Full Upgrades To Windows 8 Only From Windows 7? 222
CWmike writes "Microsoft will support full upgrades to Windows 8 only from the three-year old Windows 7, according to a report Thursday by ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley. Citing unnamed sources, Foley said that Microsoft has informed select partners of the upgrade paths to Windows 8. While Microsoft may be revealing upgrade paths to some partners, it has been much more reticent to keep customers informed than three years ago when it rolled out Windows 7. Among the details the company has not disclosed are the on-sale date and the pricing of the two retail editions. By this time in 2009, Microsoft had revealed both: On June 2 that year, it pegged a launch date for Windows 7, and by June 25 had not only posted prices for the operating system but had also kicked off a pre-sale that discounted upgrades by as much as 58%. The increased secrecy from the company was demonstrated best last week, when it unveiled its first-ever tablet, the Surface, but left many questions unanswered, including the price, sales date, and even the hardware's battery life."
I don't see the problem with this (Score:5, Insightful)
Might see re-emergence of "downgrade" ads (Score:3, Insightful)
After MS shipped Vista, MicroCenter used to advertise desktop systems with Vista preloaded and "XP downgrade rights". Expect similar with Windows 8 and "Win 7 downgrade".
Re:And... (Score:5, Insightful)
No, XP is used in so much environments for just about everything still.
- Scientific tools are still mostly XP-only (or DOS still), Vista/7 is possible sometimes with XP compatibility but it's not guaranteed
- Most corporate programs still run only on XP including IE6
- XP is fine on 10 year old computers without all the bells and whistles, 7 is a lot heavier on the resources and requires a more recent computer to run well even with all the bells and whistles turned off.
MS doesn't see the demise of Windows (Score:3, Insightful)
It seems to me that MS is shooting itself in the foot. If I were in charge of Microsoft, I would be afraid of OS X and iOS. Once Apple starts leveraging its market share in iPhones and iPads to push people towards OS X, Microsoft is going to feel a lot of pain.
MS is no longer the 800 lb gorilla in the room. The integration of iOS and OS X is going to create an OS that has enough applications to really take off.
Re:Even better (Score:2, Insightful)
Who gives a fuck? Ubuntu is a train wreck. If you're going to promote Linux, at least promote a good distro.
Does anybody still "upgrade"? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:MS doesn't see the demise of Windows (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree, except between Windows 8 and the Cisco cloud silliness, Apple will probably follow the trend and push OSX users to iOS instead. More control and all that.
Re:I don't see the problem with this (Score:2, Insightful)
Given their past history, I'll never be an early adopter of the new Windows version anyway. Especially since they are delving into new territory - something they're not particularly good at IMHO - by the time I get around to it, Windows 7 will more than three years old.
Re:Even better (Score:5, Insightful)
Free upgrade to Ubuntu from any version of windows.
No free Linux upgrade or port for every significant software package that runs under Windows.
While damn near everything client-side in FOSS is ported to Windows or begins as a native Windows app.
The parent post gets a predictable mod-up here.
But the truth of the thing is that only 1% of desktop users have seen any added value in Linux. I do not expect that to change,
Re:What is the problem? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Get off my lawn.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Wow, a nuanced old-version supporter... cool. I wonder how many of us are left here on slashdot. I am not a true supporter anymore: at some point it my systems just stopped sticking around long enough.
Leaving them behind for a relative when moving out, equipment death and robbery have forced me to PURCHASE newer hardware. I'm surprised to see your system survive this long. A truth younger slashdotters need to know is that you cannot easily add new programs to old machines.
Kudos if you have seen your share of errors of missing dotnet, DirectX, Flash 7+, VisualC++ DLLs, Visual basic VBRUNDLL and bad HTML support for hotmail/yahoo. Cheers if you've known the joy of working around some or found alternative browsers and programs. It's sad that the only people using older software are either poor old people or their grandchildren. Middle aged people I know just fork over money for overkill hardware and pirate their way through Windows version upgrades.
That makes it harder on us given they perpetuate adoption of things (remember the first year of docx files?) and proliferation of overkill RAM amounts / bad coders who assume everyone buys a new machine every 3 years.
Re:Even better (Score:4, Insightful)
The fact that you have to ask is the problem (even if you were just joking).
Even where Linux is concerned, what's so hard about having a "cheat sheet" available in an obvious location? Over the last 25 years, manuals gave way to pamphlets, which gave way to online documentation, and now interfaces are so supremely well-designed *cough* that even a list of hotkeys requires you to do a web search on online fan clubs.