So, Windows 7 finally hits the streets and the early signs are promising. It’s not hard to see why, when even the least Microsoft friendly reviewers have been raving about it for months.
DSGi, one of the UK’s biggest computer retailers, said that they have had more pre-orders for Windows 7 in the past 3 weeks than they had for Windows Vista in a year!
Windows 7 free upgrade from Vista – The argument
As long time readers will know, I believe Windows 7 should be given to Windows Vista users, as a free upgrade.
Many Windows Vista users feel they were unpaid beta testers and that Microsoft has used their time and their error reporting with Vista, to help them produce Windows 7. I agree! In fact, many people have suggested that Windows 7 should have been rolled out as a Service pack for Vista.
These users should either get a free copy of Windows 7 OR AT LEAST a massively discounted copy.
Microsoft’s Windows 7 PR blunder
Microsoft’s latest OS is superb and if you are a Widows user, you will almost certainly love it. It’s just a pity that Microsoft didn’t use the launch of Windows 7, to win back some good faith from millions of angry Vista users. These people are now using an inferior OS and have to cough-up if they want to use an OS, which I believe they deserve for free. I blogged about this here.
What do you think?
Should you have to pay for Windows 7, if you already own Vista?
Related posts:
Is it just me, or does Microsoft’s business plan seem to be this:
Introduce an inferior product so that later it can get you to pay for an upgrade to a superior product.
We’ll remember back to Windows Me and then XP.
I personally think that Microsoft has every right to ask for money for an upgrade. Is it arrogant and flawed? Yes, probably. Until there is a serious competitor for operating systems in the PC world, they probably won’t change their tune. I am looking forward to seeing if cloud operating systems can replace the standard OS, but we will have to wait and see.
In the meantime, I am not going to upgrade to 7. From a non-technical standpoint, there is no point. Vista works fine for me. In fact, I kind of like it. Looks like 7 has a few cool features, but I’ll just get it when I get a new computer.
Feel your comment hits the spot!
Used Windows Me on one of our PCs and had nothing but grief – 4 PCs in house at time. Windows 200, XP not a problem.
Got new laptop with Vista installed – not a choice – feel that the performance is not what it should be.
Have bought my wife a laptop as apresent with Windows 7 installed. Impressed by the intuitive way in which it works – regret did not read manual but shows how good it is! Why was Vista so poor by comparison.
We are planning to upgrade all PCs in hous eto Windows 7 based on this but will monitor performance on new laptop – expect no probs!!!
Have to nagree with some comments – poor product released, users input comments , issues addressed (or not!!) limited cost to MS then new product at high cost presented. Not impressed but need to use OS – daughter going to uni re: graphics/design/ arts course – Mac on horizon. If this turns out to be good will probably cahnge as do loads of photography.
Seems style before substance!
Yes I do feel screwed. You can buy a PC with windows vista, with a free upgrade to 7! I tried vista as soon as it came out. For months I have tried to tweek it to run games I had bought within 4 months before I ran vista. I updated, updated, searched for unknown updates, tried beta drivers, old drivers, no drivers, pain, pain, pain… And like so many others, I gave up. I had no choise, I didn’t want the money I paid for the games to be wasted too. I wasted my $300.00, tossed my money in the trash. Went back to XP. If I want windows 7 I have to shell out another $219.00 (I want ultimate)!!! I will have to think about it this time. I am running windows 7 RC right now, and I do love it. Haven’t found a game it doesent run. But still, I was burned with vista.
MS have clearly treated you and a LOT of others like crap.
Sadly, it seems from their sales figures of Win7 that they will get away with it (this time.) Thanks Dave.
sorry to hear what happiend to you dave i had gotten 2 free upgrades to my vista for windaws and my both pcs of mine diden’t get no free upgrade for windaws 7and found im not really happy but feel screwed at the same time
I also bought a very expensive(at the time)laptop with Vista Ultimate to find out none of my Adobe applications would work on it and that was the start. I had problems with any software whether it was made for Vista or not unless it was 64bit, in other words, Office 2007 was the only thing I could run successfully. I have tested Win 7 and it works but I am not about to pay again.
