HP Brings Back Windows 7 'By Popular Demand' As Buyers Shun Windows 8

Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Gregg Keizer reports at Computerworld that Hewlett-Packard has stuck their finger in Microsoft's eye by launching a new promotion that discounts several consumer PCs by $150 when equipped with Windows 7, saying the four-year-old OS is 'back by popular demand.' 'The reality is that there are a lot of people who still want Windows 7,' says Bob O'Donnel. 'This is a twist, though, and may appeal to those who said, "I do want a new PC, but I thought I couldn't get Windows 7."' The promotion reminded O'Donnell and others of the dark days of Windows Vista, when customers avoided Windows 7's predecessor and instead clamored for the older Windows XP on their new PCs. Then, customers who had heard mostly negative comments about Vista from friends, family and the media, decided they would rather work with the devil they knew rather than the new one they did not. 'It's not a perfect comparison,' says O'Donnell, of equating Windows 8 with Vista, 'but the perception of Windows 8 is negative. I said early on that Windows 8 could clearly be Vista Version 2, and that seems to have happened.' HP has decided that the popularity of Windows 7 is its best chance of encouraging more people to buy new computers in a declining market and is not the first time that HP has spoken out against Microsoft. 'Look at the business model difference between Intel and ARM. Look at the operating systems. In today's world, other than Microsoft there's no one else who charges for an operating system,' said HP executive Sridhar Solur in December, adding that that the next generation of computers could very well not be dominated by Microsoft." Also at SlashCloud.

Comments

Re:HP has the pull to get MS to fix windows by 8.2

[modmans2ndcoming]

Read Paul T's column on Win Supersite. Windows 9 is going to have a start menu for desktop-centric uses.

Dell still offers Windows 7

[pklong]

You can still buy pre-installed Windows 7 on a Dell (business section).

If Microsoft are determined to shoot themselves in the foot, by failing to let people have what they want then so be it.

Philip

Re:Dell still offers Windows 7

[__aaltlg1547]

No they won't. They want Windows 7 for two reasons:
1. It's easier to use on a desktop.
2. It's always expensive and troublesome to upgrade operating systems and always results in some applications that just don't work right or don't work at all under the new OS. Continuing to use Windows 7 as long as possible defers that expense, or in some cases eliminates it.

This is also the reason why few businesses switch from Windows to Linux even though Linux is free and less troublesome for malware. A Windows upgrade is very expensive, but going to Linux company-wide is a major retooling. (As opposed to putting in Linux machines in a few places where they are highly confident that they will work, which just makes sense from a business POV.) My company has Windows, OS X, at least two brands of Linux and FreeBSD systems all working different tasks.

Re:New MS business plan

[Wycliffe]

1) Relabel Windows 7 boxes "Windows 9"

Fixed that for you

You joke but that's pretty much how it is:

Windows 98 -- Worked
windows ME --Sucked
Windows XP -- Decent
Windows Vista -- Sucked
Windows 7 -- Functional Again
Windows 8 -- Sucks Again

It seems to take them one generation to flush the problems out of each new release so windows 8 is basically "windows 9 beta"

Re:New MS business plan

[lagomorpha2]

Supposedly Windows 9 will stick to desktop mode when it's installed on a desktop and run Metro apps in a windows instead of going to Metro mode. I suppose if we're to expect an invasion of dockable tablets this compromise is acceptable.

If docked: disable Metro mode and open Metro apps in a normal window in desktop mode
If in tablet mode: run metro apps full screen

too bad it's HP

[slashmydots]

So someone brought back Windows 7 and it just happens to be the one with the lowest quality laptops with the highest failure rate since numbers were kept. They also are in the bottom 3 worst rated support quality. So to me, this is absolutely nothing. By the way, if you want a computer that doesn't suck, my shop has sold about 20 toshiba laptops from Toshiba Direct. They still have some systems with Windows 7 Home Premium that are built at the factory to order for around $400 with free shipping. They're quite nice too and fully featured. Why is there no "Toshiba brings back Windows 7" headline? Because they never actually stopped shipping it in the first place.

not consumer OS's

[Chirs]

Win NT and 2K were "business" OS's, not consumer. They were also priced accordingly.

Re:not consumer OS's

[torkus]

NT 3.51 wasn't really meant to be a desktop OS. It was aligned with NT 3.51 server and skipped all bells and whistles from the desktop side. They also were competing with OS/2 Warp

NT 4 was a step forward - usable as a stable desktop with drivers to support peripherals but still aimed at administrators and developers who would eschew the bells and whistles for a more stable computer. Remember this was the time when a daily reboot was required for Win 9x

Win 2000 was the first real attempt at bringing PnP and other consumer-oriented technologies to the business OS. It had it's faults but overall definitely worked.

XP took that a step further and fully combined personal and consumer OS's.

Back in the NT and 2k days...I don't think many consumers paid retail prices for their OS. MS basically allowed piracy to get market penetration and made plenty of money from businesses and PC resellers since they had the default (essentially only) OS.

Re:New MS business plan

[lagomorpha2]

But then how can Microsoft coax users toward their walled garden of software that they get a cut of the revenue from while simultaneously making users sign in to their Microsoft Accounts? It's not an accident that in Win 8.1 it defaults to dropping you back into Metro whether you want it to or not and the easiest way to get out is to open a desktop application.

Metro isn't about what the user wants from the operating system, it's about what Microsoft wants from the user.

Re:New MS business plan

[torkus]

Win 8 is totally fine once you make it into Win 7 either by uninstalling 8 or installing enough add-ons to hide it.

Seriously...MS screwed up by making such a drastic change to the UI that's been around for the better part of forever. While the under-the-hood changes did add quite a bit they could have left them under the hood and left the UI mostly intact. Tweak a few things to make them easier but...why start with a clean slate and recreate everything? Some things are so buried or just missing ... it's ridiculous. For home users it's not as drastic but business/enterprise? Do you know how difficult it is get get a secretary to click a different colored icon during an upgrade? Now you want one to learn Metro...I've watched people quit because of changes like that totally disrupting their work environment. Sad but true.