Can't quite believe this! (Cheap Windows 7)

[frostbite]

There must be a catch.

UK to get Windows 7 at half US price - ZDNet UK News Network - ZDNet UK News Network's Blog at ZDNet.co.uk Community (http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10013487o-2000591474b,00.htm)

[green granite]

I'll believe it when it's on the shelves in PC world.

[Sprogget]

Nothing is ever on the shelves at PC World at anything approaching half price.:suspect:

[phineas]

The catch is it’s not worth having, Windows 7 may be a great OS, Vista may be a great OS, but unless there is a compelling reason people will not upgrade. I’m perfectly happy with XP

[Tone]

Ah phineas, if only that were true. The world is full of naive people who will upgrade to W7 just because it's "better", and soon this forum will be full of their cries of anguish. W7 should be a decent OS by the end of 2010.
;)

[amanoffewwords]

Is W7's SP1 out yet ? :ouch:

[atpcliff]

Hi!

I have read a LOT about W7 the last few days.

W7 is a LOT better than Vista, and it is also better than XP. The main reasons not to upgrade from XP to W7: 1-Your computer doesn't have the resources to run W7 effectively (note: W7 requires LESS resources than Vista) 2-You decide it is better to save the W7 cost and put it towards a new computer that comes with W7 as it's operating system 3-You decide that it is too difficult/not worth the money to upgrade from XP-W7.

SP1 is out for Vista, which improves Vista. W7 is DRAMATICALLY better than Vista, and it is the best interface by FAR that MS has every produced. Probably the only 3 good MS interfaces were W95, XP-SP2/SP3 and W7.

Is Snow Leopard better (Apple/Mac)? Yes. It is also more expensive, and not as widely used.
Is Linux better? It depends on the user.

For the VAST MAJORITY of computer users, W7 is the best thing since sliced bread.

Note: I am NOT a MS fan. My last laptop, I immediately deleted MS Office, which came with it, and wanted to have NO MS products on my computer, and run Linux. Unfortunately, THE most important program I had will ONLY run on Windows...too bad for me!

I am currently ONLY using XP, and NO other MS products on my laptop. I am debating the upgrade to W7. It probably depends on the total cost of the upgrade...

cliff
NBO

[Keef]

There is, as ever, a lot of emotion and misinformation about W7. I've been running it on two machines (my desktop at home, and my laptop, when out and about) since early this year.

Initially, I kept dual-boot and the ability to run either XP Pro SP2 or Win 7. I've not used XP in months, and can't now imagine going back to it.

I use MS Office 2003. I tried Office 2007 (on a friend's machine) and hated it.
I also tried Vista (same machine), and found it dire.

I tried Win 7 and reckon it's the best operating system I've used. It found all the drivers for my laptop (which has some "unusual" features), and all but one for my desktop. The one it couldn't find for the desktop was for a SCSI card I bought in 1997 and which is not supported by the manufacturer, either.

Don't knock Win 7 till you've tried it!

[frostbite]

Fine, but I think phineas reflects my attitude. If you have an OS that does what you want it to, why rush out and get something just because it's new?

I/you get a computer to do various jobs. If it does those jobs, why not leave it as it is. You wouldn't put a new engine in your car so you could stand around with the bonnet up admiring it.

[aubzaubz]

Hopefully W7 will be a worthwhile upgrade from XP sp3!

[green granite]

It's very much better than XP I, like Keef have it as a dual boot system but I haven't wanted to go back to XP apart from the need to use one legacy program, and now with a virtual M\C running XP installed which auto-starts when I click on that legacy program I don't need to go back at all.

There will of course be a lot of cock ups when people do an upgrade instead of doing a clean install, but that's their choice.

[Sprogget]

For the same reason hardly anyone drives around in a Morris Marina. A Bmw M3 does the same job, but face it, the user experience is so much more improved.

I don't buy this head in the sand argument for a minute. It may suit to look down one's nose at something new from Microsoft, but ultimately, if everyone had declared themselves content with 3.1, where would we be now? Where would the investment have come from to develop the technology?

If you're happy with xp, fine, no problem, but I don't see why people should pipe up to denigrate a technology that it seems they haven't experienced for themselves based wholly on the views that what they have is just dandy & it can't be any good because MS are always cocking it up. Strange.:confused:

[call100]

Vista is fine. I have absolutely no problems with it and cannot understand the problems people have. I suppose it must be dependent on how and what you use it for...
Having said that, this laptop will be donated to my Wife soon and the new Desktop will have W7 installed. What I've seen I quite like and am looking forward to it. I certainly don't miss XP. Onward and Upward!
:}:ouch:

[Guest 112233]

Don't forget though that people don't automatically partition their hard disk into an operating system volume, an application volume and data volume - I do now but I haven't always done so in the past - This makes identification of your data files, if you have lots of them, difficult - for backup/ coping. Thus people are tempted to install a new operating sys, (I include XP SP2, and XP3 as new -Argument developing) as an upgrade instead of a complete new start, e.g. Vista to Win 7. Remember ther's no direct way of upgrading to win 7 from XP and this is a big impediment. I have not used win 7 yet - my kit base is, with two exeptions, not upto it.

