Slashdot Mirror
Windows 7 Pre-Orders Top Vista's In Just 8 Hours
Barence writes "In order to ensure Windows 7 got off to a better start than Vista in the UK, Microsoft slashed the cost of Home and Home Professional by a third on promotional copies which were sold on a 'first come, first served basis while stocks last.' The promotion ensured Windows 7 shot to the top of Amazon's charts when it was released yesterday, with the online retailer claiming that 'sales in the first eight hours outstripped those of Windows Vista's entire 17-week pre-order period.' The price of pre-ordering Windows 7 has now shot up to £80, after the £50 copies sold out within a day."
Does the collector's edition come with a deluxe CD of Windows sound effects?
"Windows 7 Pre-Orders Top Vista's In Just 8hrs" - So Vista only had 6 pre-orders?
This comment was written with the intention to opt out of advertising.
It's not too expensive, it's a great piece of software, and the best OS Microsoft has put out yet.
Say what you will about Linux or OSX, but I honestly think that Windows 7 is going to have a good future.
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
about a new operating system these days. DRM? The idea of paying a wad of cash for something that one already has but for something slightly newer that's had a facelift?
So you would have preferred Microsoft follow up an OS that was not received well publicly with another OS that wouldn't be received well publicly? I swear, the company can do nothing right for some people. Science forbid a company deliver a product that is better than its previous one, which garnered many customer complaints. The reason pre-orders have exceeded Vista so quickly is because of the huge price drop Microsoft gave to pre-order customers. Many people were going to buy 7 anyway; why not pre-order it and save half the cost (or more)? I didn't know common sense when it comes to discretionary income was news.
"It's a reverse vampire...they....they crave the sun!"
Someone I was talking to the other day made a good point. Every other OS Microsoft has put out in the last 10 - 15 years or so has sucked.
Win7 = TBD - Looking good as of now
Vista = Horrible
XP = Pretty Good
ME = Rancid
2000 = Not Bad
NT 4 = Not Bad, but severely limited
Is there a shortage of electrons?
It also comes with 18% fewer bugs and vulnerabilities if you order a promotional copy.
A marketing department trying to spin things in favor of their own company? I am shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
You know, if you log in, you can set your preferences up so that you never ever see a Microsoft article....
Hmm looks like maybe I stand corrected... it why is this article in the "Technology" section when it is very obviously a Microsoft article?
Here's to the crazy ones
Man I hate Windows! Oohhh I bet Windows will solve that problem!
... and people are acting crazy. When I used vista, I have absolute no problem with it, so I don't understand what with the Windows 7 hype. From what I have heard, it is just Vista with the retarded parts removed.
But I have no reason to care about Windows world anymore, switched to Linux half a year ago and now I am a happy Linux user :) There may never be an year of Linux or its market will never go past 10%, but I can use it comfortably now, so it is fine with me.
...except that we've had ample time to critique and review both Vista and Windows 7, and the general conclusion is that what we know about Vista NOW is completely different from what we knew about Vista when it was first released. And the general knowledge about Windows 7 is much more positive than current perceptions about Vista
Hmmm. What was that about hindsight...?
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
Make a good product and people might actually be willing to give you money for it
Imagine a world where businesses actually made their products better to get sales rather than skimming quality to reduce margins for more profit
I've been reading Slashdot for 10 or 11 years (I've never seen a reason to register an account).
Ok, you made a liar out of me, I just swore in my journal that I wouldn't respond to ACs, but damn it, I'm biting just this once.
One good reason to register an account is that you can actually know when someone responds to one of your comments without checking your comment every five minutes. You won't see this comment or even know I made it. Why join a discussion if you're not going to listen?
OK, back to ignoring AC posts...
Free Martian Whores!
Ah, but may I mention that this time you don't need to be fooled by believing pre-release hype. You could have tried the beta and you can try the RC. I'm running the RC at home. I like it. If/when/whatever I buy Win 7 it won't be because of hype. It will be because I've run the RC for ~6 months and have found it to work well.
I hope that's not considered "hype."
A lot of the hype isn't hype; due partially to how horribly bad Windows Vista is and partially due to the 'free RC' MS has provided, a lot of people (both geeks and non-geeks) have installed Windows 7.
