Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Windows 7 Will Be Free For a Year

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the still-to-expensive dept.

Barence writes "Microsoft is effectively giving away Windows 7 free for a year with the launch of the Release Candidate. The Release Candidate is now available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers, and will go on unlimited, general release on 5 May. The software will not expire until 1 June 2010, giving testers more than a year's free access to Windows 7. 'It's available to as many people who see fit to use it, although we wouldn't recommend it to just your average user,' John Curran, director of the Windows Client Group told PC Pro. 'We'd very strongly encourage anyone on the beta to move to the Release Candidate.'"

3 of 528 comments (clear)

  1. Re:its not free by jtdennis · · Score: 4, Informative

    The public beta will be out May 5th. Paying for MSDN or Technet gets you early access. I wouldn't have a Technet account except my work got it as part of their MS license deal.

    --
    -- "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings" -Optimus Prime
  2. Re:XP Free for a year? by Ritorix · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes.

    "We will be soon releasing the beta of Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC for Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate."
    http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/business/archive/2009/04/24/coming-soon-windows-xp-mode-and-windows-virtual-pc.aspx

    "As part of the upcoming Windows 7 Release Candidate milestone, Microsoft will release a beta version of Windows XP Mode"
    http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2009/Apr09/04-28Win7QA.mspx

  3. Re:Good idea by geekboy642 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Again, ~90% of the market.
    If I could put that in bold 72pt flashing courier, I would. You cannot not develop for 90% of the market because you don't like their OS. This (the unwarranted elitism) is a sickness, and it's endemic to the free software community. Whether or not you like Windows/Microsoft makes precisely zero difference. If you want to be mainstream, you cater to those in the mainstream. If you want to be a pathetic niche, that's fine, nobody will stop you. But when your tunnel vision gets so strong that you equate people using the dominant PC/OS setup as "not really that relevant", you harm yourself, and you harm everyone that tries to rely on the work you do.

    --
    Just another "DOJ fascist authoritarian totalitarian bootlicker" -- Zeio