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#20
Hopefully Microsoft will consider current world financial conditions when setting the final prices and of course if you have a valid copy of Vista you can purchase the upgrade version of windows 7 HP which will lower coats considerably.
Someone was making predications on pricing along with some other things to be seen with 7 last April.
"To be clear, I am not predicting that Microsoft will do a quick-and-massive overhaul of Windows Vista in the next 12 months. Instead, I think we’ll see Microsoft do the following:
Vista has already seen a price drop at MS instead of the original $399.99 for the Ultimate edition that is down to $319.99 presently. You may see 7 priced at the same if not slightly higher at first being the new thing! The promo introductory offers of course will always be seen for less during a limited period.
- Strip out or minimize some of Windows Vista’s clunkiest features — especially User Account Control
- Simplify the interface back to something closer to Windows XP
- Reduce backward compatibility in order to streamline the code base
- Work much harder with vendors to ensure driver and software compatibility with new hardware and applications
- Reduce the cost of Windows in retail boxes in order to generate goodwill and undercut Mac OS X (meanwhile, this will have little effect on the price of enterprise licensing, which is already much cheaper than retail)
- Learn from the long delay of Windows Vista and move to an incremental release model with a subscription and at least one major update per year. Financially, most IT departments are already on a subscription plan. Now look for Microsoft to move consumers in this direction.
- Release Windows 7 by the end of 2009 and market it as the simplest and easiest Windows ever" Prediction: Microsoft will leapfrog Vista, release Windows 7 early, and change its OS business | Tech Sanity Check | TechRepublic.com
Hi there
I got 20% off with a Promo Code making it 247 USD which will DEFINITELY be cheaper than a copy of W7 Ultimate
I can't understand why ANYBODY on this forum who is even thinking of buying ANY retail version of W7 doesn't join technet (I don't work for MS so no commission for me folks). You can then get ANY and ALL versions and up to 10 keys.
(Plus a load of other software like Office / W2008 and W2003 server etc etc).
That said I would probably go for Ultimate, business or professional since I NEED to access a remote computer - RDP CLIENT is OK on Windows Home premium but if you need to access your remote computer which is running W7 it will need Business/Professional/Ultimate or you wont be able to connect with RDP.
Cheers
jimbo
Though more-or-less already stated:
Starter and Basic aren't expected to be seen in the U.S. They're mainly for things like those emerging markets where they will indeed be helpful to keep the price down, and where stuff like Aero is only likely to burden systems if people try to enable it anyway, etc.
Home Premium and Professional are the only real choice the average person will have to make, and the vast majority of Joe Blow consumer will be perfectly hunky dory with Home Premium.
Enterprise/Ultimate are the same thing feature-wise with Enterprise targeted for businesses that need things like BitLocker. Ultimate will be out there for consumers who want the extra features, but it doesn't sound like it will be readily found nor needed for most.
Anyway, consumers mainly have the choice of Home Premium or Professional.
And businesses likely need to choose between Professional and Enterprise.
I guess we'll see how Microsoft markets things, but it probably shouldn't be too confusing in practice.
You would be surprized at the numbers that went for the Ultimate 32 and 64bit editions of Vista when that was first released while the Home Premium would have easily sufficed except for things like the built in shadow copy feature instead of buying a separate 3rd party drive imaging software and other things like support for networking for those who maintain private gaming servers and what not.
For the average novice or first time user the Home Premium will easily work for running the games, checking the email, and playing media without fuss. For the advanced user on the other hand especially would more involved setups the Ultimate or Business editions are more apt to be looked at.