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MS To Offer Free Windows 7 Upgrade To Vista Users
Posted by
samzenpus
on Wed Feb 11, 2009 06:45 PM
from the you-get-what-you-pay-for dept.
from the you-get-what-you-pay-for dept.
crazyeyes writes "With Windows 7 set for release in Dec. 09, Microsoft is getting ready with their free upgrade program, which allows Vista users to switch to Windows 7 when it arrives. The folks at TechARP have consistently scored accurate scoops on Microsoft software releases. They have now revealed Microsoft's upgrade plans, schedules and even screenshots of the upgrade process."
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Somewhere in Redmond... (Score:5, Funny)
Ballmer: Hmmm...I see. Alright, here's the plan: Revise the current Windows 7 Upgrade Program to allow OEMs to upgrade to Windows 7 from Vista Ultimate - for FREE! And leak this to the tech community right away!!
Underling: Uh...sir, pardon me saying so, but won't that appear as an obvious ploy to sell more of our most overrated - and least worthwhile - product?
Ballmer: Yes...you may be right. Those basement dwellers can be pretty sharp...hmmm...I know! Add that free option for Vista Home Premium and Vista Business! We should make up, in additional sales of those, what "loss" we incur with the free upgrades. We should be able to minimize that by frightening the OEMs with scary "Program Compliance" requirements. We can also limit large business deployments by restricting the number of upgrades per mailing address. Finally, send a memo to the developers: Remove all the previously most-desired-by-the-tech-community features planned for Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional, so that these features ONLY exist in Windows 7 Ultimate...
Underling: Right away, sir!
(Ballmer throws a chair at the back of exiting Underling)
Underling: Ou--I mean, thank you, sir! May I have another?
Ballmer: You'll go far here, son...
Re:Somewhere in Redmond... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Somewhere in Redmond... (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, they're (sic) is one thing more pathetic...
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Re:Somewhere in Redmond... (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, prodding somebody because they made one grammatical error is a little trite, but don't you think bitching about signatures is (at the very least) equally trite?
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Re:Somewhere in Redmond... (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Somewhere in Redmond... (Score:5, Funny)
Great idea!
--
mspohr is a dumbass
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Fool me once, shame on you (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Fool me once, shame on you (Score:5, Informative)
dos 1
dos 2
dos 3
dos 4
dos 5
Windows 1
Windows 2
Windows 3.1
Windows 3.11
NT 3.5
ME
Bob
95
98
2000
2000 professional
XP Home
XP pro
Media Center
Vista Home
Vista Home premium
Vista Business
Vista Ultimate
I've used all of those to some degree except Dos 1 Dos 2 Windows 1
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Re:Fool me once, shame on you (Score:4, Funny)
You're a brave man to admit you used Bob.
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Re:Fool me once, shame on you (Score:5, Funny)
That's what she said.
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Re:Fool me once, shame on you (Score:5, Insightful)
You seem to have forgotten DOS 6.
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Re:Fool me once, shame on you (Score:4, Informative)
I was thinking the exact same thing, but, since I don't have the mod points to mod you "insightful", I'll add:
Not to mention 6.1 and 6.2 (to remove Stacker) :D
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Re:Fool me once, shame on you (Score:5, Informative)
6.2 had DoubleSpace and introduced various other notable bits and pieces. Scandisk, which I suspect many Slashdot readers are familiar with, was introduced in 6.2.
Just some useless and ancient trivia for you
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Re:Fool me once, shame on you (Score:5, Funny)
Can't fault a GP ... when you get to a certain age, memory is the second thing to go. .... I forget what the first thing is.
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Re:Fool me once, shame on you (Score:5, Funny)
Women.
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Re:Fool me once, shame on you (Score:5, Interesting)
Given that Win7 is supposed to have a smaller number of services running by default, and a number of optimizations to boot, you probably won't get worse perf on Win7. I can't guarantee better perf, but when you're operating with that little memory, *any* improvement in Win7's memory usage will have a noticeable effect (of course, if you are disabling unnecessary Vista services yourself you'll probably get a lot of the benefit).
As for drivers, you should be fine. They aren't changing the driver model for Win7, so Vista drivers will work with it.
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Re:Fool me once, shame on you (Score:5, Funny)
And you forgot VMS -> NT versions -> XP -> Windows 2003. OK, Microsoft didn't write VMS, but they surely stole wholesale from it for NT when they hired David Cutler, one of its authors.
But that would be uneth...ummm...nevermind.
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downgrade (Score:5, Funny)
and when we get frustrated by windows 7 not living up to the hype, will we get free downgrades back to XP?
Re:downgrade (Score:5, Funny)
did I just get modded '-1 troll' for bashing microsoft on slashdot?
should I have included a line about chair-throwing overlords or something?
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Re:downgrade (Score:4, Informative)
This happens more often than you think. Just browse at -1.
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Service Packs (Score:5, Funny)
Aren't service packs always free?
