I read an article about Windows 7 pricing the other day. I literally had to sit down and take notes in trying to understand the mess of it all. Windows 7 pricing is confusing to say the least. Pricing depends on which version of Windows 7 you buy, whether you get an upgrade, full version or a family pack. If you are in Europe, you will most likely pay double than your US counterpart. Payback for IE? Who knows. Nevertheless, Windows 7 pricing is confusing and convoluted.
Windows 7 Prices
Preorder – Starting June 26 until July 11, 2009, Windows users can preorder Windows 7 Home Edition and Professional. This is a limited time offer. This is an upgrade version and NOT the full version. Upgrades are available for Windows XP and Vista users only.
- Preorder Windows 7 Home Premium Edition $50
- PreOrder Windows 7 Professional $100
Family Pack – Allows 3 PCs in a single household to be upgraded to Windows 7 Home Edition. This is an upgrade only. Details on this offer is sketchy. Wait for Microsoft’s official announcement.
- Family Pack Windows 7 Home Premium Edition $150
Upgrades – Upgrades are available only for Windows XP and Vista users only. Earlier versions are not supported.
- Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade $120
- Windows 7 Professional Upgrade $200
- Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade $220
Full Version
- Windows 7 Home Premium Full Version $200
- Windows 7 Professional Full Version $300
- Windows 7 Ultimate Full Version $320
Buying a PC now – Starting June 26 to October 22 and beyond, buyers of PCs with Windows XP and Vista installed can upgrade to Windows 7 for FREE. This is a bit deceiving because the actual cost is outlined below in the OEM which is passed on eventually to consumers.
OEM Price - Cost after October 22 when you buy a brand new system with a Windows 7 operating system. The cost is passed on to the consumers by vendors. Currently, the OEM cost are: Windows XP $15, Vista Home Basic $97, Vista Home Premium $121, Vista Business $153 and Vista Ultimate for $205. See the OEM prices for XP and Vista.
- Windows 7 Starter Edition OEMÂ $50 (1)
- Windows 7 Home Premium OEM $200
This means, if you buy a $700 PC, you paid for $500 for hardware and $200 to Microsoft for the operating system.
(1) Please note that Microsoft has placed a limit on the hardware requirements for the Starter Edition. Vendors have to comply not to install Windows 7 Starter Edition on anything less than the following: 10.2 inch screen, 1GB RAM, 250GB hard drive, 64GB solid state, and on a single core processor with less than 2GHz.
Europe – If you live in Europe, you poor souls, expect to pay a lot more, almost double for what the US users will be paying. After all, Microsoft has to pay all those programmers to strip IE from Windows 7 and also pay for the new packaging of Windows 7E. By the way, there is no upgrade, just the full version.
- Windows 7 Home Premium Full Version €120
- Windows 7 Professional Full Version €286
- Windows 7 Ultimate Full Version €300
Competition – Finally, let’s compare the rest of the competition:
Mac OS X
- Mac OS X Leopard Upgrade $29
- Mac OS X Leopard $129
- Mac OS X Leopard Family Pack $199
Linux
- Linux Upgrade $0.00
- Linux Full Version $0.00
- Linux All Universe Pack $0.00
I am getting a mac or switch to a Linux based environment for real. I will just keep WinXP active until games stop running on it.
Go for it, Brett. I’ve been using Linux for years, but a little over two years ago, I finally made the switch to Ubuntu with my main system. I don’t really miss anything except maybe for the games. But, then again I have the XBox 360.
Isn’t that a lot _fewer_ levels than the Platinum Sandwich! of Windows Vista? Sounds like they’re actually simplifying.
Simplifying, but still not enough.
European users have always been ripped off by American companies with Microsoft leading the pack but also including Apple, Adobe etc. This has nothing to do with the European Commission’s actions to protect European customers against Microsoft’s monopolistic abuse. The pricing is a disgrace but unfortunately, with monopolies like this in place, it’s hard to say F**** Y**. But the aversion against companies engaging in these practices has grown and grown and grown. Again, Microsoft first and foremost. Take the ridiculous pricing for Microsoft Office. A product that hasn’t changed significantly in a decade and has been premium priced from the moment they managed, by hook and by crook, to push WordPerfect out of the market. Now, we see the counter movement. OpenOffice is being widely adopted by governements and individuals. The Commission is taking action. There are serious consequences to single minded greed and rip-off deals.
For those of us who don’t want to pony up large amounts of cash to buy Microsoft 7 or MS Office products, open source software is the only the only way to go. I would say 90% of Windows users can be converted to Linux and Open Office now. Less than 10% will have incompatibilities. In a sense, you can say buying Microsoft is waste of money and resources. Why pay for something you can get for free.
or better still download free super ubuntu 9.04 knocks spots off xp and vista nb., i am reasonable at p/c,s but can get winrar to function on any ubuntu if you can do without winrar ubuntu,s for you all software is free from ubuntu.com if you can,t get super ubuntu 9.04 E me at lezlow@hackersclub.net ill send it to you antwere
ulyssesr may i add if you wish to play games on ubuntu you can use a 1500gb terra+half hdd this enables a percentage to be utilised by wine which i,m lead to believe allows you to play games if this is wrong let me know and i,ll try compensate you for the hdd[with software]?////
more info this address is bill gates personel address keep it for when you want to complain it goes directly to his personal one of many homes unless they change iy address my freind bill….http://297.46.232.182/billgates…………………………………had to check then to see if i,d put feind instead of…..if you cant get him there hell be at his club which is………..http://www.exposingsatanism.org/cos.htm
Lez, I’ll stick to blogging I do all my complaining online. Haha.