I imagine most MS vista applcations will run well under win 7 but its the non MS apps that we all tend to accrue over time, Nero anyone, and gradual tweeks that make our systems effective to use. Win 7 native support for SATA is a big bonus, as is better memory addressing, but the gotya's will be in Anti virus / anti Malware applications - Backup (although I suspect that Win 7 has an improved algorithm) and sound/video cards. Remember XP virtual M/C is only avalable if your processor can support it and aif you are using one of the more expensive versions of Win 7.

For now is XP SP3 and Ubuntu 9.04 for me.

Addendium: Apersonal got'ya on Ubuntu Azus one netbook - The latest fix seems to cause Grub loader to stop working properly - On first boot after installing the update on a XP / Ubuntu PC you can only select Ubuntu from the boot menu and not any other option. On an XP dual boot use the grub editor to tell grub to set XP as the default option and grub will work properly on re starting. Has anyone else seen this little prob.

CAT III.

[Ancient Observer]

The techie thickies here - me included, will wake up again in 2011 when all you techie "early adopters" have found and solved all the problems.

Meanwhile, my carefully preserved XP will rule OK, ta.

[Guest 112233]

Dear AO

Err -Yep - Me too - whats da bet that there be a show stopping unintended feature in Win 7 - but to be fair.

CAT III

[Blacksheep]

I don't have much choice. I bought a new laptop recently that inevitably came with Vista, which I find clunky and annoying as it keeps doing things in the background that interfere with what I'm doing. OK, so an auto-restart takes me back to where I was and I lose nothing, but the interruption wates time. I'll get used to the OS I suppose and learn what features to turn off and how, but no sooner than thats done than I have to migrate to another new system - I get a free upgrade to Windows 7 in October but if I leave it for a couple of years while the bugs are fixed, I'll have to pay for it.

[call100]

It's really funny to read the same sort of posts about vista that were around when XP first came out...Everyone waiting for bug fixes...'I'm not changing, what's wrong with W9X'. 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'
I wonder if it was the same people???????????????:):)

[Saab Dastard]

Call 100, I think your comments about waiting for bug fixes have been true of pretty much every MS OS since DOS 1!! They have a history.

In fact, XP is a poor choice, because it was one of the better OS releases right from RTM.

Windows 7 has a similar relationship to Vista as XP had to 2000, in that in both cases it was an evolution of a revolutionary design. It built on the good points of its predecessor, and tried to eliminate the negatives.

Having had Win9x both at home and at work, I couldn't wait to junk it in favour of Win2K. And having had Win2K, I couldn't wait to adopt XP, which was significantly better - and that was even prior to SP1!! It improved so many things that didn't work well in 2K, and provided support for new technology - particularly wireless.

Most of the bad press about Vista was about how crap it was as an OS, rather than how many bugs it had. It wasn't seen as a great OS with some teething troubles, it was seen as a horribly intrusive OS with lots of teething troubles.

Win7 seems to have addressed many of the issues people had with Vista core functionality, processes and features, resulting in a better, faster, less intrusive and more efficient OS.

Am I rushing to upgrade to Win7? No - simply because at this stage there is nothing there that I need to have, as opposed to might like.

If I thought that Win7 would provide features and functionality that would allow me to do things that I cannot do with XP, or that I could do significantly better, then I would certainly consider adopting it - prior to SP1, even!

It's a pretty simple cost-benefit analysis - pain & cost of changing vs. gain by changing.

SD

[Guest 112233]

I missed the obvious in my prev posts - Re Win 7 - Don't forget its a big oppertunity to push kit to the hordes of users out there with "aging kit" in computer terms - MS is a business and a very successful one too. The glowing reports re WIN 7 are part of an incentive by the software and hardware manufacturers and computer media to push sales, its in their commercial interest. I'm sorry for those people who have no choice but to purchase units running vista. Its not that Vista is that bad - I have used it on other people's machines with lots of RAM (2GB plus), SATA HD's etc. Its the constant "Well you must have this to to play Bhah de Blah at 72 FPS or calling all "power users" I love that one - " - Sorry but the majority of users want WP,EM and near totally reliable, fast and cheap internet access - We have learned through 20 years of experence as users; that once its in and working "Leave it alone" - I'm an offender of the "I bet I can improve my download speed from 5.5 MBs to 5.5005 MBs brigade ". Msg to self leave the thing(s) alone. Win 7's own biggest compeitor is XP Pro SP3. - Take a very cool long hard look before upgrading kit, if its working. Avoid the marketing vortex.

