Go To Latest Video ReviewsMicrosoft Prices Up Windows 7 Family Pack Comments
| Author | Gordon Kelly |
| Published | 25th Aug 2009 |
Comments for Microsoft Prices Up Windows 7 Family Pack
Giovanni said on 25th August 2009
Gordon said on 25th August 2009
@Giovanni - traditionally, yes. But in all fairness you obviously haven't been testing Windows 7 Beta and RC, both have been solid as a rock since day one. We've just got our hands on the official RTM and early signs are mighty impressive.
Tony Walker said on 25th August 2009
@Giovanni
Gotta agree with Gordon. I too have been running the 64-bit versions of the Beta and then the RC as my main operating system since they came out. Stability and compatibility have been excellent.
Pbryanw said on 25th August 2009
@Gordon - Is TR going to do a review/preview of the RTM code, like some sites have done, or will we have to wait until the official release date before we get the full review?
BOFH_UK said on 25th August 2009
Is it just me or does anyone else feel that Windows 7 is a wee bit... well, expensive? I keep looking at the feature list and, aside from the performance boost and bug fixes from Vista, there's really not much that feels like a 'must have' to me. The GUI improvements are nice but £100+ nice? Hmmm, not sure.
purephase said on 25th August 2009
@BOFH_UK
Should have picked it up on pre-order for £45!
Ryan said on 25th August 2009
@BOFH_UK
Methinks savvy industry guys who read TR will be able to pick up a sub-£100 OEM copy with their next motherboard/GPU/etc.
davef said on 25th August 2009
Have to agree with BOFH_UK. I've been using the RC on 7 and it is impressive. But, if I hadn't got it at the knock-down, pre-release price I would still be sticking with XP. £150 buys me quite a lot of hardware these days.
Ed said on 25th August 2009
@BOFH_UK: I do see where you're coming from but I ultimately I think this is the one time that Windows pricing seems something like fair. With pre-order offers getting you Home Premium for £50 and introductory pricing being £79.99, anyone who actually cares about such things wil have got themselves an undeniable bargain already. For everyone else, the full price of £99.99, is still about £30 cheaper than Vista Home Premium.
Beside which, it is more than a new skin, a performance boost (which is significant by the way), and some bug fixes. Wordpad and Paint have had significant upgrades, which may not be a big deal for more hardcore users but for your average person it now gives you enough word processing and image editing power to do the basics. There's a huge amount of tweaks to everything from network management to power saving features (some of which are admitedly not a step in the right direction). Window management is vastly superior. Touch screen interaction is greatly improved, though i appreciate that's of no use to many. Jump Lists are a useful addition.
Ed said on 25th August 2009
lol @ davef
BOFH_UK even says in his response that the price is £100 not £150.
I take your point that knock-down pricing has shifted peoples opinions quite a bit but selling your latest operating system for £50 less than the previous version for the first couple of months (not to mention the preorder price) then having it still be £30 cheaper ad infinitum can only be seen as a positive move.
farki80 said on 25th August 2009
As a person who has played with RC, I am very impressed with Windows 7. It is very stable and works well on my Vaio and ThinkPad. Colour me excited, but I do think Windows 7 is worth every bit of £100.
Anyway the discussion about £100+ Windows 7 is pretty much moot as Amazon UK is still taking pre-orders for a still bargain £65 (with price guarantee), and that's for the full version BTW.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002DUCMT2?tag=ms7-21&camp=2902&creative=19466&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B002DUCMT2&adid=02SG0EWEYJCTYACM57Y4&
davef said on 25th August 2009
I've never liked OEM versions and I'm still on XP so the £150 price does apply to me. But as I said, I've got 7 on order at £40-something, and I managed to re-coup that by selling my copy of XP, so no big deal.
xbrumster said on 25th August 2009
ah, you can try win7 out for 120 days, by then either the price will come down or the hack will be so good that you dont want to not to use it.. there will always be cheap options for everyone...
Ed said on 25th August 2009
Oh, I do apologise. I was thinking that was the full version price. In that case I completely take back what I was saying. £150 certainly is too much. It's downright ridiculous in fact.
davef said on 25th August 2009
That's ok, Ed. I really shouldn't make forum posts until the afternoon anyway as my command of the English language is seriously diminished in the morning.
Giovanni said on 25th August 2009
@ Gordon and Tony
I am happy that Windows 7 has held it's own and has not been found to be 'buggy' and I hope to be proven wrong and it remains this way... Time will tell :)
Gordon said on 25th August 2009
@Giovanni - you'll be proven wrong ;)
lifethroughalens said on 25th August 2009
The only bug that I have found in the 32b W7 over the past 4 months has been a rather big one...every time I right click on a photo in explorer, it stops responding then crashes explorer!
Very, very annoying considering i'm a photographer!
Gordon said on 25th August 2009
@lifethroughalens - I'd suggest that's a one off hardware or software conflict. I haven't heard of anyone else with that. If such a major bug were commonplace it would be headline news.
Steve32 said on 25th August 2009
@lifethroughalens - agree with Gordon, that isn't a Win7 bug, but some kind of conflict. Most likely a piece of mediay related software you have installed that has gone mad or doesn't work 100% with Win7.
lifethroughalens said on 25th August 2009
oh OK, thanks for the feedback. Damn, that means i'll have to fix it after all!
Jay said on 26th August 2009
the only bug I've had is FF (probably because it's not supported yet) and IE (no idea on that one) crashing all the time but it's ok cause chrome was 100% fine
Tony Walker said on 27th August 2009
@Jay
Firefox has been perfect on both Beta and RC versions of 64-bit Win7 on my system. I still run 2.x for a few things and have run 3.0 and now 3.5 without probs - 3.5 is my main browser and I am typing this on it right now.
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I wouldn't say that paying £49.99 is actually cashing in as 8 out of 10 times it would end up costing more than that in time and awaiting it's bug fixes.
After 11 years in the industry working on corporate sites as a software engineer, my advice would be to steer clear for at least 6 month's whilst they fine tune it to work in the wild and release the necessary service packs ;-)