Win 7 availability once Win 8 launches?

Vista wasn't too home media orientated. It was following up on XP MCE with the Media Center as well as seeing some new features and looks added into Windows at the cost of making the OS larger in size. It still had it's other faults however and certainly MS must have regretted remvong Fat support brought back in 7 due to the influx of external drives and devices that use either Fat or exFat.

I didn't have the chance to look into either ME or 2000 and now lookiing back would likely have gone for 2000 Pro 10-11yrs ago rather then simply bumping up over either from 98 to XP while dual booting the two for some time. Vista did however provide a much needed relief from the "XP mares" of constant program errors, hard boots after any app stalled, gaming and security were just as bad!

To this day however 7 has become the overall MS Champ! It came in with few errors and does what it is supposed to without any major hassles! MS finally came out with a version everybody could live with!

Unfortunately but factual 8 won't be seeing that type of acceptance due to how MS decided to make a radical gui change without leaving any user options. For most desktop users 8 will be seen as an abomination despite whatever improvements have been made at the core levels as far as security, stability, and whatever performance gain some think they are going to be seeing.

Those are the hard facts people! Everyone also has their own opinions on 8 as I have mentioned before. W8 is in for a rough ride and could well be seen as a flop over time. On the other hand 7 sales are likely to increase as a result of the drastic changes seen with 8 prompting people to get 7 while the getting is good since they won't want 8!!!

I was hoping to get everyone here upto par with 7 instead of still seeing XP no more and Vista on two machines in order to see a volume license for the Ultimate across the board! The full flavored edition with all the goodies on every machine to have a standard platform.

"Hey no more worries about viruses and bugs as well as user errors with the option to create and restore full system images not seen in XP or Vista Home Premium! Once Vista Ultimate/Corporate editions previously offered that option. Saves a lot of time trying to remove bugs and reinstalling Windows for people who don't often pay much attention to practical advices or loan out the laptops for kids to download anything and everything!

That's another little extra all flavors of 7 offers without the need to Refresh PC being a total wipe and clean install rather then the option for an upgrade to repair type install. With 8 you have the two choices for full clean after wipe or creating an image backup but no repair install type options available to preserve your hard work and often paid for programs! Just another downside for 8 over 7!

^ Wow, that IS surprising... no repair option on W8?? That'll definitely upset a lot of people who have downloaded paid software without having any hard media to recover with.

TheGrandFritz, I'm open to hearing opinions about Windows 8, especially when well presented. What are your likes about it? Also, do you think that since W8 is such a departure from Vista/W7, that this is why a notable number of people (who have checked the PRC so far) are displeased with it? I'm tending to think it's like XP vs. Vista, although Vista still permitted the "Classic View" that echoes XP interfacing.

The PC Refresh option prompts for the original W8 media used in order to performa a clean install which means a total wipe of everything.

At least with Vista and 7 without having the R for Repair Install option seen you could use the upgrade option to install over the existing copy of Windows to refresh all the main files while still preserving all the data and programs you already have on. You lose that ability with 8 unless someone finds a solution.

Another thing to know is 8 won't be marketed as far as optical media the same way all previous versions have been. The OEM for System Builders media will be seen while the AnyTime Upgrade or electronic purchase online will be how 8 is sold separate from any preinstall seen with new machines. There won't be any retail disks you can transfer from one machine to the next when going to build or buy another pc.

^ Not sure about that... but still, with these prices it's better to just get a software subscription for $199 and have access to all versions of Windows. You can always burn DVD's yourself. This of course assumes you're interested in having more than one version of Windows in your software inventory. If you have just one computer and don't dual boot, it's not much of a deal.

The minimum price I have seen for a paid MSDN or TechNet subscription is a bit more then $199-! Try $350 or more! I have considering getting one here but ended up simply buying more 7 media for another build lately rather then and wait to rush into...? 8?

If you shop around a bit you can still find original XP media as well as Vista from various discount outlets still carrying the previous versions while the main outlets will now only be seeing Vista for some along with mostly 7 and 8 now seen on the displays being the latest. Those will be upgrade and OEM for 32bit or 64bit no two disk retail sets.

By shopping around however you can ffind 7 being sold for under $100 for the upgrade as well as OEM for System Builder disks since the prices have fallen sharply! Why pay $319.99 for the Ultimate when you get it now for under $200?! 7 will still be around for some time at one place or another while having a subscription solves the multiple version situation much easier.

Amazon's listings can be a little pricey at times. So can other shopping sites. The better deals will be found generally through either your regular vendor or a discount software site that will tend to carry the older versions much longer then the main stream outlets.

Gee if you buy a new pc from Sxxxxxx they will teach you how to run 8! Office supply stores are now letting you know that it will take a little bit to learn how to run the latest version since everyone unfamiliar with how MS reworked the main gui will be stumped when going out to buy a new laptop or desktop model and "Modern is here!".

One thing will be certain people will be asking how they either get the version they had been running on an older machine onto a new set of hardwares. While not being any "New XP" 7 will soon become the "7 Forever Club"!

Don't worry! 7 will still be supported for another 8yrs. or so!