Memo Reveals Windows 7 Upgrade Details

By  |  Friday, June 5, 2009 at 6:48 pm

Best Buy customers who purchase PCs preloaded with Windows Vista between June 26 and Oct. 22 will receive free upgrades to Windows 7, according to a company memo obtained by Engadget.

Further, Best Buy will begin taking pre-orders on Jun. 26 for paid upgrades, according to the memo. Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade copies will cost $49.95, and Windows 7 Professional Upgrade copies will sell for $99.99. No details have been released about what full installs will cost.

“This new operating system isn’t just a “Vista that works” program–it’s a new operating system with improved productivity, functionality and creativity that uses less computer resources,” the memo read.

Windows 7 will be generally available on October 22 if European anti trust regulators do not find something objectionable in the final release. However, as first reported by Technologizer, Microsoft has a contingency plan to ship in January should it face legal scrutiny.

 
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  1. drew Says:
    June 5th, 2009 at 7:13 pm

    Interesting on the pricing. I would have been more excited a month or so ago when I first got my netbook. I have been running my netbook on Ubuntu Netbook Remix for about three weeks and have had no problems.

    I am able to do what I intended the netbook to do (GMail, Google Docs, etc) and even at $50, I am not sure what would motive me to spend money for what is, for me, free.

    I have become, philosophically, disengaged from the OS. I have a device, and the OS lets me get on the web and do what I need to do.

    I did the same on my desktop, and I ran through a number of distros before settling on Ubuntu. I don’t have any great attachment to Ubuntu over say OpenSolaris, aside from hardware issues in OpenSolaris that did not exist in Ubuntu.

    Downloading and installing UNR was in many way liberating. Everything I am using is open source, and while I have donated before for “free” software, I did not have to pay for it. More importantly, I did have to waste time digging out some stupid key code that was three blocks long and treated me a criminal when I tried to reinstall the OS.

    My computer at work has XP, and if I need Windows, I can use it there.

    -Drew

  2. brownknight Says:
    June 6th, 2009 at 6:54 am

    I have been using Ubuntu at home fulltime and I am really happy that all my computing needs, online work and play, office suite, media and entertainment are already served by ubuntu’s pre-installed software. Ubuntu has just improved to a point where it is equal to (and even better in some areas) to windows XP. I lost excitement with Windows 7 since I dont see any improvements said or shown that is not already present in Ubuntu – and Ubuntu is free 🙂

  3. Josh Rose Says:
    June 6th, 2009 at 8:48 pm

    If this ends up being the pricing, this is actually what I was hoping Microsoft would do for Windows 7, based on a rather overzealous reading of their recent marketing campaign. I think keeping the price of a Windows 7 upgrade (and hopefully the full install, although that may be a bit pie-in-the-sky) really low is a great move and guarantees many people will upgrade without simply buying a new machine. I mean, I just bought a new computer with Vista a month ago (my first time using that OS, too) knowing Win7 was due out later this year; but now knowing I may have to pay only $50 to upgrade to Home Premium for Win7….I’m in. For that price point, I will gladly fork over that amount to upgrade this new machine.

  4. drew Says:
    June 7th, 2009 at 6:15 am

    I felt the same way too; but with Unbuntu doing everything I need on the netbook, I don’t feel a need to upgrade.

    What are you hoping to see/gain with Win7 that Vista is not providing for you? The reasons for upgrading are falling by the wayside with me. OpenOffice 3.1 has prove to be impressive to me. Over the past year, my district (I teach High School) has moved all the applications (grade book, attendance, e-mail) to a web interface that all I really need is a web browser and OpenOffice.

    Now, to be fair, my situation is somewhat artificial, as I have a full-blown XP machine at work so I have place to run Widows programs. But even without access to that machine, OpenOffice, GIMP, etc have provided the tools I need. In a month, I have not yet found myself saying I wish (Ubuntu, OpenOffice, GIMP) could do……..

    I am sure that time will come, but so far it has not.

  5. Josh Rose Says:
    June 7th, 2009 at 8:15 am

    Drew, I understand your questions, and in fact I run Ubuntu (well the netbook variation) on an eeePC 701 that I use for work as well. For me, everything I have been hearing about Win7 is that it comes with vast, rock-solid performance improvements. Granted, I would much rather simply run open source software (which I do on this desktop Vista machine as well…OpenOffice.org has been a godsend), but need to run Windows for certain programs I have to use.

    I think, to be honest, I am a slight glutton for punishment and return to Microsoft time and time again. Go figure.