Re:Service Packs (Score:5, Funny)
That's because the copyright has expired by the time they're released.
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No News (Score:5, Informative)
Similar to previous upgrade programs. The goal is minimizing the number of end users who may postpone purchasing a new computer because of the next version of Windows will be released soon.
Buy an eligible new PC with Windows Vista (Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate) and get a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it's released.
No free upgrade to anyone who currently has Vista, and the program doesn't exist yet so no free upgrade if you buy a new PC tomorrow.
No free upgrade for Windows XP...
Absolutely nothing unexpected here.
Re:No News (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:No News (Score:5, Funny)
Are most PC's available now Windows 7 capable?
Maybe if MS introduced a sticker for which ones are...
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Where did you get XP from... (Score:5, Informative)
* Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Starter Edition, and Windows XP (all editions) are not qualifying products under the program.
Misleading summary (Score:5, Informative)
If you buy a PC with Vista pre-installed after July 2009, you'll get a free upgrade to 7. Everyone else will still have to buy the upgrade. This is a common practice for software (I think they did the same thing for XP -> Vista); there's really not much to see here.
Re:Misleading summary (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Misleading summary (Score:5, Insightful)
Luckily, PE had a great version without any CD-key crap or driver mayhem. It's rather sad that the best Windows versions are made by pirates.
Or you could have just used a newer genuine XP oem disk. SP2 and SP3 disks have SATA drivers, maybe even SP1 disks. If all you had was an original XP cd, you can slipstream your own XP SP3 disk pretty easily.
Or your friend could have made his recovery disk set and kept it after he bought the laptop, so that when this eventually rolls around, he's all set, and you wouldn't have had to fumble around for something that worked.
Or you could have ordered a replacement recovery disk set from the OEM. Granted its usually 15-20 bucks or so.
But its not like you don't have lots of options.
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Re:Misleading summary (Score:5, Informative)
Your BIOS is most likely set to have your SATA controller emulate an IDE example. Many BIOSes have this option. You lose hotplug, NCQ, and maybe some other features, but it's just the thing for compatibility.
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Re:Misleading summary (Score:5, Interesting)
Microsoft will have to have a pretty big change in ideology for them to ever compete with piracy.
Yeah, but most things are like that. Want a car?
Buy one? Ugh, work for a few years to save enough money, then go in plunk it down, and drive out.
Lease one? Ugh, plunk money down every month, and end up owning nothing?
Steal one? Walk up to a car you like, get in, drive away.
Toyota will have to have a pretty big change in ideology for them to ever compete with piracy.
What's the difference?
Stealing a car is harder than downloading something from usenet? Barely, especially if you aren't that particular about the car. And spending a few hours learning how to steal a car will 'pay off' far quicker than earning enough to buy one.
The big difference is that because stealing a car is theft, and having a stolen car is fairly visible, and its something the police actually pay some attention to, odds are if you try to use this method for your daily commute you will surely eventually be caught.
So effectively the practical difference between stealing cars and downloading pirate oses is primarily one of enforcement. The only thing that's going to motivate people like you not to pirate OSes is if the odds of being caught and punished were significantly raised.
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What a shitty article (Score:5, Informative)
1. This isn't for arbitrary XP or Vista users; it is (assuming the rumor holds) a program which they will start at some point, so that if you buy a new computer during that time with Vista Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate, you'll get an upgrade to Win 7 when it comes out. This is to reduce the number of people who hold of on buying a new computer until that time.
2. It isn't for XP users at all. There are eleven occurances of "XP" on the linked page, and all but one is in an ad: "* Microsoft Windows Vista® Home Basic, Windows Vista® Starter Edition, and Windows® XP (all editions) are not qualifying products under the program." (emphasis mine).
It's a bit cliche to complain about the editors reading the articles before posting them, but did the poster even read this one?
Re:What a shitty article (Score:5, Insightful)
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Bad Summary -- RTFA. (Score:5, Informative)
You know, if you RTFA, it does state:
...and:
...and:
So let's recap: no free upgrades for XP users, you have to have bought a qualifying Vista-based system within an as-yet undetermined qualifying period, and even then you'll only be able to get a free upgrade from your systems OEM if they choose to participate in the program.
This looks like the standard upgrade protection that Apple typically offers to those who buy a new system just prior to the ship date of their latest and greatest OS. So in essence, there is nothing to be seen here. Please move along people.
Yaz.
Honestly (Score:5, Funny)
I will wait for the "free upgrade" on the torrents
Exclusive Steve Balmer Email: (Score:4, Funny)
Used Windows 7 for two months. (Score:4, Interesting)
I originally installed the 6936 x64 beta and was very impressed, however, I then made the mistake of upgrading the beta to 7000. After that everything was sluggish and slow and unbearable (worse than Vista). My own fault, but it didn't really make a great deal of sense. If they don't sort out upgrading by release, they'll have a lot of angry users who tried upgrading from Vista.
