Those who don't want it won't buy it!

Those that do, who don't want to pay, will make alternative arrangements for getting a copy!

Those that love it will pay MS no matter what they ask for, even if it's bodily parts!

70 quid or whatever for 3 pcs home use ... are they gonna do the same for Win 7? They'd win a lot of friends if they did.

I expect they will be expensive, really expensive and "How fuckin' much? Jesus!"

...

but not good enough to justify the price differential that I expect over ubuntu.

Whenever I buy a new windows OS, makes the install simple and gives me a bit more storage (and allows me to roll back to my old, working version of windows should I need to. Touch wood, this hasn’t happened yet)

I like Windows (and can honestly say I have had no problems with Vista) but then again I am lazy and careful so the gaping security holes don’t bother me too much and I don’t have to learn anything new. I did say I am lazy, I got Ubuntu Gibbering Gibbon or whatever it was called on my laptop, it installed perfectly then after finalising the install it re-booted and the login screen graphics were so MASSIVE I couldn’t tab around and log-in so I had to endure the torture of Ubuntu forum "support", hack this terminal that, rub this parse that, compile the other screw around a bit more and hey presto it works!

So yes, I have tried both, still got Ubuntu on my laptop and still use it if I forget to boot into windows (yeah, that GRUB config file is really easy to edit and swap the boot options round isn’t it!) and I only want to browse or webmail

What I would like from MS is some recognition of my Beta testing of win 7 (or Vista purchase) say a discount or something. Should I hold my breath?

Anon and flame proof jacket please!

...on an Aspire one I bought during the week ...with compiz and all the trimmings ..

SWEET!.. ....So glad i'm off the M$ treadmill.

Pretty simple if you ask me:

How much do you have to spend? Send it on in!

Governments have LOTS of money charge more!

Third world cretins have lots less, charge less!

They make money on every sale so what difference does it make. It all eventually goes to Bill Gates charity/wealth distribution anyway, so we might as well laugh while it is being done.

How much does M$ pay you for these posts? You do realize, don't you, that you are literally selling your soul to the devil?

After looking at the Windows 7 RC, I would not get it if Microsoft offered ME £500 for it. It is a DOWNGRADE from Vista. Vista does have problems (the HAL removal is the biggest) but these problems are still contained in Windows 7 and now they have added the removal of windows mail to the list. The official line is that you can download Windows Live Mail which has all the features of Windows Mail. Except it doesn't. If you have an email with an attachment that Microsoft considers "unsafe" (even if it is saved on your computer) Windows Live Mail does Microsoft's party trick of "we know better then you" and DISABLES the attachment. No way to turn the feature off. Same for MSN nowadays, you can't send an exe file because it MIGHT be "unsafe" even some picture formats are blocked!!! You can't even set up message rules in Live Mail!!

And this is the same thought process through the whole of Windows 7.

You WILL use the new start bar because it is better (don't care i PREFER the classic style)

You WILL use our new Windows Live programs because we don't have to do as much work with them

Windows 7 is a poor attempt to paper over the bad publicity attached to Vista which on a well powered machine runs fine. A lot of the problems people were having were due to the deal Microsoft and Intel struck to allow the older intel chipsets to be "Vista certified"

The facility to run XP programs in Windows 7 via an inbuilt Virtual Pc enviroment is a good idea in THEORY but why bother paying to get the new OS to do what the old OS did, but slower? You can do the same with Vista anyway, it's called Virtual PC since if you have XP programs chances are you'll have an XP licence and which you can use as it is still on the same computer.

Windows 7 is a service pack for Windows 7 - with a few more useful features removed

...you'll still need 3rd party file management software. It's worse than vista

Explorer - still can't open more than 15 files at a time. And S-L-O-W

Search - Won't find anything on a data CD, almost totally lacking in configuratability

Generally - I wish I got Mouse Miles like I get Air Miles. I'm forever 'chasing the focus' and I'm knackered! Twice as many clicks to get anywhere after you find it.

So as far as RC7100 goes: I call FAIL! Unless you don't want any more than "really wanting to see just the 5-star photos from last year" and touch your screen then Mickeysoft aren't really listening to you.

XP64 for another year or two it is then. The wallpapers were frightening my kids, anyway.

If AutoCAD would work properly on any other platform, you wouldn't see me for dust. As it is, I'm lumbered.

(chanted slowly and loudly)

RIIIIIIIPPPPPPPP OOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF !

RIIIIIIIPPPPPPPP OOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF !

RIIIIIIIPPPPPPPP OOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF !

RIIIIIIIPPPPPPPP OOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF !

RIIIIIIIPPPPPPPP OOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF !

RIIIIIIIPPPPPPPP OOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF !

I haven't paid for a copy of windows since, well, I can't remember when I actually hand over money for a copy. I did buy a laptop 2 years ago that had a copy of windows on it...

Anyway, If windows 7 is priced under $50, I will buy it. If not, I will obtain it elsewhere. MS just doesn't get it (the consumer), we only have so much money to waste, and MS is not on the top of the list of places where I want to spend any of my money. So, MS will either come to realization that it's better to:

a. Sell 500 million at 50

or

b. Sell 50,000 at $100, and the rest will get pirated because once again, they priced it out of the market.

Quite frankly, Ubuntu does everything, and I mean everything except my games well. I have it dual-booting on all my boxes, except for my server which is Ubuntu only.

"OEM isn't an option since I expect to be swapping the MB/CPU in a year's time......"

Hmm, my OEM XP has been on a "rolling upgrade" box since I bought it and the OS has served through more HW changes than you can shake a stick at. None of the current components bear any relation to what it originally grumbled into life on and are all at least four generations removed (bar the case - that's only been swapped once).

Once in a while, when swapping bits, it'll bitch about this, but a quick call to MS solves that. Rather handily for XP owners who like to fiddle with hardware, they've now made this a fully automated process ("Press 1 for yesIonlyhaveonemachine" - automated license fixage key read out by return).

This is actually the one area where M$ don't take the piss (as long as you don't), contrary to the scare stories circulating about OEM versions.

@wibbilus maximus

Forget Windows Mail and just install Thunderbird. Job done.

Start/taskbar can be set to act like more like previous versions if you wish. Once you get used to it though you realise the new version is more efficient and yes i'm aware it requires a whole extra click.

No you really DON'T have to use the Live programs ;-) How is MS forcing you to? It didn't even come with Windows Live Messenger I had to opt to install it.

@Steve

I find Win 7s explorer a much better improvement over Vistas. Vista never seems to give you the shortcuts to the folders you want. Win 7 does a better job but I still think XPs explorer is better if you use a lot of varying folder locations.

I haven't had any need to open so many Windows myself :-)