I lol'd.

it amazes me that with all the vista haters here that microsoft actually sold any copies of it at all. i know i purchased vista ultimate 64 oem the day the os was released and i've never complained a single time about my puichase. i've been extremely happy with vista. vista has been very, very good for me (there's an inference to an old SNL line there for you old geezers). i love the fact that some people say vista was too slow on their systems and they had to upgrade components. well, didn't you upgrade when you switched from 95 / 98 / me to xp? i'm sure you did. we all did at one point or another. 95 ran great with only 16 megs of ram and a 486 dx2-66. try running xp on that! sure, there were hardware/driver issues with vista, especially 64-bit, at first. that's the case when any new os is released, isn't it?    vista was and is far better than me was. comparing the two is ridiculous.

anywho, back to the topic: i wouldn't be surprised if the top "model" will be around 200 for oem. i don't know how much vista retail was at first but oem was 200 for ultimate. i'll be buying it the day it's released. that much i know for sure. btw, my new case will be deliverd tomorrow. it'll be like christmas morning around here tomorrow afternoon!

I know i'm happy with my purchase of Ultimate. Sure it could have been better, SP1 did fix some issues though. I think though M$ should acknowledge that Vista was not released in the manner it should have been, nor is it there yet IMHO, and give those of us who did move on to Vista a break.

I'm not saying only Vista users should get a deal, but M$ could easily reward the community with a lower price.

Will it happen? Of course not. But after dropping nearly 500 bucks (AU) on Ultimate, they will have to do something special for me to goto to W7.

Now I know that 500 AUD isn't worth $500 USD...

But I still find it difficult to understand how someone could justify spending that much on an operating system.

I know I wouldn't spend $327 on it.

At present the Oz dollar buys 65c USD$, so if we want/need an OS that's priced at $327 US, we gotta pay $499 Oz bucks or go without.  It's the same with all PC related stuff, hardware and software, we always pay a higher price than those in the US to begin with, marked up by import costs and the gov't getting its cut, and then the exchange rates add even more dollars again.  So yeah, I'm hoping that MS puts a reasonable and affordable price on Win 7 for the US market, otherwise it will likely be out of my reach for quite some time, given domestic markups and the exchange rate as it is.  I certainly hope it isn't because I am using the beta, quite like it as an OS, and would like to have the full release when it becomes available.

Yes, we are living in difficult economic times, but I can't believe that some are saying that they should get Win 7 for nothing because they bought Vista.  MS is going through the same economic crisis we are and can not afford to simply give it away because someone paid for an earlier product.  And it doesn't matter that Win 7 is based on Vista, there have been enough improvements with speed, file copy/move and to the GUI to justify some charge, whether you purchased Vista or not.

I do agree, however, that MS would sell more units/licenses if it were to begin at $100 - $150 for entry level editions, up to $250 for the Ultimate edition.  What's that old saying, it's easier to get a dollar from a million people than it is to get a million dollars from just a few. Same applies to Win 7, the more reasonable the price the greater the sales... it keeps the customers happy and thus is good for business.

Furthermore, before I go, those XP users going the upgrade path should not have to pay more than an upgrading Vista user, now way no how.  It had already been decided that Vista was not ready and that it was overpriced, and XP users should not be penalised for rejecting something which almost universally was considered premature.

I personally went to Vista via an OEM in a newly built rig and quite liked it, moreso after SP1, and I have no objection to paying the same as a XP user and vice versa.  Shoot, I don't care if a Win 95 user can uprade for the same price, because it's not about what anyone else pays, but about my personal use and enjoyment of the product I purchased.

This: "I'm a Vista user and should get it for nothing" crap comes across like MS owes people or something, and that certainly is not the case.  As with any MS product, Vista's purchase price included a component for future development, and whether or not it was quite ready, its release helped fund the development of the soon to be released Win 7.  That's it, so either buy Win 7 and be happy, or don't buy it and move on.

Actually at the time i bought Ultimate the $ was closer to .90US. So i payed a fair amount, even in US terms.

As much as i would like Vista users to some deal for thei willingness to move onto the next OS, as i would as one of them, i obviously don't expect anything of the sort.

I'm just bitter that i bought Vista when i did, had i known that W7 was going to be so close, i would have waited.

But as you put it starkers, i can put up or shut up.

I'm bitter that I've only just gotten use to XP and they've jumped 2 more OS's.. they should give people a chance to catch up.. what next.. disposable PC's.. ? may as well be.. sick to DEATH of having to attempt to keep up, and put food on the table at the same time!  ...............but if I don't upgrade one way or another, then I guess it's goodbye to online life for me.