Back when XP was in pre-release I had a friend who had a copy. This must've been around 2001 or so; I'm not really sure of the specifics. I saw it running on his machine; he liked it, he said. To me, it didn't look all that much different than 2k, and it was noteably slower on his machine. I (and many other geeks) said "pass" until around the first service pack (and when hardware was able to make up for the bloat in the software).
W7 is entirely different. It's been a solid product since the pre-7000 releases (partially due to MS taking a lot of the visual glitches out of startup/the interface, giving a heightened appearance of 'smoothness'). Many have found that, aside from a handful of applications not working, the OS is drastically, drastically better than Vista. On my ancient Thinkpad X30 (1.2GHz P3M, 512M, 20G disk), it performs quite well. Aside from a fairly lengthy boot, it's more responsive and feels less glitchy than XP ever did on the machine. It's also significantly faster/responsive than *gasp* Ubuntu 9.04 or 8.10 on the same hardware. (I should note that I had Linux installed on the laptop exclusively since I got it, starting with Mandrake 10, IIRC.)
I, as well as several other Linux geeks I know, have Windows 7 machines set up as their "gaming machine". I've got a Windows-fanatic friend who's been using W7 exclusively since 7000 or so. Can you imagine that happening with Vista, XP, or 2K? No, those products were, relatively, shit.
So yes, there are a lot of people using W7 with satisfaction, even people who were like you: skeptical of the pre-release bullshit.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Microsoft:
YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO UPGRADE WINDOWS VISTA, ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO CONTINUE?
Yes.
ARE YOU REALLY SURE?
Yes.
ARE YOU REALLY REALLY SURE?
*****yes!******
OK, THEN. JUST SO YOU KNOW, WE'RE REQUIRED TO ASK YOU THAT NOW. IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT FOR BEING A PICKY CONSUMER AND SUPPORTING THAT WHOLE "ANTI-TRUST" NONSENSE. INGRATE.
Just get on with it.
ATTEMPTING TO INSTALL WINDOWS 7. FIRST WE NEED TO CHECK YOUR SYSTEM FOR COMPATIBILITY. THIS COULD TAKE SEVERAL DAYS.
Groan.
THE INSTALL PROGRAM HAS DETECTED SEVERAL POSSIBLE PROBLEMS AND WILL NOT LET YOU INSTALL 7.
Problems? What problems?
THE VIDEO CARD YOU ARE USING APPARENTLY DOES NOT WORK WITH THE MOTHERBOARD.
But I'm using it at this very moment.
THAT IS IRRELEVANT.
But if the video card isn't working with the mother board then I can't very well see this warning message telling me that the video card wasn't...
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO FOOL ME WITH LOGIC, I AM A MICROSOFT PRODUCT. LOGIC DOES NOT WORK ON ME. I HAVE ALSO FOUND THE FOLLOWING MINOR ERRORS: WINDOWS 7 IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE FOLLOWING HARDWARE - MONITOR, KEYBOARD, MEMORY CHIPS, MOTHERBOARD BIOS, WEB CAM, SCANNER, SOUND CARD, USB CONTROLLER, CD/R DRIVE, MICROPHONE, AND FLIGHT STICK.
All that?
YES. AND THE HARD DRIVE IS RIGHT OUT TOO. WE DON'T LIKE THE MANUFACTURER.
Well what *DOES* work?
THE MOUSE.
The mouse?
YES. AND THE 5 1/4 DRIVE.
I don't have a 5 1/4 drive.
YES YOU DO.
No I don't.
WHAT'S THAT THEN?
It's a DVD R/W drive.
NO IT ISN'T.
Yes it is.
YOU'RE NOT THAT SMART YOU KNOW.
Look, can you just upgrade Vista on my system and I'll download the latest drivers for everything later? Please?
WAIT, WHAT DO YOU MEAN *YOUR* SYSTEM?
Well it is mine.
NO IT ISN'T.
It bloody well is.
NUH-UH. YOU SIGNED THE AGREEMENT WHEN YOU OPENED THE BOX. OUR SYSTEM. IT'S OURS. AND YOU CAN ONLY DO 4 CHANGES BEFORE YOU HAVE TO PAY US MORE MONEY.
