Michael Sherlock » windows 7

Windows 7 for $30

Michael Sherlock — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:47:02 +0000

No, this isn’t a ploy to convince you snow leopard is better than windows 7 or to say windows 7 isn’t worth the upgrade price and just to buy the $29 snow leopard. Microsoft is actually offering Windows 7 for $30, to those that qualify.

Directly from the website:

“For a limited time, eligible college students can get the sweetest deal on Windows 7 – for only $29.99 USD. That’s less than most of your textbooks! Hurry — offer ends January 3, 2010 at 12:00 am CST.”

To qualify, you must be a college student. During the purchasing process you will need to entire your college email address or, if you don’t have one, proof that you are indeed a college student (basically a bill). I’m sure there will be people who abuse the system but the idea is to allow students to purchase windows 7 for a lower price. Going to the regular Microsoft site won’t directly link you to the offer, but Microsoft has launched win741 to allow students to check out windows 7 and then purchase it at the discounted price.

Microsoft is actually offering both the Home Premium and Professional versions of windows 7. Each student may purchase up to one of each version. After purchasing, you will be able to download your windows 7 version in either 32 or 64bit. If you plan to do a clean install, Microsoft recommends you purchase a windows 7 back-up disc. Generally speaking, if you know how to burn the ISO to a disc you should be fine.

Furthermore, if you are also interested in purchasing Microsoft office, look no further. Microsoft is offering students Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate for $59 with similar requirements.

Windows 7 will launch, world-wide, on October 22nd.

Windows 7 Preview

Michael Sherlock — Wed, 28 May 2008 21:48:58 +0000

Last night at the all things digital conference Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates previewed windows seven, the successor to windows vista. The biggest surprises in this short preview was the inclusion of muli-touch. (Shown in a video bellow) Ballmer confirmed that windows seven will fall in Microsoft’s new 3 year cycle meaning expect windows seven sometime in 2010. He didn’t offer anything more specific than mentioning that three year cycle but I feel pretty comfortable Microsoft won’t allow windows seven to suffer from the amazing delays vista had.

Full Preview

Video: Multi-Touch in Windows 7

Microsoft Windows 7 expected 2010

Michael Sherlock — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:06:16 +0000

“Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates’ words are being parsed for hidden meanings. According to my News.com colleague Ina Fried, Gates said this week during a speech before the Inter-American Development Bank: ‘Sometime in the next year or so we will have a new (Windows) version’”

States Mary Jo Foley blogs for ZDNet. She continues saying

“Microsoft officials are insisting nothing has changed: Windows 7 is due out roughly three years after Windows Vista’s consumer launch (which was January 2007), meaning in early 2010.”

Even after Bill Gates stated a new version of windows would be shipping next year, 2009, Microsoft has officially stated the next version of windows, Windows 7, will be shipping three years after Vista was released. This 2010 expected release date will hopefully improve on the low and buggy quality of windows vista.

This comes after the much delayed launch of windows vista. Hopefully for the windows community Microsoft is able to produce a product which doesn’t yield so many issues the way vista has during this first year. (Vista launched January 2007) I feel however that Microsoft will do a better job given all the issues they have had with vista. No company wants their multimillion dollar project to fail the way vista has but it clear they will not make the same mistake twice. Plus, I expect that Microsoft offers a better upgrade path for users. Expect windows seven certified PC’s to actually have the ability to run windows seven. (A big upset for PC users was when windows vista certified computers failed when trying to upgrade to vista.) Expect a very strong and different Windows 7.

However, I do feel this news exemplifies the fact that vista is a huge upset for Microsoft as well as us consumers. Not only are there too many known issues with vista for it to be a strong competitor but it’s also very unoriginal featuring very ‘mac-like’ features which don’t conform to standard windows users. My opinion, stick with windows xp for as long as you can and than upgrade to Windows Seven.