Why Windows 7 should be a free upgrade to Vista users
November 11th, 2008, By Ovi Demetrian Jr
Details have been coming out about the next version of Windows, to be called Windows 7. Vista hasn’t gotten very good praise since it came out. Even though I’m a Vista user and do like it overall, it seems like Windows 7 is basically designed to make critics of Vista happy. And to make it up to people, I think Microsoft should offer Windows 7 as a free upgrade from Vista.
Let’s compare prices of the different editions of Vista when it was originally released compared to current prices:
| Vista Editions: | Home Basic | Home Premium | Business | Ultimate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original Prices: | $199 | $239 | $299 | $399 |
| New Prices: | $199 | $259 | $299 | $319 |
The most popular edition, Home Premium (what I’m using as I type this on my laptop) has gone up in price while the most pointless edition, Ultimate went down by a considerable amount. Looking at that, two conclusions can be made. First, there should only be two editions, Home for $199 and Business for $299. And that pricing is reasonable considering the fact that most people just upgrade their PCs with the OEM editions anyway and it looks more competitively priced to the Apple OS which is $129. And second, anyone who bought Ultimate when it came out got jipped. My dad is one of those people, in fact buying two copies, one of which was for me to upgrade my home desktop PC.
Based on some of the initial features for Windows 7, it looks like some are fixes to issues with Vista, while others are improvements to things that are pretty much already a part of Vista. I’m not sure if the features are worth the upgrade cost, probably being $150-$250 (which is basically what Vista costs to upgrade from XP).
So for Microsoft to get some of its reputation back, it should 1) offer upgrade options from XP to Windows 7 for the standard $150-$250 upgrade price 2) offer Vista users a lower-cost upgrade for Home Standard/Premium and Business editions at half the standard upgrade price and 3) for those who actually bought the Ultimate edition, Windows 7 should be free via Windows Update.
UPDATE: It looks like Microsoft is listening.. They’re offering points 1 and 2 that I made above, however they’re completely disregarding their most loyal Ultimate edition users, according to this PC World post.
UPDATE 2: Final pricing and comparison of features for each edition of Windows 7 have been released with every edition costing $100 less than Vista. For more info, take a look at Microsoft’s Windows 7 comparison chart.
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Tags: microsoft, software, windows
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Yes, agreed 100%. Windows 7 will be the first Ultimate Extra I will actually use.
I agree totally 100% as well! I have Vista Ultimate and it totally blows! So many problems and so many issues with this version of Vista. Had to take it back to the retail store at least 5 times for the same problems and issues. I think I should be able to get the upgrade for free or for a minimum charge! Windows would definitely will restore my confidence and trust in them again!
I PURCGASED ANEW COMPUTER THT WAS PRELOADED WITH VISTA HOME….I ORDEREDTHE UPDATE FROM MICROSOFT TO HOME PREMIUM.I HAVE NEVER HAD SO MANY PROBLEMS IN MY LIFE………PURE GARBAGE..WHY WONT MICROSOFT GIVE US A FREE UPDATE TO WINDOWS 7….I WASTED GOOD MONEY FOR THE UPDATE AND MY COMPUTER HAS BEEN CRASHING AND LOCKING EVERY DAY NO…..WHAT GIVES HERER?????
I don’t think that the version of Vista should be important when it comes to getting a free upgrade to Win 7 in general. I paid 1300.00 dollars for my pc only 5 mths ago and I’m getting symptoms which seem to correllate with everybody else’s view of what a bad O.S. is. For the price we pay for a worthy product H.P. should load it’s p.c.’s
with the top-of-the-line O.S. on the market. I think I should be given Win. 7 free so I don’t have to feel that I’m just another victim of another ploy by Microsoft to boost thier revenue. They knew thier product would suck and they sold it anyway; and they knew they would double thier income just on the cost of the upgrade. For what I just paid for my new p.c. A free upgrade to Win. 7 should not be to much to ask for. Are you hearing me Microsoft?