Six Editions of Windows 7: What's With All the Whining?

Barman58 said:

With the available discount codes on offer around the net (and this very forum) the technet sub is probably less than the cost of 1 copy of ultimate so should be at least considered by anyone thinking of purchasing the Ultimate release

Eh.. I'm likely just going to get Windows 7 Home Premium x64. I don't need the fancy features of Ultimate.

This is assuming I'll even have money after building my new PC =P

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.

Barman58 said:

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.

I have Windows Vista HP (x64) that came preinstalled with my HP Craptop.

I'll likely just buy the upgrade and install it on the new PC I'm building.

Though in reality, Microsoft should really reconsider its pricing seeing as even Apple SEVERLY lowered its price on OS X.

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:

• 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

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.

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.

Most likely I'll be going for HP.