Windows 8 Release Preview leaked, Microsoft may raise OEM prices

[Matthew DeCarlo]

The Chinese version of Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 Release Preview has hit the Web a tad earlier than intended. The leaked ISO has been tested and confirmed legit by various sites, including PCBeta (Chinese) and WinUnleaked (English), and is readily available on popular torrent sites. Although the copy is in Simplified Chinese, several users report the ability to install an English language pack via Windows Update. Regardless, we recommend waiting for Microsoft's official release, which is due in the first week of June.

Build 8400 contains several changes from February's Consumer Preview, including improved support for multiple monitors, a new boot screen, as well as updated wallpapers and cursors. Aero Glass, the glossy translucent interface introduced with Vista, is expected to be removed by the final version of Windows 8, but it appears to be present in the Release Preview. Version 8400 also improves Metro, adding News, Travel and Sports apps, while Neowin reports that various other Metro apps have been updated this week.

Although Windows 8's features have been largely fleshed out, pricing remains unclear. However, players speaking with DigiTimes say that Microsoft may raise the price for OEM versions of its latest operating system, which could make it even harder for system builders to meet pricing guidelines on Ultrabooks. Meanwhile, previous speculation from NPD suggested that upgrade pricing would remain unchanged from Windows 7.

Pricing will likely be set and revealed within the coming weeks or months, possibly even in conjunction with Microsoft's keynote at Computex on June 6. Windows 8 has shared a similar development pattern to its predecessor thus far and Windows 7's pricing was revealed in June 2009. Full retail copies of Home Premium and Professional launched for $200 and $300, which may be tough to squeeze out of happy Windows 7 users.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/48791-windows-8-release-preview-leaked-microsoft-may-raise-oem-prices.html

 

[Guest]

I am a happy Win 7 Pro user and am not willing to pay over a $150 for any new OS. Since you can get Win 7 pro off the egg for 140, I'd hope Win 8 would at least come close. But I'll see, I may skip 8 all together (like I did with Vista).

 

[rrplay]

yep It is very likely that I am with guest in the above comment should Windows 8 cost more than $150 . Also skipped Vista all-together.Pretty happy to stick with Windows7, for the must run games and apps and virtually any Linux distro for the bulk of most daily tasks and other stuff.

 

[Guest]

Anyone who pays more than .50 cents for the atrocity that is Windows 8 should have a team of armed men (and women, I'm not sexist) come to his or her home and put a bullet in every single piece of electronic equipment they own. If it plugs in, has wires, contains a PCB, transistors and/or capacitors shoot it.

 

[Xero07]

If I can get the Home Premium upgrade for $50 on preorder like with Windows 7, I'll probably buy one copy just to satisfy my curiosity. I've liked every recent version of windows, even liked Vista over XP.

 

[Chazz]

They said OEM pricing. Believe me, MS could raise the price by 10% a bunch of times for them and they still wouldn't get near 150 bucks.

 

[Guest]

keep coughing, I won't buy this piece of crap.

 

[tonylukac]

You make it sound too disgusting. It starts off with OEM prices, then says "full retail version" prices. You could probably get the OEM for less than $200.

 

[cliffordcooley]

If they wasn't wasting their time programming shitty OS's every other OS version, they wouldn't have to raise their prices.

 

[killeriii]

"Microsoft may raise the price for OEM versions of its latest operating system, which could make it even harder for system builders to meet pricing guidelines on Ultrabooks."

Another bad choice for MS...come late to the game and charge more.
MS needs to change its game plan if they want to compete in the tablet and ultrabook market.
Apple is already walking all over them in the tablet market. Apples latest ipad at $499 is a fairly competitive price.
MS will find it hard to put their OS on such a well built tablet for that price.

 

[Guest]

Like 99.9% of people who can tell the difference, I'll politely decline this useability nightmare and stick with Windows 7. However you can be sure that by June, Microsoft will be pushing OEMs to ship all new PCs with this crud. I'm happy I have a copy of win7 pro OEM stashed away to install on my next hardware purchase.

 

[Guest]

I tried win 8 prerelease didnt see anything in it I need so I just upgraded to windows 7 ultimate great works great get it right remove the bugs see you when its ready but saying that look how long Years it took to get windows 7 right, I dont know if this romor is right but I was told the tech that got windows 7 right retired now what????...........

 

[3DCGMODELER]

should be a upgrade, from windows 7, for $49.99

imho

I wont buy it, I am happy with windows xp pro 64 bit....

 

[3DCGMODELER]

oh ya bought windows 7, still in the box... got it for $12.00 from the company I worked for, for a company dicount..

still sitting in the box.... maybe I will sell it..

 

[Guest]

Ya Windows 8 is "Vista"...I will play with it since I am in IT but will wait for Windows 9 when all the bugs and stupid start menu is fixed. I don't think Windows 8 is going to go over well with the general masses. You can't hide stuff and expect newbies to be able to figure it out. Come on Microsoft...you can do better.

 

[Guest]

MS has truly lost it. Windows 8 is just a Windows 7 with a new Metro interface and some updates. It's an incremental update like many OSX releases. It should cost more like $30-50 max. More reason to pass this.

 

[Guest]

Still not sure why I should want W8

 

[CrisisDog]

I can see how Metro "dumbs down" the user experience, just what Microsoft needs to battle the onslaught of iOS and "easy to use" OS X. Is it for professionals? Unfortunately, no. Is it for ma and pa consumer who know nothing about PCs and are looking into buying their first Mac? Bundle it with a touchscreen and I'd have to say it's a good possibility.

 

[Guest]

I really like Windows 8.

The Start menu should have gone a long, long time ago.

I'm sick of all the vocal moaners out there. You are in the minority I'm afraid.

MS will stick to its guns and those who don't like Metro will be left behind until they realize just how far behind Linux and iOS really are.

Metro is a great step forward and applications will change to make full use of the tiles very quickly. I got the hang of navigating it within a couple of hours. Anyone who doesn't is a lazy, Luddite.

Good day!

 

[Guest]

To dear guest above me:

Ignorance is bliss, I hope you one day realise hating haters is jsut as bad as ebing a hater if not worse..

Windows 8 is not jsut about the UI it is about METRO which will go along way to stopping or impeding open source software and will go along way to enforcing MS approved apps and tools which then would need royalys I assume and the lsit goes on MS have moved backwards just as SONY did with their nonsense and look where Sony is today 6 billion dollar loss.

 

[Guest]

........do you need help?

 

[Guest]

Diggin the win8 cp, made my older laptop load and feel faster. Just curious to those missing the start menu,. U think after 500 yrs from now, should we still hav the start button? I mean we all used windows 3.11 before, there was no start button then? Funny when win95 came out, everyone hated the start button. Now as if the start button is the pinnacle of GUI design? Seriously?

You guys can skip win8 and hang on to your old os, don't holdback the rest of that can adapt.
In fact I can send my ten year old over to teach you, he thinks win8 is really cool. Mastered it in minutes.

 

[cliffordcooley]

I see no reason why the Start Menu can not be a user setting to turn on or off at will. You see it as users trying to hold you back. I see it as you trying to take away my options.

 

[Guest]

Just click the windows key to enter and exit metro start menu. Even easier than moving the mouse Cursor to click on the old start button.

Come on guys, my 8yr old just learned win8 and installed and put shortcut to roblox on his laptop.

 

[Guest]

There will be plenty of free options to get the start menu back. Even better, you can use freeware osx styles dock launchers.