Windows 8 pricing details announced as preorders begin

Oops, that lets me out.

I have, in the past, bought retail versions of things, specifically so that I can run them in virtualised environments later on, e.g. buying retail XP so that when the inevitable later time came, I could run it in some kind of container, just as I ran 98 in containers under XP - now I run 98 and XP in containers under 7.

But if my only choices are upgrade or OEM, there is no chance I'll buy it because that's just not how I want to operate. I even was quite happy to pay the premium for that privilege, but I guess MS doesn't want my money that badly.

windows 8 hum

ok windows 7 is now popular due to the fact it works drivers and software works on it why would i want to upgrade to windows 8 for whats the reason apart from i dont have a touch screen monitor to use the touchscreen feature thats one reason but what does 8 offer that 7 does not. i just dont get someone explain it to me

"ok windows 7 is now popular due to the fact it works drivers and software works on it why would i want to upgrade to windows 8 for whats the reason apart from i dont have a touch screen monitor to use the touchscreen feature thats one reason but what does 8 offer that 7 does not"

You might want to consider breathing in between what should be separate sentences. Windows 8 is shit but IMO there's no point having a heart attack over it.

What do Windows 8 and a revolver have in common?

They're harmless when they're not loaded.

Someone had better tell Kleenex to increase tissue shipments towards the end of October.

The amount of wanking the open-source shills are going to be doing whilst they work themselves up into a frenzy on how awful Windows 8 is could run a sperm bank for a century.

And I'll bet it still won't play BD discs natively...

I can live with Windows 7's security features and critical omissions. Win 7 is decent enough to use, though a major pain to work on if you're an IT person. By making it so everyone's grandmother can easily fail to connect to a wireless network, I have to dig down 3 more levels to get to the menu I want. Okay... progress, eh? And Windows' "long goodbye", which still persists to some extent, the omission of things like Netmeeting and the handy little network lights widget. The way that I cannot make my old Quicklaunch bar behave the way I like it. The way that regardless of my global 'view' settings, that when I open the printers folder for example, that it still insists on showing me huge, useless icons. And the trail of bread crumbs interface that I've never much liked. I could rant about these things all day... But still usable, and an improvement on some fronts. And pretty. Not as nice as Linux, but pretty...

Windows 8? It will be a sad day when LTS for Win 7 stops and we're all forced to use this or something worse. Every time MS includes a plethora of new security features in an OS (which ultimately don't help all that much), I'm reminded of the scene from one of the Harry Potter movies where Dumbledore walks into the room full of spinning, whirring craptastic gadgets that ostensibly prevent intrusion and tampering of all sorts, and gazes at them with mild distaste and bemusement...

Work and play

At work, I'm still embroiled, as my colleagues are, in the shift from XP to W7. In that respect, Microsoft can just go screw itself because I can't see the addition of W8 systems any time soon. Too much work, and too expensive. I suspect that a similar scenario will be played out in many other places as the replacement cycle here is far too fast for a number of companies' liking.

At home, I'm not so bothered, but I still doubt I'll be moving anytime soon. I'm actually doing this from a self built W7 64-bitter which has yet to give me any grief. Amongst other things, it has let me run the "Not Allowed to Call It A Beta" preview of the "Interface Formerly Known as Metro" and while it isn't going to be the death of me, I really can't see the point of shifting. By the time I've buggered around with it so that I can do anything approaching work on it, what I actually have is so similar to W7 that I might as well stay where I am until I absolutely have to. And possibly not even then.

It's just like a certain Linux distro I tend to use. They pushed for change in their setup but what I'm left with is a monumental headache trying to get things to work the way that I want them to, so I am increasingly leaving my upgrading until I really have no choice. Yes, openSUSE, I'm looking at you!

Bottom line - An operating system is meant to allow the user to use a computer to do things that they want to do in the way that they want to do it. Too often, these days, what the user wants is ignored, whether by open sourcers, Microsoft or Apple. That's why they complain. In the case of W8, Microsoft have gone out on a limb and created a system that, despite the improvements under the hood, has been sabotaged at the front end in the name of what seems to be a fad or, at the very least, an ill-advised design flaw.

And that's why I say to Microsoft, in the case of W8, to go stick your "upgrades" (which has been a dubious way to install MS operating systems anyway since time immemorial) where the sun refuses to shine.

They are charging money for this?

Oh boy....I was going to try out because I thought it was free.....

The real cost of Windows 8

Is the desktop.

You can buy Win8 for some money and your currently well functional desktop.

I am actually quite looking forward for something new and different. Windows has not really changed since Windows 95.

$Free is too much for Windows 8

I wouldn't pay a red cent for Windows 8.

We are swearing off Windows 8. We don't want our user interface experience changed. The changes only work to slow down our work day and play time. They will bring annoyances to Windows. The only two ways to circumvent Microsoft's unimaginative designs, and careless behavior, and still be able to enjoy the sizable investment we have in Windows software, is to f**c Windows 8 up by running 3rd party utilities to fix Microsoft's terrible mistakes, or to just skip Windows 8. We've chosen to skip it.

Windows 8 is a tablet/phone OS. No amount of false advertising, or convincing on Microsoft's part will change that. Why Microsoft is insistent on forcing Windows 8 down Desktop user's throats is beyond me.

I really hope that Linux takes off for gaming, because once that happens, and it's reliable, Microsoft will be well on it's way to losing the battle.

Dear Microsoft,

You didn't have to piss us users off. All you had to do was listen to us, and give us what we want. That's how you make money. Selling something that isn't wanted by the masses, well, that's just plain ignorant. I don't like Apple's products, but you know, you deserve to lose out to Apple. Apple's not a whole lot better, but at least users can chose to stick it to Microsoft. Users have other options to get screwed. The centre of the computing universe is no longer over Redmond. It has moved a lot closer towards Android, Linux and Apple.

You are losing our trust, and that is the consequence of not paying attention to the market, and the desire of users.

I'm really shocked.

Forget a recently deceased dead TV personality, I am stunned at how many here have had their mothers of family molested by MS.

Well you'd think so from the sulky indignant stuff they write up.

So I shell out for the full version of the OS...

...but I can only install it on one machine and I can't then transfer it? Yes, that sounds like a really sensible, well thought out plan that will serve to persuade people not to obtain pirate copies.

Great. How many applications and hardware drivers will this latest release break?

$$Media Center$$

Wait until the consumers find out after their upgrade that some of the toys they've got used to (Media Center) are now a paid-for upgrade. Reminds me of the punters that haggle over the price of their new tv, then get stung when they buy a $50 HDMI cable to go with it...