Uhm, wow. XP has been out for over 7 years.

Dunno that I put it quite like that, but yeah, those who want Win 7 bad enough will pay the going price.  I know that I will, it's moreso a case of when I can afford it.  Sure I'd like to get it for a lower rather than a higher price, but I see it this way, rather than quibble about price based value, I judge the value of an item according the use and enjoyment I derive from it.

As I recall, I paid around $330 for my OEM of Vista Ultimate a couple of days after release, but did I purchase a dud?  Certainly not!  I have gotten great use and enjoyment from my copy of Vista, and for me it was money well spent.

But, as we've established previously, you're woefully behind.

No offense.

7 years, closing in on seven and a half.  Really, in that timeframe, they're due for Vista, 7, and 8.  ME was released September 14th of 2000, for crying out loud.

Which isn't to say I won't rant and rave alongside everyone else about how close 7 is after Vista-except I'm on the side of the fence that says that it can't come soon enough.

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@Neilo

So you paid closer to $450 for Vista, albeit Ultimate?

...

Were you perhaps massively inebriated, good sir?

So?..   not all of us can afford to buy a new PC every few months, I got this last year with XP... alot has happened in the last 7 years, it takes a while to save up.

There shouldn't be a dead-line on thing's of this price, it's not like it's a torch, where you only need to replace the batteries... 

Every few months? That's not even slightly realistic.

I've had a total of 3 computers since 1999. First was Win 95 that my uncle replaced with 98SE, then a few years later I built a new machine with donated parts and tried out 2k Pro before switching to XP, which I've had since (and now on my 3rd build which I worked for and put together in late 2007).

I assumed most people would know it wasn't meant to be.

Anyway.. my funds, or lack of, aren't the topic.. though I also saved hard for what I have, I, for health reasons am not able to work.. so,  I'll upgrade when I can, not when I'm 'expected' to.

Edit.. In response to below.. you don't know my situation.. and I don't spend $$$$ on loads of games.

Which is why we go to great lengths to get something fairly impressive while simultaneously being cost efficient when we do upgrade.  Point in case: Q6600 when it dropped to $266.

This is probably the meanest thing I'm ever going to say on these forums, and I hold no ill will towards you or anyone else, so I apologize in advance for being blunt:

Being poor is no excuse for getting ripped off.

Hence my probing in our last encounter as to whether you simply paid tourist price or did in fact get ripped off.  I've certainly arrived far too late to do anything about your current PC issue (the main point of which is that it's new to you but relatively ancient), however the entire point that I was attempting to make was to offer myself as a resource at the point in time that you deem it necessary to upgrade, however far in the future that may be.  I actually enjoy helping people select their PC components-as well as helping them save money on them.

-

While we're somewhat on the same topic, it annoys me to no end that people will spend hundreds of dollars on games/software for their computer, but they won't bother to upgrade the components to play/run said games/software, even when upgrades are available (i.e. before everything in their system is so far past EOL that it doesn't matter anymore).

I am by no means singling you out in this, but I would be very (pleasantly) surprised if you were not one of those referred to above.

-

And if I might offer my own input on the actual topic at hand:

I will personally not pay more than $200 for any flavor of Windows 7.  I don't care if they make a one hundred twenty-eight bit version, I'm still not paying more than $200.

That said, a more reasonable price for "ultimate" would be $150-$175.  I think it would be fair to 1) sell essentially only 64-bit versions and 2) add the 32-bit version disc(s) to the 64-bit product for an additional say $10 or $15.  Knowing MS they'd mark this up to $25, but the point is this: We should have been on 64-bit long ago, and in all honesty the people still on hardware that isn't capable of it are holding us back, because MS won't transition to 64-bit only until then and no one else will transition to 64-bit only until MS does.

And then the "vanilla" or "lite" version (which had damn well better not be Home Basic) can be $75-$100.

But then again MS didn't ask me.

No mate, not all (looks for another excuse..)

$451AU to be exact. On sale down from $714.

Aussie dollars keep in mind though.

No you didn't, i just put it out there.

I was happy paying $451 for Vista U and i am happy with my purchase. Just don't know that i can justify doing it again some time this year.

I'd say there will be an upgrade available for around $300AU, but i just don't like those upgrades. Pain in the ass when ya do a re-install.

W7, just doesnt seem like it's enough to jump to for those that have Vista already. Xp users, for sure, no problem. But it just doesnt do that much more over where Vista SP1 is at now. Not for M$'s expected prices anyway.