Windows 7 Loving Windows 7, Still not worth the $

[djarrum]

I have to say, I'm loving Windows 7 Ultimate, I've never gotten such a smooth upgrade first on my machine, and then an equally smooth and event free clean install on my wife's machine. Microsoft finally got it right. Homegroup is probably the greatest thing to ever hit windows since the dancing paper clip!

Here's the thing, as good as it is, it's not worth the price tag. To ask the average consumer/user to shell out the kind of money Microsoft is asking for a feature rich OS/Productivity Suite is outrageous, yet Microsoft complains when they find there preciouse cash cows hacked, cracked, and seeded on every bit torrent tracker from here to Timbuktu. And to think they actually toyed with the idea of making Windows 7 a subscription based licence meaning you would actually have to form over a monthly or annual fee like your paying an effing utility! Glad they didn't get that on BTW!

This is what I think Microsoft should do. Sell one OS distribution at one price, and include the most recent release of Office with it. After all, what are you really going to do without an office suite? And no the majority of people still do not know what OpenOffice.org is.

Allow it to be legally installed on the entire family's computers (Before you say anything, I know they are already doing this), But it should be mainstream.

Become an active participant in the Linux community! Embrace Linux users as a group that may in fact be willing to pay for something like for instance, a commercial window manager or even a commercial implementation of WINE. Just because the platform is open source, doesn't mean your product has to be. For god sakes stop yanking every after market peripheral vendors' "Windows compatibility logo" just because they offer driver support for Linux.

P.S. $99.95 is a price I had in mind, and I don't mean for the watered down, no frills version either. When the time comes for the next release of windows, offer people the opportunity to hand over their old disks and receive a discount on the new release. Before anyone starts pointing out all the imperfections in my proposal because they don't address bootleggers, let me just say, I don't give a damn about bootleggers.

/rant off

 

[Tepid]

Just for the record,,, Vista runs better on true multicore processors.
Not the Hyperthreading or early called core duo.

7 should run fairly well on the lower end 3Ghz processors,, maybe lower,,, but I wouldn't go too much lower. Just personal opinion.

 

[Archangel]

No... people in general are stupid.. And the number of people who fall into this category rises when it comes to computers.. I don't see how you can say that people don't know.. These days, with all the resources we have available to us, it's almost impossible (in quite a few areas of the world) to "not know".. In a 3rd world country, yes, they probably don't know.. But in places like North America (for example) they have no excuse for not knowing in my opinion..

I totally agree with that, my friend...

 

[Tepid]

Just for the record,,, Vista runs better on true multicore processors.
Not the Hyperthreading or early called core duo.

7 should run fairly well on the lower end 3Ghz processors,, maybe lower,,, but I wouldn't go too much lower. Just personal opinion.

To put some perspective on this,,,,,,,

Minimum Requirements means the following...... (it has been this way pretty much since day one)

Minimum Requirements to get the software, games, etc. working,,, not usable,,,
but just up and able to view it and maybe do a couple tasks. Not a usable/playable state

You should always add a half to double the minimum requirements to actually be usable.
And even then,,, it's not a guarantee. It depends on the software/game.

Recommended Requirements are a little better, but you still want to add better than half that to get good potential out of the software/game. triple it for max pleasure. This is more true with games and operating systems, than general software, again, depending on the software. Video/Audio Editing,,, you want lots more than even Recommended.

To help alleviate some of this,,,, MS developed the System rating. I wish more companies would use it.

I know,, I am starting a 2 new debates. Isn't this fun?

If mods want to move this out of this thread,, feel free. But I think it is relevant to the discussions here.

 

[djarrum]

My wife has a 1.8 Ghz core 2 duo and Windows 7 Ultimate runs very well. My 2.33 Ghz Core 2 duo runs extremely well also. Better than XP or vista ever did. Again this thread was designed to debate the value of Windows 7. There are free Operating Systems that can do everything Windows 7 can do if not more. While this is the case, I can not justify anyone paying what Microsoft is asking for this product.

 

[orlbuckeye]

Windows 7 Family Pack

Microsoft will have the family pack available for around 150. The family pack allows users to upgrade 3 computers to Windows 7 Home Premium.

Link Removed

 

[orlbuckeye]

My wife has a 1.8 Ghz core 2 duo and Windows 7 Ultimate runs very well. My 2.33 Ghz Core 2 duo runs extremely well also. Better than XP or vista ever did. Again this thread was designed to debate the value of Windows 7. There are free Operating Systems that can do everything Windows 7 can do if not more. While this is the case, I can not justify anyone paying what Microsoft is asking for this product.

There is no free or not free OS that can do all that Windows does not because of Windows but because of software that runs within Windows. There are free OSes the do some of the things Windows does but not all. It all about what's its worth to the individual.

 

[Tepid]

linux can do a lot of what windows can do, but not necessarily better.
Not when you have to start recompiling the kernal, fixing where files are supposed to go if they don't end up in the right place. and trying to find all dependencies if some are missing. Good luck with that.

 

[djarrum]

linux can do a lot of what windows can do, but not necessarily better.
Not when you have to start recompiling the kernal, fixing where files are supposed to go if they don't end up in the right place. and trying to find all dependencies if some are missing. Good luck with that.

