Windows 7 ships with browser choice.

mr_fishbulb

Lum wrote: »

No, pre-orders are still going to get the full version.

Was having a read in the comments on the Amazon site. Someone else is saying that too, although I can't see an official comment from MS.

Lum

This is the article everyone is referring to

CNet_News" wrote:

Those who pre-ordered Windows 7 "E" through a recent discount offer will get the full version, as Microsoft had promised. However, Microsoft plans to now sell Windows 7 upgrades in Europe and also offer a higher-priced full version (for those without an earlier copy of Windows)--similar to what it is doing in the rest of the world.

mr_fishbulb

Thanks Lum. Wonder when Amazon will stop calling it the E version on their site.

Ximian

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8168235.stm

Marty_J

anewhope wrote: »

I'm talking about even before those two steps happened, way back when it was pre Milestone etc. The two you mentioned have managed to do something rarely seen with an operating system launch, having Joe Public buying it on release rather than just a minority of technology enthusiasts.

The people who are buying it are mostly a minority of tech enthusiasts.

The massive reduction in price for a limited time is what sparked any interest there was for Joe Public.

Not really much of a surprise? Seems like rather basic marketing to me. The Netbook market wants Windows, it even shunned Linux when the product was cheaper. The ideo of what a Netbook was originally has become so far diluted now that absorbing a small increase in what the OEM has paid out for Windows won't matter, consumers still want Windows.

Microsoft have been giving Windows away to netbook OEMs, so no, it's not really a surprise that they're planning on increasing the price of them by actually starting to charge for the OS that's on them. It'll be a real pity if Microsoft manage to drive Linux out of the netbook market; we certainly won't be seeing many powerful energy efficient netbooks with crazy-long battery life running on ARM processors.

Lum wrote: »

It is a very nice OS. MS really are getting their act together these days.

Is it though? I was more impressed when I tried out Vista for the first time than when I tried out Windows 7.

Seems to me to be 5% improvements and 95% hype.

Unfortunately though, Microsoft charge for the hype as well as the improvements.

m5rcc

Long live XP!

nomoneytoday

m5rcc wrote: »

Long live XP!

It already has had a long life. Windows 3.1, 95, 98 and ME for example were changed after 2-3 years. XP has been around for about 3 times as long

Marty_J

Some conversational fodder:

Why Windows 7 is Microsoft's next Zune

The Vista Myth: Why Windows 7 won't turn Microsoft around

Lum

Hmm, that guy starts his argument by painting a stereotype of Windows users as either cheapskates or drones, then explains why that sort of person wouldn't be interested in Vista or Win7.

So apparently 90% of desktop computer users are either cheapskates or drones.

Vista was a flop because of terrible hardware support and backwards compatability issues which went on to give it a bad reputation among the geek crowd, which then filtered down into the consumer and business crowd. The former is a non-issue for Macs because Apple control the hardware. The latter was less of an issue because the backwards compatability issues mainly bit businesses running ancient, poorly written accounting packages and bespoke systems.

The hardware support in Win7 isn't an issue because it's basically a polished up and trimmed down version of Vista that uses the same drivers, the backward compatability issue is mitigated by the fact that a lot of the crap software out there has finally been updated, and the remaining stuff has been addressed through the free XP virtual machine you get with Win7 Pro.

I can see why a lot of businesses may still be nervous or simply not want to spend the money. I also can't can't see much reason to upgrade if you currently have Vista, but it is a worthy upgrade from XP even if most of the improvements in it you could've got anyway if you'd gone for Vista last month. This time around the geek crowd are actually liking the OS so most likely that will filter down into the business and consumer awareness.

Personally I don't care if it does well or not. I like the OS enough that I was prepared to pay £90 for it, but I generally don't give a stuff about MS's fortunes (or Apple's for that matter). I'll leave that to the fanboys.

F1-Junkie

The XP virtual machine only works on certain intel processors .. if you aint got the right hardware, you're screwed.

Vista was actually a flop because it was like the winME saga .. basically Vista is a "tide over" between XP and W7 and it was crap, slow, cumbersome, annoying .. the list goes on.

Hardware support in W7 can still be an issue as a lot of the bugs still aren't ironed out by the manufacturers .. trust me I know.

I've run all versions of W7 on a quad core PC (yes .. I'm a geeky type .. don't patronize me) and to be honest, I wouldn't bother touching W7 until at least September next year (2010). I'm still running XP Pro and it ticks over perfectly quick and stable.

Oh and for those that want the look and feel of W7 on an Xp / Vista Pc, don't bother with the theme's that you can download. They eventually trash your machine either through malware / spyware / system & application errors. It's another false economy. (I've rebuilt my machine 'cause I thought it was smart to look like W7).