Windows 7 Flying Off Retailers Shelves? Perhaps Not.

[Nburnes]

I've been running it since the beta. It was a no brainer for me when I tried it out in a separate partition on my laptop then I finally just decided to delete Vista all together.

 

[Night Hawk]

I was looking at the information about 7 prior to the beta releases and was even more impressed at how well those performed over what had been seen with previous versions going back to 3.1! So far 7 has reduced the need to move up into newer hardwares since it takes advantage of things on the current build which is more then can be said for XP or Vista while Vista performed well for what it was over XP.

For those now planning on a new build or looking for a new system 7 will be a seller without question there! Plus the marketing for 7 as far as new tv ads and the like has been much more then seen for any previous version. I suspect the largest volume of new sales for 7 disks as well as preinstalled new systems will be seen during 2010 once all the yearly holiday and other expenses are cleared and people are waiting for tax returns in late Q1.

 

[saverio]

Windows people should consider themselves very lucky that they and business can still run XP, if this was apple the minute vista came out, all support for XP would have stopped - and Microsoft more than Apple has the muscle to do this - lets face it, who else are you going to turn to for your enterprise needs?

I think also, we on here know(ish) about the things which are the root cause for computer slowdown etc, and know that a re-install or such will give your machine a whole lease of life, but for many they just convince themselves that the computer is broke and they need something newer and faster.

Case study: A guy at work said his computer had died - vendor said 'motherboard failure' and conveniently had new stuff for him to buy. It was a simple socket 748 machine, nothing great. I took it off him, did some diagnosis, turns out that it was a hdd which had failed. Went to the local refuse site, fished another machine out of it, scavanged the hdd and a couple of cards out of it and used his xp home. He just used it as a surfing and email box - and it runs really quickly and does all he needs.

I digress,

He like many others, said 'oh it was running slowly anyway' but he was confusing OS speed with PC speed. As the poster above said, people are not used to looking at a purchase from the perspective that an OS can make a difference.

 

[pparks1]

Windows people should consider themselves very lucky that they and business can still run XP, if this was apple the minute vista came out, all support for XP would have stopped

And that is the reason why Apple doesn't have any significant marketshare in the business world.

 

[noyb]

I wonder what would happen if M$ would update XP pro 64 ..
For all the latest hardware ...
Maybe add some more themes ...
Quit removing some of the nice tools from XP ...
And offer it as an upgrade option ???

I know several that just might buy a new computer ... Or Upgrade their Vista computers.

 

[Tews]

Thats just a step backward IMO.. to do that would require an extensive rewrite of the code and thats not going to be cheap....just to extend the life of an 8yr old os....

 

[RogerR]

Windows people should consider themselves very lucky that they and business can still run XP, if this was apple the minute vista came out, all support for XP would have stopped - and Microsoft more than Apple has the muscle to do this - lets face it, who else are you going to turn to for your enterprise needs?

M$ was recovering from a lot of bad press over Vista, and the HUGE installed base of business XP machines didn't give it much choice without a worthy successor.

There is therefore a lot of pent up demand from delayed Vista deployment and that is one thing boosting sales. I do think they shot themselves in the foot by not offering an upgrade path from XP, but that's another topic.

So far I think 7 shows a real change in the M$ mindset - its setup routine is a real step forward in terms of making things run right out of the box - instead of the previous attitude that it was up to hardware manufacturers to provide drivers (and users to find them). It deserves to be a winner.

 

[saverio]

Pparks1 and RogerR, I couln't agree more

 

[Night Hawk]

For Apple they're more of a hardware company with an OS. Once they introduce a few new models the older stuff there simply ends up on the discontinued items list no longer seeing any support. But they are not the only company to follow that trend when you look at pc manufacturers in general that will drop support for an older line at the drop of a coin. "That means you must buy new every so often" is the marketing ideals there.

What MS did was realize not everyone can simply throw in the towel each time a new version comes out and offers support for so long however which eventually will be dropped. With Windows 2000 support was dropping off a bit sooner for that then seen for XP. Here's one old article about IE 7 and that lacking 2000 support.

