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Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

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Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#131

Post by gte910h »

ams6110 wrote: post #126
lambada wrote: post #88

What no-one has mentioned that I find interesting, is that Microsoft are calling this a 'promotion' "This upgrade promotion for Windows 8 Pro both online and at retail runs through January 31st, 2013." I wonder why this price is only temporary, and what the price will be afterwards?

They can say that the retail price of the upgrade is $139, then with each sale they can take a $100 "promotional" expense off their taxable income.

I was under the impression the value of the promotion is based off production and transport cost, not equivalent sale price. Is this not true?

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#132

Post by gte910h »

majorlazer wrote: post #55
SpikeDad wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh? Next you'll be telling us W8 is going to be the nail in the coffin of Appple? There's NO question that the W8 upgrade pricing is a DIRECT result of Apple's usual $40 upgrade pricing. BTW: Lets see how easy it is to update WXP to W8 - a single click in the Microsoft Store?

How is it a "DIRECT result of Apple's usual $40 upgrade pricing" if the two OSes don't even run on the same hardware? A user won't be purchasing a Mac because his OS upgrade cost is $60 more (or however much Windows upgrades originally cost). Microsoft knows that people will have little incentive to migrate from Win7 to Win8, so they are doing all they can to encourage that. This is not a response to Apple's pricing…

>if the two OSes don't even run on the same hardware

Macs are some of the best windows laptops out there. Tons of places buy MBPs then install windows.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#133

Post by rlu »

tikhonj wrote: post #50
freehunter wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, negative public reaction is heavily influenced by word of mouth. Will you lose anything by not upgrading? Not immediately, but over time yes. Will you gain anything by upgrading? Possibly, depending on your needs, leaning more towards yes over time. I've been using it 100% for a few weeks and spend 90% of my time in desktop mode (due to using Chrome, AIM, and Media Player Classic). Most of the time I f…

I've also been playing around with it a bit (my excuse was that I needed to use Windows for some work stuff), and have had a similar experience. That is, I mostly just use the standard desktop and only see the launcher rarely. For me, it's basically just Windows 7 but very pretty. (I actually think that Microsoft now has the best graphical design with Metro.) I did try some of the metro apps. It was a little weird--i…

I agree though I particularly like using the Messaging app snapped to a side while using classic desktop. Know what I mean? Pretty legit.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#134

Post by FreshCode »

jsz0 wrote: post #119

It's a smart price but I suspect that Microsoft has burned too many bridges for most people to ever consider upgrading their computer's operating system. For the average person a (Windows) operating system upgrade has traditionally been cost prohibitive and often not a smooth process. That's going to scare a lot of people off even at $39.99 I'm also not convinced Microsoft has found a compelling way to sell Windows 8…

I've been waiting for MS to wake up to cheaper (and more frequent) upgrades for a long time and I am happy to upgrade at that price.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#135

Post by hcurtiss »

Simucal wrote: post #60
hcurtiss wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Our law firm is almost -- almost -- ready to roll out our Windows 7 build. And we only have about 650 users.

Can you describe a little bit about what all goes into preparing for a Windows 7 deployment for a company of your size? I'm genuinely curious.

I'm a lawyer, not IT, so my answer may not be all that useful. That said, there are two major hurdles at law firms. First, the management structure is ridiculously flat, and the people running the show are usually the most senior attorneys. Just so happens, those are the people least likely to be using the technology.

Second, most of our software is custom/old-as-dirt. Upgrades require direct participation of vendors who have us over a barrel, and for that reason, no incentive to move quickly. It's an extremely painful/slow/expensive process.

IMHO - Big Law is due for disruption in this area. NetDocuments appears to be making some headway. Unfortunately, lawyers and, thus, law firms, are extraordinarily risk averse. Startups will have difficulty capturing this market.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#136

Post by anotherblue »

archangel_one wrote: post #113
zephjc wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that I can install OS X on a blank hard drive when needed (which I've needed to do twice).

You can install the MS upgrades on a blank hdd too, can't you? It's been some years but I thought they just used to ask for a disk from the "qualifying upgrade" product to be inserted during install.

Usually, you can do following:

- Install Windows retail SKU, but do not activate it. You can borrow disk or download ISO for this. - Start installing upgrade version, then reformat partition, supplying upgrade key in the process.

At the end, you will have Windows upgrade installed and activated, fully functional.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#137

Post by elithrar »

nnnnni wrote: post #75
Simucal wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you describe a little bit about what all goes into preparing for a Windows 7 deployment for a company of your size? I'm genuinely curious.

The number one thing is to make sure that all of the software is compatible without having to jump through a bunch of hoops. Law firms are notorious for using OLD software.

> The number one thing is to make sure that all of the software is compatible without having to jump through a bunch of hoops.

This is the killer. I'm part of a large (6,000+; 1000+ in my state alone) engineering firm; our IS team are currently about to roll out Win7 at the end of the month. We have a lot of software—particularly drafting and modelling software—that we rely on (with few alternatives), and all of their related plugins.

It's not that we don't want to move forward, but the cost of buying new tools (that may not be compatible with our clients'), re-training staff, etc - is possibly greater in terms of lost productivity than just dealing with XP.

Hardware isn't a problem though, as any PC from the last 5-6 years can run Win7 in an "office" environment; a bit less if you need to run modelling software. We usually upgrade on a 2-3 year cycle and a lot of staff are now moving from C2D/4GB/HDD machines to i5/8GB/SSD machines. Everyone loves the SSD's.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#138

Post by [deleted] »

illumin8 wrote: post #74
madoublet wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly think my productivity is a lot better in Windows 8 then in 7. The updates to search are fantastic. You simply hit the start key and type what you are looking for. You get smart filters on the right that allow you to filter by type (files, apps, settings) and even by app. I have also found that managing multiple desktops (something I often do for work) is made a lot easier by the hover corner. Plus, everyth…

On every version of Windows I've ever used, the search indexing service steals precious background disk and CPU cycles, and almost always causes issues with the two main things I use my computer for: gaming and music production. I can't even count the number of times that the search indexing service spun up in the middle of a gaming session and made my system start to lag. Of course they say it runs as a low priority…

[deleted]

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#139

Post by lucisferre »

greenyoda wrote: post #35
neovive wrote: post #14

I wouldn't chalk this up as just a competitive response to the relatively low price Apple charges for its OS upgrades. I think Microsoft really wants/needs to accelerate the adoption of Windows 8 even if that means taking a hit on license fees. Whatever they can do to accelerate adoption of W8 in the enterprise and consumer markets will more than pay off in the long-term. A major reduction in legacy support requireme…

My guess is that it will take a long, long time for enterprises to move to Windows 8, with most sticking with Windows 7 for as long as Microsoft continues to provide security patches for it. If you're an enterprise with 10000 or 50000 non-technical users running Windows 7, the cost of moving to Windows 8 will be primarily IT staff hours, including all the support questions from users puzzled by the new user interface…

Windows 7? Most of them haven't even left XP behind.
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