Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: alex_trebek on June 26, 2009, 07:53:36 AM
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If anyone is interested in upgrading their OS to Windows 7, Microsoft made their preorder available today. The preorder is 50% off the retail price. This offer lasts until July 11th or supplies run out.
FWIW a friend of mine beta tested Windows 7, claims it is really good.
Windows 7 (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/buy/offers/pre-order.aspx)
The link takes you Microsoft's site. Select your desired retailer for purchase.
If you select Microsoft's online store you have a few options for purchase. You can only download on the release date, download and have a recovery disk shipped, or have the whole thing shipped on the release date.
Release date is Oct. 22.
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How do supplies of a "preorder" run out?
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How do supplies of a "preorder" run out?
How do supplies of a preorder runout when you choose the download option?
Microsoft clearly doesn't want to sell windows 7 this cheap on a permanent basis. I think they have a number or orders they are willing to sell at this price. I can't say I blame them.
My limited understanding of windows 7 is that they basically fixed the problems with Vista and renamed it. Like I said, a friend of mine says it (the beta) is good, and that was enough for me.
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They can take XP from my cold, dead fingers....
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XP Professional has been so stable for me that I have nearly forgotten how much all the previous OS's sucked.
I dread moving away from it...
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XP Professional has been so stable for me that I have nearly forgotten how much all the previous OS's sucked.
I dread moving away from it...
I agree.
Once support is discontinued for it, I'll have to take a hard look at Linux as my new desktop OS. It was WAY far from being efficent in this capacity back when I first tried it, in 2000ish. It was a lot closer, but still aggravating to use the next time I tried it, in 2005. Think it's time to take a look again. :angel:
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I'm also an XP Pro kookaide drinker. It's been fantastic for me.
That said, I upgraded Mom's computer earlier this year to a Dell with Vista Home Essentials, and I have to admit that it has been REALLY good for her, none of the horror stories that I heard about, and the transition has been about as easy as it can be. Mom is like me, she gets solidly wedded to something and it's normally a real struggle to make the transition, but Vista hasn't been that much of an issue.
She also took to Thunderbird fairly well.
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As I alluded to earlier, my programming skills are not as good as they should be. For whatever reason I have a hard time becoming intuitive with the syntax of most programming I have tried/been forced to try.
The only thing I can do well is programming for process controls, but that isn't real programming nowadays. It only requires minor VB script work, and using prepackaged modules built into the controller software. Sorry, I digress.
Installing linux on my laptop intimidates me, and I am willing to give Microsoft a chance to redeem themselves from the mistake Vista (apparently) was. When/if I build, or have a desktop built, I will probably try Linux. That way if I make a major mistake I have a laptop I can use to search the interwebs to fix it.
Also I bought a thinkpad, because of the software packages IBM wrote for it. It would dumb to get the thinkpad for software, just to install linux which may not be compatible with the software.
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I've been using the Windows 7 beta for a couple months now. I've found it to be every bit as stable as XP Pro. So far, I really like it. I haven't had any software or hardware compatibility issues.
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So, according to their FAQ, this allows you to "upgrade" from Vista, but any XP users will need to completely re-install.
I don't know if that means they really don't care about the XP hold-outs, or if the two OS's are just that incompatible.
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I don't know if that means they really don't care about the XP hold-outs, or if the two OS's are just that incompatible.
Both, but more the latter. I don't follow it all that much, but I'd thought I'd read that the similarities between Vista and 7 were purely superficial, that most of the stuff under the hood was different. So I'm a little surprised that you can upgrade Vista, but perhaps I read that stuff wrong.
I have no great problems with Vista. My dad recently bought a Dell with power to run the pretty stuff (work computer can't) and I found some of it useful enough to look for equivalents in compiz with linux. I might consider using windows 7 if the positive reviews continue.
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Both, but more the latter. I don't follow it all that much, but I'd thought I'd read that the similarities between Vista and 7 were purely superficial, that most of the stuff under the hood was different. So I'm a little surprised that you can upgrade Vista, but perhaps I read that stuff wrong.
I've got a development-use Windows 2000 and SQL 2005 and SQL 2000 VM on my computer and I've decided I need to add SQL 2008 to the mix. Might as well upgrade the whole mess to Windows 2008 while I'm at it.
To do this, I have to upgrade Win2K to Win2003 since I can't upgrade from 2000 directly to 2008. :rolleyes:
The way I see it... if I can upgrade 2000-2003, and 2003-2008, then I should be able to upgrade 2000-2008 without having to freakin' wipe my hard drive and reload all my service apps (what the 2008 installer wanted to do).
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I've been running Windows 7 Beta for a while, too - albeit on a removable hard drive, ala' DoD.
It seems to run ok once you find the right drivers, but is nowhere as efficient or as fast as my favorite XP Pro.
When I'm forced to upgrade, I'll just skip Vista entirely. =|
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If I can't figure out Ubuntu I'll be going straight to 7 from XP as well.
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I'll just skip Vista entirely. =|
Looks like most folks are doing/have done just that. Don't know why you guys are talking about how you *might* skip it. Will it even be available after 7 drops? Who'd even try to sell it?
The instructor of my Computers for Retarded Infants class has said that Vista's problems seem to be mostly with the Enterprise edition, not the Home editions. But then, she keeps referring to Windows 7 as Windows 8, so she could be confused about other things as well. =)
And yes, I am able to keep up with the other retarded infants. We just finished a unit on double-clicking. You should see me go!
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I had the 32 bit Beta version that worked very good as along as I was using newer hardware.
I'm running the 32 and 64 bit RC versions now. The 64 bit works great. Better than Ubuntu 64 bit does at this time. The 32 bit has shown a few issues. I haven't had time to work with that one to see if it is hardware or software related.
I still think XP is a cleaner and faster OS.
jim
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I'll wait patiently with my XP-powered machines until W7 proves itself....though I do enjoy the improvement in IE8...
She also took to Thunderbird fairly well.
Couldn't you spare the extra quarter and at least get her MD 20/20 instead?.....
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Many people say Windows 7 should be Vista SP3. A lot of enterprises agree. Vista ****ed every enterprise that purchased software assurance. Microsoft shook down companies to pay extra then so they could upgrade later. Vista rolled around, and there were exactly zero reasons to upgrade in a corporate environment. There were also retraining costs, compadibility costs, hardware issues, etc. Companies were sputtering in rage over being sold a bill of goods that turned up to be sand. Had Microsoft not allowed 'downgrade' rights to allow installing XP when purchasing Vista, they probably would have been sued by every major company.
Unofficially, Microsoft assured every major company that was pissed off (ie any with an enterprise agreement) that Windows 7 would address these concerns. If Microsoft doesn't deliver, they are screwed. The home PC market is not Microsoft's bread and butter, it's the enterprise environment that makes Microsoft boatloads of cash. If Microsoft drops the ball again, expect companies to stay XP or try to pull an Ernie Ball.
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The company I'm subcontracted to dropped its enterprise agreement with Microsoft, and supposedly the whole Vista thing was a significant part of why. Thousands of employees had to unload software they had purchased through the corporate enterprise license on the home use program.
The company I work for still has not released Vista into the category of corporate approved software, meaning that no one can configure a company computer with Vista, and for those who connect a personally owned computer to the company network do so at their own peril.
Same with Office 2007. Still not approved for corporate release.