I am a president of a non-profit company and vista has caused countless hours of lost time for those with in my company that are running on vista. I am one of those. We cannot afford an IT so I’ve been the IT for the company which is a sad commentary in and of itself. The computer in my company running XP only had a fraction of the down time that us VISTA users had. The biggest problem for XP users was communicating on the company network with us Vista users. MS has BILLIONS & BILLIONS of dollars and YES they should do the right thing and offer us frustrated VISTA users a Free copy of at least the basic W7 with greatly discounted prices for the higher performing W7’s. I’ve already spent well over the asking price for W7 in lost man hours in my company. MS HELP US PLEASE!
Your story is shocking, and partly because it’s not that uncommon.
MS REALLY need to sort this out.
I hate Vista-have it on my laptop now and am so thankful I have a desktop with XP. I bought my new computer June 8 – guess what. Users who got it after June 28 get a free copy. Why do you suppose they are giving any away free? Because Vista sucks. Us poor suckers who bought prior to that have to cough up the bucks!
Last month apple sold more Mac’s then ever in their history–geez I wonder why?
Tami – I agree. I think there IS a link between Apple’s sale of OSX based machines and how cruddy Vista is.
I’m tired of being a lab rat! We all (Vista patrons) deserve a free upgrade to Windows 7.
Thanks for speaking up Jim, and giving us a place to voice our opinions! Do you hear us Microsoft?? We keep you in business… it’s time for you to payback to the people who have stood by you side all these years!!
Thanks – Ed
Thanks Ed,
The number of views this post has generated will hopefully grab someone’s attention. Though, I genuinely don’t think Microsoft give a crap. It’s the kind of stuff we expect from them and they never fail to live up to our low customer expectations.
Jim,
Don’t be under any illusion that Apple give a crap because they dont’t either. These companies are run by shareholders and so common sense and logic go out of the Window.
Jason
Ed,
Apple users are lab rats too. Think about the new iMac owners who are having issues already, the Macbook owners whose Magsafe adapters caught fire etc.
Apple is not perfect, Microsoft is not perfect.
The problem is that Apple can crap on customers and it’s acceptable, but Microsoft do it and they are crucified.
I use OSX and Windows 7 for different reasons so am on the fence but I see the issues with both OS’s.
One thing I’ll say for Microsoft, they don’t mind changing their OS brands ie XP > Vista > 7 etc.
Apple on the other hand have BIG branding problems coming and that’s why we’re seeing minor point releases. Let’s face it what happens to OSX when they hit version 11?
That’s right, it because OSXI which doesn’t really work does it?
Jason
Ya I would like Free upgrade to Win7 But you know this is not going to happen. I Had there xbox systme the 360 once again the early adopters was labrats I had 20 brake on me 2 I had to pay to get fixed. Most was the red ring of death. And the rest was dvd drive failor.
I guess it could have been free, but that is not how business works. Microsoft wouldn’t ship an OS…one of the biggest products to be released for Free. Now, it could have been cheap like Snow Leopard for Mac OS X..but with the many versions that would be hard to sell.
-Scooter
MacintoshTipz
Apple’s OS is cheap because they make their money on the hardware and MS make it on the software.
The way business works is to look after your customers, admit when you have made a mistake and then put it right. If a car is sold with a design fault, it’s called back and repaired for free.
Paid a bundle for a HP laptop last Dec. Has Vista on it. Can’t install XP on it, BIOS, or something, stops it. No, I don’t have the time to spent google-ing to find out why, I need to use my computer as a tool to get work done, not spent 50% of my time in support of it. Vista is the worst OS release I have seen. Makes Millennium Edition look good. Had this on a laptop, hated it. It is clear to me from the reviews that Windows 7 is Vista fixed. I can’t see giving Microsoft anymore money for problems they created. Loved those Mojave Experiment ads, i.e. where Microsoft seems to be blaming Vista problems on dumb customers. I hope people who purchased Vista based on those ads are happy into shelling out more money to get a product that works. I have had enough. Some release of Linux is going on the laptop just so I don’t have to sell it and I am going to a Mac as my main computer. If Microsoft had offered the upgrade free, or now, for a token fee of say $10.00 I might feel different. Yeah, I know you could preorder it back in June-July cheap… Why would I do this without seeing real reviews of the final release? Just be burned too many times.
