Windows 7 Will Be Free For a Year 528
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.'"
Good idea (Score:4, Insightful)
embrace extend (Score:0, Insightful)
I'll give you the first one free. And if you want more, come back to me.
Re:Good idea (Score:1, Insightful)
Desperate Co. is desperate.
Re:Good idea (Score:5, Insightful)
OK, I'll bite.
This reminds of what Bill G. said about people illegally using Windows in China. MS would rather give you the first hit free
so you get hooked. When you come crawling back for more to feed your habit then they'll charge you for it.
Sorry but MS has violated the publics trust so many times I just can't ever see anything good in their marketing attempts.
Fascinating (Score:1, Insightful)
So you get people hooked in with a free release, then hijack them after a year with no good downgrade path and thus no access to their data (modulo switching operating systems) unless they pay up?
I'm impressed. I didn't think MS could sink any lower.
Re:Offline Gaming machine (Score:2, Insightful)
Your 4-year-old's account shouldn't have administrator access.
If you gave his account administrator access, neither should you.
Re:XP Free for a year? (Score:2, Insightful)
"It's available to as many people who see fit to use it, although we wouldn't recommend it to just your average user,"
Oh, I see what you did there. By implying it's not for everyone, you're hoping to get everyone to try it so that they feel a cut above the average user. It's a far slicker move than most of Microsoft's last decade of marketing who carpet bombed the PC market to get every single person alive on windows.
Re:Good idea (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Good idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Good idea (Score:4, Insightful)
Windows a gateway drug?
Re:Fascinating (Score:5, Insightful)
Unsuccessful troll is unsuccessful.
isn't this SOP for Windows pre-releases and betas? (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't see what's new here. So the latest version will self destruct in one year, then what? Or maybe they are releasing it to the public instead of leaking it like they normally do?
Nothing here, move along. Move along. IMO.
LoB
Free with "minor" caveats (Score:5, Insightful)
"Microsoft is effectively giving away Windows 7 free for a year with the launch of the Release Candidate.
It's only free if you don't value bug fixes, security updates, product support and potentially all manner of issues installing software that will be released for Windows 7 RTM on a pre-release version no-one will have done significant product testing on and won't care to help you with if you run into problems.
Keeping all this in mind, and the fact this is pre-release development code, it's not hard to see why this release is free. I do find it odd that it's got such a generous expiration date, but approaching this as a free (time-limited) lunch is probably a fairly bad idea for all the reasons above.
If you like it, but don't want to pay for it, just pirate it. You'll be better off, and so may many others when they don't have to worry about your compromised box congesting their network, because it was exploited by a flaw MS has no intention of fixing in pre-release code.
Re:Good idea (Score:3, Insightful)
Bad idea? It implies:
- blogosphere ablaze with reviews. Just add a pinch of astroturfing.
- free beta testing.
- new users get familiar with the interface, it's time to move off xp.
I say this is a good move. Of course it would never have happened if linux weren't good on the desktop. Their management probably panicked seeing a flawless sidux install on hd in under 3 minutes or something like that.
Re:Fishing (Score:4, Insightful)
Death to Pirates? (Score:5, Insightful)
Windows a gateway drug?
No it's more of a Dell drug.
This is actually a wonderful idea for them. it lowers the barrier for the transition. Even companies can push their costs forward in time.
But i'm thinking of all the pirates in asia. The street vendors with virus laden bootlegs will be competing against free. this will hurt their market. Then a year later what will the chinese consumer do? He could go out an buy a bootleg and re-install his system or he could buy a keycode and continue with his current system state. in many cases the idea of re-installing a system would be daunting enough to suddenly make the key code seem cheap.
Competing with themselves. (Score:5, Insightful)
Frankly, I don't know if it'll work. Windows XP works fine. It's an operating system. All it has to do is run applications and manage resources. It does that well enough for most people and corporations, so why switch?
Re:Fascinating (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Fascinating (Score:3, Insightful)
One more reason why every family computer geek should stress the importance of regular backups, especially before taking major steps like upgrading one's operating system.