The biggest thing that kills the popularity of Linux is that it still relies on the console so heavily. To me this is not an issue, but to novice users I think this is the big thing that pushes them away. Knowledge of Linux requires users to input many long and sometimes cryptic command lines into a console.

As for dependencies, I'm actually very happy with the way Ubuntu has tackled this issue. Using the 'apt-get install' command, will automatically detect which dependencies the package you want will require and get them from the repository if they are not already installed.

 

[Tepid]

Well,, there is that,,, and then what I call,,, in large part,,,, the community itself,, which is full of term I persaonlly like,.,,

Lin-Azi's

 

[Athlonite]

That's why I took the opportunity to pay only £60. A great price and so pleased I don't have to shell out the full £150 of which I would not have been happy...

gee lucky for some eh i'd like to able to pay only $60 for it here but we'll be busy subsidising the rest of the world it seems,

and as far as vista goes if your system is upto running it then its good if not then don't expect better perfomance than XP and it's nearly as fast as 7 now that SP2 is readily available

 

[karachidude]

sorry if i m out of line here...for people who dont know,and not for people who cant afford(like me),can mod there
BIOS to permanantly make 7 stick or alternatively use some brilliant activators,everytime they re-install.

just my two sents

 

[djarrum]

sorry if i m out of line here...for people who dont know,and not for people who cant afford(like me),can mod there
BIOS to permanantly make 7 stick or alternatively use some brilliant activators,everytime they re-install.

just my two sents

You're not out of line at all, at $300 a copy I can't afford it either, and if I where to use Windows 7 I certainly wouldn't pay what they are asking. Another thing that irritates me is Microsoft charges varying prices for their product depending on what the local demographic can afford to pay. In the US it seems Microsoft's market research has told them that this demographic will be willing to pay $300 for Windows 7 Ultimate. What will it cost at a local software retailer in China, Vietnam, Cambodia or in the Philippines. Certainly not $300. in some places $300US represents a person's entire annual wage.

What this means is that Microsoft is using our "Excess" disposable income to subsidize those who can not afford to pay what we consider full price. Much the same way many 3rd world governments must subsidize the cost of gasoline. If people in India suddenly had to pay full price for a gallon of gas, economic growth would screech to a halt there because of the meager wages people are payed as compared to here in the states. To this, i say screw Microsoft! I wonder what they would do if I sent them a money order for the amount in Yuan they charge a Chinese customer for Windows 7 if they would send me a copy.

 

[karachidude]

i quite agree.

 

[Athlonite]

@ djarrum with the way you put it that would make the average kiwi disposable income far higher than that of the US citizen, seeing as windows 7 ultimate starts at $499.05 for the full retail ed and only 60 bucks cheaper for the upgrade ed or $349.00 for an OEMcopy.
what i think they should do is charge 300 of what ever your curency is no matter where you are so if you live in the US you pay $300usd and me who lives in NZ will pay $300nzd

 

[karachidude]

that would be grand....i hope they do this...300 in my country is 4$

 

[djarrum]

what I'm suggesting is..

They sell their product for what ever price the local demographic can afford. I suggest that prices be regulated in this country to restrict the price tp a median of their lowest price probably what they would charge in a place like Cambodia and their highest price, what they would likely be charging in The United Arab Emirates.

Microsoft's marketing team seems to think that in the US, people will pay $319 for Windows 7 Ultimate. I was at Fry's yesterday and asked how many copies they sold (A friend of mine is an assistant manager in the software department). you know how many? THREE! Not just ultimate, three copies total among the entire product line. The number one response customers gave was, for twice the price they could get a brand new machine that included Windows 7.

Other comments included some like this. "So, Microsoft charges me once for a broken OS (Vista), then charges me again for the one that fixed it?"

I felt like standing on the sidewalk outside the store selling copies of Linux for the cost of the blank DVD just to spite Microsoft. While some corporations seem to be in the Too big to fail category, Microsoft seems to be in the too blind to succeeded category. Once again however, Microsoft will profit in the billions because people don't have the choice of what Os they are getting when they buy a new PC and as we all know, this is why for all intents and purposes, Windows is the only OS people think exists.

IMHO, the FTC needs to do to Windows what they did to Internet explorer. Force PC manufacturers to offer alternatives to their customers. and not allow Microsoft realize any profit if the consumer chooses to purchase their PC with an alternative OS.

example;

Customer asks to buy a PC, Retailer offers the customer a PC and gives them a choice, $999 for the one with Windows 7 or the same PC with Linux for $680. Uh oh... what are those republicans going to tell their big business constituents now? after all I was under the impression that the republican party supported competition as part of a health economy. Clearly not as we can see from the condition of this industry today.

 

[Rob 45]

One of my biggest gripes with things included in with the os, is that when you buy a new PC which i have done in the last few weeks, i was disgusted with how many 30 day trials that came pre installed ranging from office to antivirus.

It took me nearly an hour to get rid of all the crap that i would not install in the first place.

I just want the OS, then i can install what i want.

I am right there with ya. Put hte disks in the packaging and if I want it I will load it. If I cant load it I will get a friend to load it. It is alot easier to load that crap than it is to get rid of it

 

[dacelow]

to me, its worth it

I like the Homegroups and Libraries. BTW, Link Removed Link Removed is so right!