to Vista...In fact Microsoft should owe it to it's customers by doing taking a good look at Apple on how they are pricing Snow Leopard. Especially considering that fact that many people have bought vista and still put up with all the problems they knew that were going to happen before they even bought it, simply because it is Windows and not the Mac OS. Do us all a favor Microsoft, throw your customers a favor on upgrades of operating systems, because that is what Windows 7 is and stop raping them for a half a month to a month of paycheck that could have went to rent specially in these times. People are already going to buy Windows 7 regardless, it's not like enough copies are not going to sell. For all you people looking to buy Windows 7, there is the direct deposit slip that you can now get from your employer. It simply takes a certain percentage of your paycheck every month and transfers it to Microsoft's account. The money goes toward a an airplane that will fly over your house with a sign everyday at 8:00 p.m. in your time zone stating....."YOU'RE AN IDIOT FOR BUYING WINDOWS 7. HOWEVER, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND MONEY"

[duntonrm]

That truly is a price that we have never even come close to in terms of an operating system release," Corporate Vice President Brad Brooks said. "We've still got a business to run."

Really. That is strange. I distinctly remember purchasing Windows ME as an upgrade to 98 for only $49, but yet Microsoft has never ever come close to that price. Hmmmmm.........

[vaulting16]

how many computers will you be able to install the real, october 22 release, windows 7 onto with a single disk?

[graupma]

I've had XP ever since it's been out, and no problems.
I more interested to see if Steve Jobs comes back to APPLE, than whether to fight over which system is better.
Everyone here has a legitimate comment on their system. I went to Amazon and signed up for when Windows 7 was available. I know it doesn't happen until tomorrow, but I should have been able to pre-order. Went to BEST BUY, and nothing even remotely about tomorrow's offer. I'll check Wal-Mart who is usually good at their website, although....i wonder.

I willing to risk the $49 bucks for the upgrade, plus all the taxes, etc..to get the CD, or DVD., whatever. I know that if I don't like it I can go back to XP.

As for APPLE, I see that they have been doing OK without Mr. Jobs. What pisses me off more than anything is the SEC interfering with the company, wanting to know more information on his kidney transplant. What has that got to do with the company, or the busness model.
?
As for me, I like Apple, and Microsoft. As a former IBM'r, who programmed the first computer in 1961, I can tell you, without them and the technology that it has created ......where would we be today.??
I ask you...! Without IBM, Microsoft may not have gotten off the ground...and that's the other side of the story...
and by the way, all of this is interrelated, you know, like a family..etc.

good luck all.

[skate7129008]

lol i made an account just to say this... vista cant transfer files over 4GB off a wireless hard drive (time capsule) without crashing and requiring a forced reboot (mac capable of copying 200GB music collection without thinking about it), vista cant (out of the box) connect to a wireless connection and ethernet (one local and one WAN), windows struggles to go on the internet and watch a movie at the same time... mac can convert a movie, watch a movie, go on the internet, run itunes, run Mail app and still perfect..... and whats even funnier vista runs faster on a bloody mac... what the hell is that about? and btw snow leopard doesnt like upgrades like vista... all operating systems prefer clean installs so you are starting fresh x

[einarabelc5]

To those that claim that W7 requires a new machine. It depends of what you want with your machine. Some people even managed to run W7 on 64 megs of ram and a Pentium Pro. But you can also run 12 gigs of ram and never have to close your applications. So that argument is not valid anymore.

[play7]

thank you for clearing that up