CAT III - An ex kit tinkering offender.

[dazdaz]

You guys/gals should think yourselves lucky, I'm still waiting for the SP1 update on my Commodore 64:ugh:

[frostbite]

Oh, what a shame!

I've just thrown the cassette away.

[al446]

Tomorrow is last day to download W7 RC, hope this link works:

Link (http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2009/8/19/windows-7-rc-download-deadline-looms/#2w?utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Meet%20The%20Pink%20Netbook%20Killer%20|%20Windo ws%207%20RC%20Download%20Deadline%20Looms%20|%20Blackberry%2 0Storm%202%20Smartphone%20|%20No%20Apple%20Tablet%20In%20Sep tember%20Event?&utm_campaign=Meet%20The%20Pink%20Netbook%20Killer%20|%20Wind ows%207%20RC%20Download%20Deadline%20Looms%20|%20Blackberry% 20Storm%202%20Smartphone%20|%20No%20Apple%20Tablet%20In%20Se ptember%20Event?)

Sorry about the length, I can't help it.

[amanoffewwords]

You guys/gals should think yourselves lucky, I'm still waiting for the SP1 update on my Commodore 64:ugh:

Will SP1a for a Commodore VIC 20 do? It's on a 5 1/4 floppy mind :8

re shortening URLs (last post) try tinyurl.com

[Saab Dastard]

Sorry about the length, I can't help it.

Yes, please make your links longer in future! ;)

SD

[al446]

SD, When I posted it t'was about 6 lines long. Maybe I'm just used to apologising for length?:)

[Mushroom_2]

I recently installed Win 7 on a new computer. Went like clockwork. After 2 days use I find it excellent - I have XP Pro on all but one computer in the house and it's a huge improvement. I have experience of Vista on 1 computer and it convinced me never to use it on anything else.

I will be upgrading all my computers in the near future. It's what Vista should have been.

[Keef]

I got called in by next door neighbour whose daughter had managed to trash her hard drive. I put in a spare, and installed Win7RC1. It took about 15 minutes from start to finish - she was very impressed. It took another couple of hours to install the other software, set it up, and copy in her stuff from backups, though.

She's very happy, and looking for the best price for a "release" version of Win 7 come the day.

Compared with the XP Media Center Edition on there before, it's a major improvement.

[Lightning6]

If you pre-order from PC World you can save over 50% :-

PC World UK Computer Superstore - Buy cheap computers, laptops, desktop PCs, printers, LCD TVs, sat nav, digital cameras and more.. (http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/editorial/windows7-preorder)

[eticket]

I dunno, I got a BSOD within about 15 seconds of my first desktop running XP reaching the familiar desktop screen.


I thought I was doing quite well to lose the taskbar after only 5 minutes with XP. It wasn't hiding, it had gone forever. It turned out to be 'a known problem'. So congratulations on 15 seconds!

[ORAC]

Cheap way to get Windows 7 for around £60. Minus, of course, anything you make selling on the Vista you bought..... ;)

Windows 7 Home Premium Available For £60.75 Thanks To Loophole

For those looking to shave a few pounds off the price of the next Windows 7 Home Premium edition, there is apparently a loophole involving the upgrade version of Windows Vista Home Premium.

According to the terms and conditions at Amazon, buying an eligible copy of Windows Vista from Amazon.co.uk between 26th June and 15th October 2009 are eligible for a free copy of the equivalent version of Windows 7 when it is launched.

In addition, Amazon's FAQ section says that "At present in the EU, all versions of Windows 7 (Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate) are the full product.s This means that to install Windows 7, you do not need any previous version of Windows installed on your computer."

Now, the upgrade version of Windows Vista, Home Premium Edition with Service Pack 1 is one of them and happens to be the cheapest at £60.75, a saving of lightly more than £3 compared to Amazon's price for Windows 7 Home Premium.

Agharta from consumer forum Hotukdeals explains "The two licenses (Vista Upgrade and Windows 7) are not related and come with different keys. You can treat them as separate entities and are not obliged to use the new version on the PC that the old version was installed on. The difference here is that there is currently no upgrade version of Windows 7 for the UK so when you buy Vista Upgrade you get the full version of Windows 7 for free which is what makes this unusual."...............

[Parapunter]

Already ordered a full retail copy for a shade under fifty wing wangs. MS pricing department seem out of control.:uhoh:

[Keef]

Ordered two copies at under £50. I assume I need one each for laptop and desktop.

[Temet_Nosce]

I ordered one copy - I understood this would do for my PC and my laptop??

:confused:

[Lightning6]

AFAIK, one copy will be allowed to be used on two computers.