Microsoft giving away Windows 7 to some

Sean Ridgeley - Monday, January 19, 2009 10:40am (PST) 0 Favourite (0)

Upgrade Program may mean free OS

In what some are taking as an apology, Microsoft has revealed its tentatively titled Windows 7 Upgrade Program, which will allow some Vista users moving to the new operating system (OS) to do so free of charge.

The stipulations are finicky, though: the OS must have been pre-installed with a computer bought from July 1, 2009 on, and Home Basic and Starter Edition don't count. From this we can conclude we won't be seeing Windows 7 until at least that month -- but does this mean this is about when it's coming?

Depending on which version of Vista you are using, you will receive a correspending version of 7. Let us observe:

Windows Vista Home Premium -> Windows 7 Home Premium
Windows Vista Business -> Windows 7 Professional
Windows Vista Ultimate -> Windows 7 Ultimate

Note that the program is offered to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) first, and it's up to them what they want to do with it, if anything, meaning depending on the theoretical PC you purchase, you may or may not be offered this deal.

Source: Tech ARP

Section: OS & Software

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1 thumbs!

Guest Jan 19, 09

1/2 decent move on their part, but they lost a ton of cred with Vista. If they want to catch back up they should upgrade all Vista editions free. Vista is pretty much Windows 7 Alpha anyway. I wasted a bunch of cash on Vista Ultimate last year, I have yet to feel that was money well spent...even spent a few months putting up with Linux bullshit instead of using it. Windows 7 and Vista sales would probably explode if they announced free Vista->7 upgrade, not going to happen though.
0 thumbs!

Guest Jan 19, 09

Microsoft should offer an upgrade program for anybody who buys a computer after January 1st, 2009. They should call it a New Years' Resolution upgrade opportunity. Now, with computer sales most likely sucking anyways due to the economy, well informed people will to buy a computer in the second half of this year (unless of course a BIG discount encourages you to buy now and pay later for Windows 7). I wouldn't want to pay to downgrade to XP right now, though.
1 thumbs!

Guest Jan 19, 09

They don't get it, most users are still using Windows XP not Vista. They need to take upgrading XP users at a reasonable price to the Ultimate Version (should just cut their losses and release on OS version) and provide proper upgrade paths for 32 bit and 64 bit versions of XP, period.

Otherwise, XP users will continue to use XP.
XP.. It's all I have, it's all we use at work (very large company), it's what my friend still uses, my parents, my sister, my brother.

wake up Microsoft..
0 thumbs!

Shadow of Death Jan 19, 09

Well, the main reason people have stuck with XP is because Vista didn't match expectations, and XP is more stable, less of a memory hog, and has more software that works properly with it.

If Windows 7 can solve most of Vista's problems, and improve a bit upon it, we'll probably see more people migrating.
-1 thumbs!

Guest Jan 19, 09

Most people don't realize that Vista is catching on faster than XP ever did, has fewer bugs than XP did, and is making more money than XP did. But everyone only listens to those mindless Mac commercials and is sucked into the false perception.
0 thumbs!

Guest Jan 19, 09

^^ user above obviously hasn't had to deal with windows.......*cough* mac *cough*
-1 thumbs!

Guest Jan 19, 09

I believe whoever wrote this article didn't do their homework well.

Microsoft targets latest end of this year to release Windows 7. And it is not new for Microsoft to offer free Windows Upgrade for consumers who buy a computer a few months before the release of the new OS. The reason being, they wouldn't want people not to buy a computer and wait for the new OS release. They did this with Vista, and XP too.
1 thumbs!

Guest Jan 21, 09

Vista Sucks period! I use it in a large corporation and we have come to refer to vista in several colorful ways. One thing Microsoft NEEDS to fix is the "Vista Lag". It absolutely sucks on a network where you have multiple drives to the server mapped. There is a minimum 7-8 second pause while Vista connects to them. this can happen literally seconds after you close your window and need to get back on the network drive. VISTA SUCKS PERIOD! FYI - I am not, nor have I ever been a MAC user, this comes from several years of IT experience.