Re:Fascinating (Score:3, Insightful)
If I install Windows 7 RC on anything, it'll be a virtual machine. If I get downgraded, I just kill the VM, and no harm done.
Imagine this (Score:2, Insightful)
A story about Windows is posted on Slashdot and all the comments are usless dribble about M$ being buggy and instable. I think I see a parrallel between the way the media is covering the Swine Flu and how Linux users cover Windows stories...Can we please stay on topic here...
What is the (anti)benefit of a company putting out a beta like this for a long period of time?
I installed Linux and I feel so much better now.
Dennis Leary
Re:Good idea (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Good idea (Score:1, Insightful)
No, my mother wasn't so stupid to believe that any drug dealer would actually give their shit away for free.
Re:Fascinating (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Good idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft doesn't need people to buy their OS. It's not like they have much of a choice anyway.
What they really need is to get people to stop replacing it with an older version, and to stop trying to get the older one on their new hardware.
Re:no thanks! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Good idea (Score:3, Insightful)
Except it is not free. It is no-charge for one year.
This is trial-ware. It isn't a free version of Windows.
As soon as that trial is up they will charge the users for the same amount and because very few people use a computer for just a single year the cost is the same over-all.
The word "Free" is just add jingle nothing more. Unlike FOSS where "Free" actually has a definition as in "You do not have to pay to use this software." Yes you may have to pay for training and help using the software but many people have to pay for that with Windows as well.
Re:Errr.. (Score:1, Insightful)
Hey, it's not Ubuntu.
If you install this RC you can't update it / upgrade to RTM.
That's the "average user" part, if you want security updates and don't want to rebuild your system from sratch in a year, this is not for you.
Basically it's not a main
Re:Good idea (Score:4, Insightful)
Its about getting developers to decide that the platform is worth developing software for. If developers decide due to low market penetration that Windows 7 is as appealing to write for as Mac OS9, the money train will end and Microsoft will most likely fail as a company.
Personally, I don't consider them to be particularly relevant anymore. The exciting new technology doesn't come from Microsoft anymore, and hasn't in years...
Re:Ballmer's strategy (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it's more likely that this is Ballmer's strategy against his own failings with Vista.
They're in desperate need of getting people off XP - it's starting to show it's age from marketing point of view and I'm sure MS would like to move to a new technological platform as well.
It's also nice to see they've really looked at things that went wrong with Vista launch - I don't think they really can afford to bomb Windows 7 launch.
Re:Good idea (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Imagine this (Score:3, Insightful)
I think I see a parrallel between the way the media is covering the Swine Flu and how Linux users cover Windows stories
You may have a point, but using an analogy that involves virus outbreaks while advocating a Gentler and Kinder perspective on Windows stories may not have been the right approach.
Re:embrace extend (Score:3, Insightful)
Give a regular user a choice between free* Windows and Free* Linux, and they will choose Windows in a heartbeat.
This is designed to get users to upgrade from WinXP to Win7 and not to Linux
Re:Good idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally, I don't consider them to be particularly relevant anymore. The exciting new technology doesn't come from Microsoft anymore, and hasn't in years...
Yeah, but it's kind of hard to consider having ~90% of the market to be irrelevant. They may not be the hip new thing, but they're definitely relevant to most people.
Re:Good idea (Score:2, Insightful)
Summary:
Whine, whine, whine, I want free stuff, gimme free stuff, I guess guys like me don't deserve free stuff, so because I'm not getting anything for free I'm not gonna spend anything. TAKE THAT M$FT. It's total bullshit that you won't support a nine year old product and continue to sell it INDEFINITELY! TOTAL BULL MAN.
My 02c, YMMV.
Re:Ballmer's strategy (Score:4, Insightful)
Or Microsoft accurately recognizes that a vast majority of their revenue is from OEM bundles and is willing to take an extremely small hit from a million or so computer geeks who know how to download, burn and install a product they'll have to reinstall in 12 months.
Either you stop using it and wouldn't have payed them anyway, or you buy it and they get your money eventually anyway. Either way they lose no money.
