Windows 7 pre-order

JustinW

JustinW

Super Moderator
Staff member
Microsoft has put up Windows 7 as a pre-order on thier store.

There well be 3 versions of Windows 7:

Home Premium ($50 for upgrade)
Professional ($100 for upgrade)
Ultimate ($220 for upgrade)

It well become available October 22nd of this year.

I'm actually a bit ashamed of MS for the following reasons:

a) BitLocker's not included in Win 7 Professional, which should be included for businesses so they're now forced to pay extra for Ultimate if they want that option (who knows what'll happen for users using BitLocker that upgrades from Vista Business to 7 Pro :frowning:)
b) They word it as if XP productivity applications well only work in the Pro or Ultimate editions
c) You can't in-place upgrade an XP box to Windows 7. The only upgrade path appears to be Vista to W7

Other than that, we've all been expecting MS to get it out the door as soon as they possibly could. I was hearing rumors from some that they were going to try to get it out in July in time to be pre-loaded on new computers in time for back to school in August, but it looks as if thier orginal target timeframe to be around by the holidays is going to be met instead.

Anyway, if you're anticpating an upgrade cause you've grown so attached (thanks beta program) or just hate Vista and hope MS got it right this time, than you can start pre-ordering. They've also got a Windows 7 compatibility checker there if you're unsure about whether or not your PC can handle it smoothly.
 
Interesting. I don't think I'll buy it. I'm going to stick with free Linux and Unix (much more stable and secure OSes than any version of Windows). Testing the free beta was fine, but when it comes down to paying $220 just for an upgrade from Vista to Win 7 Ultimate, why bother? I guess I'll watch the initial round of people buying it, and discovering it has the same amount of bugs (or more) than Vista. :smile:
 
I downloaded the upgrade advisor, and it assures me my system is compatible once Windows Update runs after installation.
I assume this means that the RTM will have had all the Vista x64 drivers that disappeared between 7000 and 7100 reinstated.
Disconcertingly my TV card was one of the yellow "!" (just run WUD) devices which actually crippled the RC setup and had to be removed from the mobo just to get the setup not to BSOD.

I think I'll be sticking with Vista for a few years yet, until I'm enticed into another h/w upgrade in the future.
I've never been unhappy with Vista once I got over the initial irritation at the difficulty of finding x64 drivers during installation, and now it's nearly 2 years old and rock-steady on my hardware, I'm not inclined to trade up while it does everything I need. I have XP W7(RC) and Ubuntu 9.04 available for special needs, but I'm still on Vista 99% of the time.
I haven't seen anything in W7 I can't live without, and I'm not impressed with the deletion of Windows Mail, after I've imported and converted all my old XP OE archive to Mail format.
 
Coolname007 said:
Testing the free beta was fine, but when it comes down to paying $220 just for an upgrade from Vista to Win 7 Ultimate, why bother?
Click to expand...

If you don't plan to domain join a computer at work or use bitlocker than Home Premium is just fine. Since they've discarded "Basic" (rip me off basically lol) edition it'll have aero and media center and right now anyway is only $50. I don't think that offers going to stick around for very long.

I bought Vista Ultimate when it came out. Like everyone else I was expecting something useful to come out of thier "Ultimate Extras" but primarly I wanted to have the option to use Bitlocker and have Media Center, which only both are available together in Ultimate. I haven't used bitlocker though, so I'll probably be going with HP this time. Bitclocker and domain join capabilities are about the only things that together even make the Ultimate version of Windows 7 worth buying.
 
Last edited:
True, but if I spent my money on it at all, I would probably want all the features they're offering (including BitLocker). :wink: So to me, its not really worth it to spend a couple of hundred of dollars for an OS made by Microsoft that may very well turn out to be close to Vista by the time of its final release. Besides, I'm trying to come off of Windows completely, and start using Linux and Unix (PC-BSD) more. Once you start truly exploring the other available options, you begin to see just how crappy Windows really is...
And now I am beginning to get amazed by how so many people can accept without complaint the many BSODs Windows is constantly throwing at you, at one time or another, and insist that its worth using at all. Of course, I admit that until just recently, I did not have that view, because like most everyone else, I was tied down to Windows (mainly due to the fact that most computers shipped today come with a version of Windows), and did not really know a whole lot about the other options out there. But now that I do, I am beginning to prefer free OSes much better than commercial ones, not just because they are free, but also because I find them a whole lot more stable and secure than Windows. No more having to waste hundreds of dollars on anti-virus/anti-spyware/anti-crap, which any OS that has been designed with the end-user in mind ought to be secure enough without that...which oddly enough is commonly accepted without complaint by most users on Windows.
Just shows how Microsoft really played their cards right in regards to "raking in the money"...:lol:
 
Last edited:
Back
Top