Windows 7 - a pre-release caveat

According to Blogger Bill Pytlovany's recent "Windows 7 may come at a steep price" post, Microsoft's latest exercise in obsoleting your previous purchases by releasing a new operating system may have more than the usual potholes in the road to modernity.


ITEM: Number of versions
Yes, there will be a lot of versions, and the differences between one version and another may only be inclusion or exclusion of features which don't necessarily seem to be 'major components'. For example, ability to remote to another computer.

ITEM: Incompatibility with Major Software Packages
Yes, this OS will (or may ... not clear yet) not be compatible with Windows Office 2003. Did you buy that? Too bad, you'll have to pay for Windows Office 2007.

That's bad, but we've all cursed Microsoft for these little marketing ploys before.

What's new?

Price!
Word is, Windows 7 will cost between$150 and $350, depending on the version.

I bought a new bespoke computer last summer, all the Mods Cons, and paid $710 for it (including 2GB RAM).

If I want to keep up with the Joneses, it'll cost me half the purchase price of my custom-built computer. And that's more than I'm willing to pay, since I'll have to re-purchase Windows Office besides.

What's the good news?
Word is, I won't have to buy a lot of new hardware to accommodate W7. Maybe.

And you CAN get a duo-OS setup -- called "Windows XP Compatibility Mode". But you have to buy the top-of-the-line version (W7 Professional [Business]).

You can also get it in the "W7 Enterprise and Ultimate" version, but that's not for public consumption. it's for businesses and it sells as a corporate installation with a set dollar cost per 'seat'. Ball-park, it's for networks and corporations and the cost will be $x,000 + $z0 to $z00 per seat

For more information, go to Bill's article (presented courtesy of PITSTOP) and click on the ARTICLE CONTINUED HERE link to see details, including links to descriptions of most versions.
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Oh, yeah. Somebody's bound to ask if I'm going to migrate to M7.

Answer: I bought the laptop computer I'm currently posting on with VISTA installed. I spent two days trying to work with it, them bought a Windows XP Home disk and paid a competent PC technician $50 to install it.

I considered it a bargain. And I still do. This, from the guy who migrated from Windows 2000 to Windows XP and never looked back.

Enough said?