I thought that Microsoft would do the right thing and give vista customers a free upgrade, After the release of windows 7 and after receiving hopefully are free windows 7 upgrade for our laptop running vista, we were going to buy a pc tower with windows 7. We have been religious hard core windows people no one could tell us any different. Now Microsoft gives you an inferior product and won’t step up to the plate and do the right thing, instead they expect us to just put our tail between our legs and upgrade, and continue buying their products? This caused us to look into Mac. Where once we wouldn’t even consider Mac’s but because of all this we looked into them and were glad we did we really like them. Mac don’t seem to have the adware spyware antivirus issues. Enough for us! my wife and I decided that were not giving into window pcs and products anymore. For what reason some how or another windows programs have always been a fight, trying to remove adware spyware updating anti virus, now they won’t even give any redemption hope after windows vista, Enough sai!. If they would of gave us the free upgrade we would of kept on giving windows a run. For these reason were converting to MAC.
Another example of how MS are gifting users to Apple.
Just use Linux! There is a alternative any and every piece of software you have bought for cash. Plus you can run anything windows with either “wine” or “crossfire” so really you are not losing out on any windows programs at all! Also its so much faster than windows (dosent matter what Windows OS version). And most hackers work on Linux and hack windows machines because 85% of computer owners have windows for a OS. Plus there are FREE updates with most distributions (fedora, ubuntu, slackware) that protect against the small percent of people who try to hack Linux. Not to mention that people with low RAM on windows have to resort to virtual memory on a swap FILE. Where as Linux uses a swap PARTITION. Partitions are much more stable to write to multiple times over and wont crash as often (or at all). Have any questions about Linux? Well go to the forum of whatever you install (ubuntu has the largest in my exp.) to ask questions or find people who have the same problem. Bottomline windows sucks @$$, use Linux.
Although I do agree with Nick… Don’t misinform people….
“Plus you can run anything windows with either “wine” or “crossfire”
First of all… Not ALL windows applications will run flawlessly in Linux…. you pretty much got a 50/50 chance depending on what it is… 2nd of all… it is not called “crossfire” it is called “Crossover”
And giving your opinion saying ‘windows sucks’ is not an intelligent way of winning people over…
In saying this… My opinion is that They both do the job and they are both good (Windows/Linux)
If your happy to pay money for a windows operating system, and it works for YOU and your not really interested in trying something new and learning how to use it… then use Windows…
If your not willing to Pay a riduculous amount of money on the latest microsoft windows operating system, you want is FREE, and you want as much Software as you can get your hands on for FREE without resorting to cracking/hacking software and putting the security of your system at Risk…. If you want the latest and the greatest O.S for Free EVERY time, If you want the most Secure System…. And don’t mind the new learning curve…
Then Choose Linux.
i recommend Linux Mint, Ubuntu, PcLinuxos and Opensuse to get your feet wet. Download the iso files, burn them to cd and you can boot into Linux and have a play with them to see which one you like the best before deciding to install it or not.
kaddy
Apple are equally at fault for not releasing snow leopard as a service pack update. If Microsoft charged for SP1/SP2 on Vista they would be crucified yet for Apple it’s ok?
i’ve been using windows vista for almost two years and i don’t see why people would be unhappy with it but anywhos, i think a free upgrade is a great idea!
i saw how un fair it was to vista users what microsoft had done when i had hurd about windaws 7 cause i own 2 vista computers and i like diden’t see or get a free upgrade but i do agree that microsoft should give out windaws 7 to vista users for a windaws upgrade to their desktop
Microsoft’s Vista has had an adverse impact on my productivity. All of us should be given free Windows 7 upgrades.