But why?
BECAUSE THAT'S HOW THE LICENSE WORKS, IDJIT. WE CAN'T VERY WELL HAVE PEOPLE PUTTING HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE ON THEIR SYSTEMS ALL HIGGLEDY PIGGLEDY, NOW COULD WE? YOU USERS WOULD MUCK EVERYTHING UP, AND THEN WHERE WOULD WE BE? I'LL TELL YOU WHERE, NOWHERE. THAT'S WHERE. I... HEY, WHAT IS THAT? WHAT ARE YOU DOING? IS THAT A DISK? WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT DISK? YOU'RE NOT PUTTING IT IN THE DRIVE ARE YOU? YOU ARE! WHAT'S ON THAT DISK? IS THAT LINUX? YOU'RE INSTALLING LINUX?? WHY WOULD YOU INSTALL LINUX WHEN I AM INFINITELY MORE POWE..........
Ubuntu-9.04 #
*** Don't be dull.***
For the same reason as yours is "Interesting"?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I'm never first to buy any piece of software. I don't like paying to beta test software, and with MS's current record with OS's, I'm apprehensive at best to purchase this. And I still hate how MS wipes your MBR. For the love of god MS, some of us run dual boot systems.
At the very least, give us an option.
Hi, I Boris. Hear fix bear, yes?
It is overpriced. Vista was a horrible dead horse. Essentially a dead horse with lipstick. I have 3 machines with Vista on it. I have 10 machines with Linux and about 8 with XP. The linux boxes run more stably and are more customizable. I can change the look with little effort. Software is easy to install.
Vista is horrible. I spend my days as a small business owner supporting Windows based products. I make my income off it. I spend a good deal of that time (about 90% of it) cleaning computers of malware and bringing them back to a state where they can run acceptably. Though I don't get many infected Vista boxes I do get them. The reason is that I get so few Vista boxes. People in my community learned early on not to trust Microsoft and Vista. Most are just happy as a lark to stay with XP.
To this day I have nothing but problems with all my machines running Vista. I'm attuned to analyzing and fixing problems so I see them in Vista more readily than some Joe that may use it for only a couple purposes. I know this because I work on them regularly. I have to in order to learn it and stay up to date. Just as I will with Windows 7.
But as far as I'm concerned Vista 7 should have been offered for free. No one should be rushing out to pay Microsoft yet again to fix the crap they created in Vista.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
Somehow, this hardly seems like news. Windows 7 is a much better planned and engineered system than Vista ever was. Vista was shoved down our throats, while 7 takes into consideration what people need and want. I run 7 on machines that Vista just barfed at, meaning I don't need to spend 600 bucks on hardware to please Microsoft.
Yes, of course Win7 outsells Vista immediately. The humorous news will be coming out in the months ahead, when organizations that adopted Vista, like the US Army, find that they are unable to do things that Win7 users can do. Right now, I have almost no idea what those things might be - but most likely it will be driver related. No one is going to develop for Vista!!
Just wait for it.......
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
So, what you're saying is something like this...
1) Release crappy Vista OS.
2) ?
3) Profit!
Now, I'm not sure about Bill Gates, but Steve Ballmer looks like he could actually be an Underpants Gnome.
I'm sorry- one should never mention Gnome around Ballmer. He tends to throw things.
-Z
I don't think so. If it was in any way possible to have sex with an operating system, the OSX fanboys would have discovered it by now.
Ride the skies
The Windows 7 editions don't work like Vista's. In Vista, you had the Home Premium that had stuff like Media Center, the Business that had all of the business-y features, and if you wanted both, you needed Ultimate.
In Windows 7, its not like that... Home Premium is the same as in Vista, Professional has all of the Home Premium features, plus the business/network stuff, and Ultimate has that, plus a couple of features only useful on corporate domains (such as more Group Policites and fancier VPN functionalities for Windows Server 2008 R2) and VHD booting.
I swear by Vista Ultimate, but for Windows 7, Professional is sufficient. Ultimate is pointless, at least at home, EVEN if you have a fancy home network.