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Okay here you go. Windows 7 Basic is designed for "emerging markets" and last I heard the price was between $3-$5 USD. Of course you have to be considered an "emerging market" to get it, so if it isn't offered in your area your country must have "emerged" already, congrats. Sorry I couldn't find a list of countries but last I read it was for China, India, most of the poorer far east.

"Sales of Win7 are down so low MS isn't even promoting it in most places. "

.... huh? it's not out, so yes the sales would be very low when Windows 7 is not for sale yet. How was this marked Insightful? Should be -1, Citation Needed.

"Sales of Win7 are much higher than Vista; where they are at now, it took Vista weeks to get to."

Score:+1, Funny, since Win7 has not been released so there are no sales

Not complete? No shit.

I downloaded Windows 7 RC and for most stuff it's actually fine - I'm using it as I write this. Not unbelievable, but quite good ... once it's working. Fast, pretty stable, all that stuff. But some serious problems getting it working.

First, the activation key didn't work for me. I did it all legit: downloaded and installed W7 from microsoft.com, created a live.com ID, got the activation key, pasted it in and "we're sorry, the activation key you entered is not valid for this version of Windows". Just plain broken shit, no excuse.

Dude, if you can't fucking get your basic shit together, why wouldn't I just use Ubuntu? With Linux, if it doesn't work at least I have the consolation that it's free.

It's like test driving a prototype Chevy and the fucking _key_ doesn't work. Pro Tip 1, you moron engineers, the FIRST thing you make sure works on a new car/OS/whatever is the FUCKING KEY.

The comedy continues. There's also a bug in the W7 RC that causes the OS to crash when running installer packages off CDs ... from Microsoft... So I, like hundreds of others, had to do a reg-edit hack to install MICROSOFT OFFICE. http://windows7news.com/2009/01/21/fix-for-installers-and-updates-crashing-in-windows-7/

Pro Tip 2, you FUCKING IDIOTS: before you release a new OS for testing, the second thing after making sure the FUCKING KEY works is to make sure YOUR OWN FUCKING SOFTWARE WILL INSTALL ON IT.

Seriously. This is stupidity on the "I forgot to put my pants on before I went to work this morning" level.

It's not like half of the Internet didn't know the date since January.

Only if you run Starter Edition, which is aimed at "emerging markets" only.

Real Life should have a google search box.

I, too, was very annoyed to see the quick launch disappear. Luckily, it is easily resurrected. http://windows7news.com/2009/01/29/enable-windows-7-quick-launch-toolbar/

You forgot to mention, they've upgraded calc!! :o)

How hard is it to google or Wikipedia? I know it's easier asking others to spoonfeed them and counter them if they don't. Here are some videos if you're really interested.

http://windows7news.com/2008/11/03/enable-new-windows-7-taskbar-in-windows-7-m3-build-6801/ Keep in mind that the taskbar that enables isn't the current version you saw in all these fancy videos. It works, but it's not polished. I still like it though =)

Oh, disable automatic grouping under properties and it looks nicer

Oh, and I'm running on a four year old system with one gig of ram and the UI flies compared to Vista.

There are a ton of BONE-HEADED design decisions in Vista (try selecting a wireless network with less than 5 or 6 clicks).

Indeed, Vista certainly doesn't have the easier way to select a wireless network.

Having said that, Microsoft is (sometimes) capable of learning from their mistakes. Windows 7 has a modern wireless selector now: http://windows7news.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/win7_m3_ms_17.jpg