Asides from that the main pet peeve I had was sound quality. For some reason sound quality on Windows 7 and Vista is just plain awful, lacking fidelity and bass. It's not a driver issue either as it's the same with 3 different soundcards I've tried on both Vista and XP.
At any rate I'm back on Windows XP now with Windows Fundamentals. Fastest version of XP I've ever used and isn't crippled like the tinyXP homebrew isos. When you use an OS for some time you realise that shinyness doesn't matter, and responsiveness does. Starting your computer, loading programs and switching between tasks needs to go as quickly as possible, otherwise it becomes a frustrating barrier on your creativity.
Re:2 months to april (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:I see your free software and raise you? (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe offer a free downgrade to XP for all OEM Vista users that couldn't get the downgrade from the manufacturer?
You know what's sad? I've been around here long enough to remember when people were cursing XP and swearing that they'd never leave 2000. God help us all if I see the day where we are bemoaning the new release and swearing that we'll stay with Vista.
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Re:I see your free software and raise you? (Score:5, Insightful)
You know what people don't miss one bit? Windows ME. When XP came along people abandoned ME like yesterday's roadkill sandwich. (And if that makes you hungry please seek help!) I don't know one person who misses ME and regretted moving to XP. XP was gold compared to ME, and while I haven't tried the beta I'm guessing it will be the same way for 7 vs Vista.
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Re:I see your free software and raise you? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:I see your free software and raise you? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:I see your free software and raise you? (Score:5, Funny)
Of course, i^2 was too negative, and its replacement, i^3 was imaginary AND negative... luckily i^4 had none of those problems...
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Re:I see your free software and raise you? (Score:4, Interesting)
I used 2000 until 6 months ago.
I wanted to upgrade to 64 bit and vista seemed the best move*.
While there are parts of vista that drive me up a wall(most I've turned off), overall I don't mind it. I was surprised at how I enjoyed the GUI.
* I have demands that require MS Windows.
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Re:I see your free software and raise you? (Score:5, Funny)
Yup. WinAPI makes me horny as well.
*Ahhh*
MessageBoxW
*Mmnhhh*
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Re:I see your free software and raise you? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Not really an apology (Score:4, Insightful)
But here is the $45,000 question -will they count the sales of those machines as Vista sales, or Windows 7 sales -probably both....
I just know that they didn't take into account all the 'downgrades' to XP when counting Vista sales...not that it helped much considering Vista's DOA status.
-I'm just saying
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Re:Windows 7 is really just Vista 1.5 (Score:5, Informative)
Its funny really. If they change the UI too much, people bitch that they changed it just for the sake of changing it, and thats its the same OS with a pretty face. If they change mostly the backend and whats under the hood, then people say "Its an overglorified service pack"
So I'll ask you. Have you actually looked at the extent of the changes they made to Windows under the hood? No, it didn't break much compatibility because they didn't change something that does, such as the driver subsystem. Still, the changes, for example the new service trigger engine, the user mode scheduler, the remoting system, the amount of new APIs added, the UI revamp (not like XP to Vista, but still quite significant), the software DX renderer, the upgrades to the enterprise service versions, the updates of many of the userland apps, the netbook and touchscreen features, yadah yadah yadah... overall, I'd dare say its one of the more massive updates to Windows in a long time, and greater than XP -> Vista in term of features. But yes, a lot of customers won't notice this, on top of people being comfy in the XP -> Vista release schedule (and their comfortable zone got shaken off as MS came back to the old release schedule), so they have to do this and give it.
Doesn't change how massive the update is, though.
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Re:I got my 'free upgrade' 15 years ago ... (Score:4, Insightful)
gah..slackware 1.0..the pain, the PAIN~
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Re:To all who said that Vista didn't suck... (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, I've never seen Microsoft do this with any other version of Windows
Really? They did it with Vista:
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/08/free-windows-vista-upgrade-coupons-for.html [blogspot.com]
"Windows XP Users will be eligible for a free upgrade to Windows Vista if they purchase a Vista-enabled PC starting October till the time Vista formally hits the store shelves."
They did it with Windows 2000:
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/WorkingGroups/Users/CUC/2000/csejan00.htm [bristol.ac.uk]
"We have been told by our suppliers that a Microsoft technology warranty will apply to all copies of NT Operating systems bought after 1 January, 2000 and before the launch date (expected to be 17 February, 2000). So new system purchasers within those dates will have a free right of upgrade."
They did it with Windows Mobile 2003 from PocketPC 2002
"PDAs bought between 23 May and 23 September can be upgraded to the updated OS for free."
I'm having trouble digging up articles about upgrade rights or free upgrade programs from 2k to XP, and I honestly don't specifically remember there being a program for that one, but the point stands; while it might not be universally true, its certainly not uncommon for Microsoft to offer a free or 'cost of shipping' upgrades to people who buy a product in the weeks or months immediately before a new release is expected.
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