Microsoft: No IE7 for Windows 2000

By Nate Mook
Published May 30, 2005, 10:53 AM

With Internet Explorer 7 Beta 1 set to debut next month, Microsoft has quietly closed the door on Windows 2000 users planning to adopt the new Web browser. IE7 will require Windows XP Service Pack 2 due to internal security changes that rely on Microsoft's latest operating system release.

The rest of that can still be seen at Microsoft: No IE7 for Windows 2000 | Betanews

The reason for XP extended life is mainly due to that being more of a desktop version for home users as well as seeing the Pro and Pro 64 editions while 2000 was mainly geared for small business, 2000 Pro corporate. Of course we know the story on ME already being a big drop in a heart beat lost cause.

 

[RogerR]

What MS did was realize not everyone can simply throw in the towel each time a new version comes out and offers support for so long however which eventually will be dropped. With Windows 2000 support was dropping off a bit sooner for that then seen for XP.

There are certain responsibilities that go along with owning a 90% market share.

However, given the push for smaller net devices and the ensuing rush into the Cloud, this might be one of the last OSs, or at least the last for a long time. Economic forces may push MS to accelerate the drop in support of older products and push everyone into 7. Support for old products is a major drag on the bottom line - and its only possible if you are selling a lot of new product to finance it. The superior install process, apparent ability to install readily on five and six-year old machines, and multi-version offering all make that possible.

As said elsewhere here, there are lots of happy XP users whose computers are doing everything they need right now. Win7 has no killer app, its just incrementally better at doing what people are already doing, with a nod to home theater and home video.

If there is to be a Windows 8, MS had better design it to sit behind the biggest screen in the house, and build DVR and Netflix into the media center.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
W7 will IMO be THE LAST of "Classical OS'es" as we know them. There will be some improvements and additions but nothing world shattering.

It's great at what it does - but even computing is changing - the evidence is all around for everyone to see.

Even Multi-media these days doesn't need an OS on a local computer to run it -- I can run Squeeze and Sling box servers and applications all over the house without going anywhere near a computer provided the router is connected to the Internet. Controls are done via small hand held Mobile phone like devices (which probably WILL be incorporated into a Mobile phone shortly).

If I want to watch an Internet TV program or say the BBC's I-player I can just sit at the normal TV and "slingbox" the broadcast in. (Of course the Internet has some way to go before you will see quality HD at 1080p on a 42 or bigger LCD/ Plasma TV - to say nothing of the bandwidth required - but that's only technology - the functionality exists already.

(3D TV will require yet another step function in bandwidth so don't think your shiny new 20 MB download speed is the final answer).

W8 if it exists at all will be a very different animal with almost ZERO base code for running "Off-line".

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Night Hawk]

As said elsewhere here, there are lots of happy XP users whose computers are doing everything they need right now. Win7 has no killer app, its just incrementally better at doing what people are already doing, with a nod to home theater and home video.

If there is to be a Windows 8, MS had better design it to sit behind the biggest screen in the house, and build DVR and Netflix into the media center.

I know someone now who can't even play back a dvd movie on his XP machine wtih WMP 10 on. When going to play any recent rental the prompting for buying a 3rd party set of codecs or simply another player will be seen. This is because of the newer HD and other technologies surpass the older standard seen there.

As far Windows 8 I got word someone known here received an offer to be a paid Alpha tester in February as work starts on the next version. MS intends to return to a 3yr. time schedule for each new version to follow.

 

[Naala]

Hi Naala

Welcome to Seven Forums. Sorry to hear you didn't get the pre-order offer. We in the UK did so I thought it was Europe wide.
I bought it on that offer but I think that it is so good I would gave saved up and paid full price if I had to.
By the way I wouldn't mention anything to do with piracy on these forums. The moderators will ban you and it's far too good a forum to be excluded from

Um, Im really late with the reply but I still wanted to say thanks, after reading some more I decided to buy W7 upgrade myself so I hope to reinstall tomorrow. Because really, its the first OS I fell in love with from the start even though I was XP fan for so long. So it deserves buying it.