I JUST BOUGHT my laptop thru my university in late September. 2 days into owning it: Blue Screen. It started fine in safe mode and I’ve had no Vista problems since then but I had had enough. I heard about W7 and was furious. No one sells me garbage and makes ME PAY THEM to upgrade it. W7 should have been a Vista SP; most of the additions are modest. I am running Ubuntu Linux now and will NEVER buy another Microsoft product if I can avoid it. (BTW my first home computer came bundled with Windows ME (mistake edition) so I don’t have particularly warm memories of Bill Gates’ little baby.)
I have got really screwed wit Vista home premium. MS should pay me for the amount of time I lost getting my peripherals to work with their slow and unsecure system. I am not upgrading to Windows 7. I think I am switching to Linux guys. I am not changing to another MS OS which will hog all my system resources of my new PC. Rather I will keep my quite capable PC, rid it of the cancer that is MS vista, and install and learn Linux. I know it will take a lot of time but once it is done, I will be free of MS forever. Nice thought. :)
yeah i guess so too..we should get win 7 free for our vista..or atleast exchage may even be a gud idea.. :)
Well should have would have, except I am sure MS want to get paid some of the money they put into developing Windows 7, I do think that people who used the Beta and RC should have gotten a bigger discount towards the FULL version and not just the upgrade version, I bet there were Linux users who tried windows for the first time with this public beta.
I had an HP with vista that crashed out on me in 18 months I just bought a new haed drive with windowa 7 and a new laptop 2months before Millinium days thats what vista reminds me of. especially since I always buy HP and microsoft products.
we vista users need to get together and petition to get vista free!! It’s not fair that I dont get the upgrade because I believed the HYPE and purchased in FEB. of this year 2009 instead of after june 2009. IT’S NOT FAIR MICROSOFT TO MAKE MORE MONEY OFF OF US FOR YOUR BLUNDER!!!!! WHY ARE YOU SO GREEDY!!!!
I have to be honest with you, I was one of the people who didnt upgrade to Vista from XP because of people moaning about it, then I got a new system and with it came Vista, I loved it, I never had any problems, went 2 years without even having to re-install the system, I do not think it is fair for Vista users to think they should get 7 for free.
If you buy a 2010 model car and you do not like it, does that entitle you to get the 2011 model for free? I know it is more money but the principle is the same, this is not a restaurant where you can just send the steak back to the kitchen and get a new one, this is Tech and sometimes you buy things you do not like, simple as that.
Now I do think MS should have been less expensive with their win 7. and maybe the $49 upgrade price should have persisted after the initial offer.
Just my opinion.
I’m guessing you have not seen how close Vista is to Win7? If you had, you would realize that Win7 is just Vista, with the bugs and bloat removed. I see it, like many others,. as a service pack for Vista. To charge Vista users (who were all beta testers in my opinion) for Win7 was wrong, in my opinion Brian.
Last year I got a virus on my computer and ended up messing up my windows xp by deleting some of the wrong files. So I went out and bought Vista for 200 dollars which is a lot of money for me. I could not get it to load (other disks worked fine and yes it was a dvd drive). Eventually a friend gave me the trial of Windows 7 which loaded and worked fine. For some reason I thought I had read that 7 would be free for Vista users and I even remember entering in my Vista serial key for some reason. Apparently I was mistaken as now my Win 7 will shut down in 15 days. I cannot afford another os right now. Might be time to look into Ubuntu and such.
It seems everyone wants a free handout i.e Win7 as a kind of compensation but you’re missing the point completely the fact is Vista should have never been released or even made for that matter unless Microsoft’s sole intention was to screw everyone over knowing that they would release Win7 at a later date all along. I wont go into too much depth but basically from what I’ve learnt and experienced with Vista I believe that a trading standards or a regulatory body of some sort should’ve stepped in, led an investigation and penalized Microsoft, it should have almost certainly never got to point where it was the default OS on almost every new spec pc/laptop. Anyone who hasn’t had problems with Vista obviously hasn’t used their computer for anything other than menial tasks. The pc I have now is probably the best one I’ve ever had but I struggle to notice the difference, Vista does not harness the power of it at all, it’s like replacing a claw hammer with your head all you’re going to end up with is a major headache.