Re:Good idea (Score:3, Insightful)
While the "gateway drug" thing is being joked about, it isn't very far off target. The first exclusivity contract was signed with manufacturers, because MS understood that once the relatively low "learning curve" was behind a user, that user is unlikely to look at the higher learning curve necessary to learn *nix.
Let us remember that MS is a "for profit" corporation. Every decision is calculated to make money in the long run. Sometimes the decision is right, sometimes it is wrong, but it is always calculated to seperate you from your money.
Re:Good idea (Score:5, Insightful)
The only thing is, I've had Vista on a testing machine since its first public beta, just so I can track the progress they're making with it. I put the first public beta of Windows 7 on my laptop and used it for a while. Both are... fine.
But then I had a problem with my laptop and so I wiped it out and reinstalled Windows XP. You know what? I didn't have any problems in downgrading. What I mean is, there wasn't anything after downgrading where I said, "Shoot, I wish I could do this, but XP doesn't have that functionality, so I need to upgrade again." At least not so far.
If Microsoft wants me to pay for an upgrade, they're going to have to show me something more than what I've seen so far.
Re:no thanks! (Score:3, Insightful)
How about instead of saying "Unknown Partition", make a driver that allows read access to the FS drivers in the linux kernel?
MS: Linux may have been good for you, but we provide you the tools to migrate your data back to a "Complete MS Solution". We support all fileystems that Linux can read and write to, along with BASH scripting and posix programs by default. We also run a Linux compat layer, like BSD, so we can run native ELF executables without changing.
but no.
Re:M$ giving windows away?! (Score:3, Insightful)
they are not giving Windows 7 for free. /. can't seem to write decent titles.
Re:Good idea (Score:3, Insightful)
No, I didn't. Microsoft doesn't need to get people to buy their OS. But they need them to run it.
Most people don't go into a shop and buy Windows. The vast majority of OS sales are going to be from OEMs. So Microsoft loses very little by letting everybody have it for free. I'm pretty sure there will be something that will stop OEMs from taking advantage of that, so they will still pay.
What MS does desperately need is for people to want to use it. Because if people keep resisting and asking for XP, then OEMs will keep demanding XP, and enough of them will be powerful enough to force MS to keep providing it. If that happens, then Win7 really isn't going to sell, and that's going to look very bad on the financial reports.
So it's very much in MS's interest to convince people that Win7 is going to be great, by giving it away for free even, if that prevents people from demanding XP with their new computers.
Re:Good idea (Score:3, Insightful)
I also tend to think overall it is less work.
But like anything different, you just have to take the time to learn it. And when you do, it's really easy to configure and maintain.
I would bet that you started with Windows and so did all your incremental learning on Windows. Then, in switching to Linux, or taking on Linux boxes, you had a lot to learn.
I would argue that if you started with Linux and did all of your incremental learning on Linux, then taking on running a Windows server would seem just as much work to come up to speed.
Re:Good idea (Score:3, Insightful)
Ok... Here it goes:
1. They offer you Windows 7 RC free for a year
2. You download and upgrade your machine
3. 1 year later, the install expires and you have to purchase Windows 7
4. Microsoft sells you Windows 7 Basic for $999
5. Profit!!!
Re:Good idea (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Good idea (Score:1, Insightful)
It isn't confidence in W& as a product at all. It is confidence in the fact that once people install it and have it for a year, most won't go back to de-install and re-install XP or Vista--it's just too much trouble. IT is the same reason they bundled IE with Windows--not because they were confident in the product, but the opposite: they knew most people take the path of least resistance, in this being 'free'.
Re:Good idea (Score:3, Insightful)
I would argue that in today's economic climate, they really do want people to buy the OS - people are less inclined to buy new hardware at the moment and as a result, their normal market has shrunk.
Back with windows 95 and 98, they did pretty well shifting shrink wrap boxes, and I would imagine they'd like to recreate that if they can... giving a year's 'free use' seems like a fairly sane attempt to do that, especially in light of the kick back against vista.
Re:Good idea (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, they do: they can stick with the Windows OS they're using now -- they don't have to upgrade. Vista's failure to penetrate the market illustrates that point. Windows' primary competition these days is itself.
In other words, Microsoft does need people to buy their OS.