Windows 7 deals and expiry of the RC

inherentchoice on 17/02/2010 - 01:23
Last edited 17/02/2010 - 01:31

Having taken advantage of the free Windows 7 Release Candidate, today I got the warning from Microsoft that in 14 days my computer will pack up and begin shutting down every two hours, so I thought we should have a thread to discuss getting the best price on a replacement, and such associated issues as:

  1. Is it worth getting Windows 7 at all or should we just revert to XP/Vista or a free open source OS? – personally the RC has actually completely frozen on me a few times and I’ve had a dozen BSODs (blue screens of death), which sometimes would cause the computer to freeze again when it reboots and tries to recover
  2. Shouldn’t Microsoft have offered us a discounted version for faithfully being their lab rats? Will they perhaps make one available soon?
  3. Will Windows 7 come down in price or be on special soon as a consolation?
  4. OEM versus retail versions - it might be against the minefield of legalese written into the license terms but this reliable article on ZDNet has no problem enthusiastically recommending the OEM discounted copies of Windows for anyone building a PC for their own personal use, and it says Microsoft should step up and formally approve that exception.
  5. Does an OEM version need to be purchased with hardware or are there obstacles to installing it for personal use?
  6. Upgrade versions – do these need an existing installation of XP or Vista? If I’d rather not have my new installation of Win7 burdened by a corrupted Vista how can I use the upgrade as a clean install? Can I install my legal copy of 98 and upgrade from it?
  7. Multiple licenses – is there cheaper alternatives if you want Windows 7 for multiple computers?
  8. Home Premium versus Ultimate – is there anything significant missing? What do you get for the extra ~$200?

So far I’m thinking the main options are:

It’d be great to share any thoughts or suggestions…

General Discussion

Comments

  • daydream on 17/02/2010 - 02:19

    I'm going to go Linux (pick your flavour) as most of the time I just need Firefox to connect to the Internet. Legal, low overheads, secure, etc OpenOffice built in for the times I need to create/edit a document. You can run Win(any flavour) under VirtualBox for the occasional app/play.

  • Davo1111 on 17/02/2010 - 10:03
    +1

    Depends how computer savvy you are really. I'd be tempted to go with itsnotcheating (the first link) for $49.

    • daydream on 17/02/2010 - 14:36

      Agreed, if you qualify at an educational institution and need to run lots of Windows apps, Win7 is good. The good thing with Linux though, especially a version like Linux Mint is that you can run if from "live" CD/DVD and try it without affecting your PC. If it doesn't suit buy Win7 (It doesn't have to be one or the other - you can have both!).

      I have several elderly relatives running Linux Mint(with a backup live CD copy if they mess up their PC) and they run without any problem/support required. They probably have no idea what OS they are running (don't even need to know), minimal issues if they don't do updates and they connect to the internet and do all they stuff online.

  • ESEMCE on 17/02/2010 - 12:27

    I had no probs with the Win7 RC..
    Mint Linux was recently recommended for beginner users by Lifehacker. It's Ubuntu with some non-GPL software (or something like that) installed as Default. Things like Thunderbird as the mail client instead of Evolution. and it looks more "Windowsy" with a start menu in the bottom left corner.

    I don't think MS will be dropping the price of Win7 anytime soon. Especially not while there are a heap of prospective buyers once the RC starts to annoy them.

    I think there is a family pack of 5 licences for Win7 Home Premium.. Dunno what the pricing is though.

    Home Premium Vs Ultimate, Google is your friend..
    EDIT: Or Bing, but my (limited) experience with Bing has been very poor

  • inherentchoice on 17/02/2010 - 19:39

    Thanks for the comments so far. I'm thinking I might try linux on the RC partition, but I still think I should get Win7.

    I've been able to do some research and it seems the Upgrade version of Windows 7 Setup does its compliance checking before the phase of Setup where you format the disc, meaning I can blow away the corrupted Vista partition and not worry about activation.

    The same article also suggests that there's a reasonable chance of getting the upgrade version to work fine without an existing installation of XP or Vista, see http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media…

    Is there anything to be wary of if I use a family member or friend to get the $50 Student version?

    • ESEMCE on 18/02/2010 - 07:06
      +1

      Compliance is different to Activation.
      Compliance will check if your Graphics is capable of running Aero and whether you have enough RAM etc.
      You'll still need to Activate Win7 after you install.
      Also, all recommendations have been that you should do a fresh install. Upgrade installs are less reliable. That link you have will allow you to do a fresh install.

      Apart from it being just as illegal as downloading a copy from a torrent and using a crack to Activate, there are no issues with using a Student version when you're not a student. Unless you need features from Ultimate of course.
      More legal would be to import a copy from a country where Win7 prices are better than here (ie pretty much everywhere, despite our strong dollar)

    • acidburn02 on 20/02/2010 - 00:39

      I bought Win 7 upgrade and my motherboard failed(completely coincidentally). I had no problem installing from scratch without reinstalling Vista and doing the upgrade.

      I went the upgrade path on my brothers laptop, and NEVER AGAIN! It took hours longer than just doing a clean install.

  • Kranbone on 18/02/2010 - 12:37
    +1

    I've been using many different OS's over the past year and I'm really pleased with Windows 7 which has been installed on the main gaming PC.

    I am also running the RC version much like yourself and received the message BUT I found a store which sold Windows Vista WITH the upgrade voucher for Windows 7 so I'm really happy. My tip to you is do the same thing. If you can deal with the upgrade, you may end up saving 20 bucks. I only paid 69 bucks for an OEM copy of Vista Home Premium 64 bit w/ Win 7 Upgrade voucher.

    I hope you can find a deal similar. If you don't want to spend money there's always Ubuntu. It's free, but actually very good and easy to use. My mum is actually using it as I fear she's not very net savvy w/ pop ups (she tends to believe she's a winner -_-).

  • inherentchoice on 21/02/2010 - 01:02
    +1

    Just tried to purchase two copies of Win 7 from itsnotcheating with the same student email address and it comes back with this message:

    The purchase limit for this product has been exceeded, no more purchases are allowed.

    …just thought I'd share.

    • Clivey In Space on 23/02/2010 - 12:14
      +2

      But they do allow you to buy both a 32bit and 64bit key, so you can get two keys. You can also use the 64bit key on a 32bit system.

      Cheers
      M.

      • inherentchoice on 23/02/2010 - 19:06

        Wow big plus that's great info. I will buy and see how it goes.

  • tonyjzx on 21/02/2010 - 21:09

    http://apcmag.com/windows-7-family-pack-australia.htm

    Australia gets Windows 7 Family Pack for $249

  • fungi79 on 27/02/2010 - 00:55

    If your hardware is fairly standard I would be tempted to hackintosh it. Yes, it is a bit of a grey legal area but I don't think anyone has been sued for personal use. Beauty of it is that the OS itself is cheap to buy and unlike linux you can get almost every program in windows for the mac too.

    If you choose to continue with the windows path, I would go the first one. This version of windows is a beaut, no complaints.

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