TS announcement Congratulations Matthew Iselin, winner of our Asus Eee netbook survey giveaway.

Read the whole story

<dumb>If Windows 7 goes RTM early, do I still have to wait until October 22 for my pre-order?</dumb>

RTM is a phase prior to general availability (GA) - so, no, you won't be getting your pre-ordered copy on July 13 .

I guess I'm not supposed to say this, but let's face reality. There will be two ways of getting the final build early: 1) Through TechNet and other related developer/manufacturer programs, and 2) Warez sites.

RC1 is solid enough though that even when the final is out, I foresee a wide range of people will continue using it for some time.

Yeah, I placed a pre-order for it as well, but I'll torrent the RTM regardless. ;)

My bank account isn't improving anytime soon, I'm likely using the RC until I can't anymore.

RTM basically means the PC companies will get to start preparing their fall lines to release with the operating systems debut.

I'd say as long as you order the product there is no harm in downloading the ISO off of a torrent site
Of course keeping in mind to MD5 verify the release against the official one to make sure you don't get viruses etc bundled

I sure would not want to wait until October the 22:nd if I preordered today
Here is just hoping that we get the same nice $50 offer in Sweden as is available for some other countries already!
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/buy/offers/pre-order.aspx

waiting for 15th july so i can order my copy of home premium for 49.99 in the uk

by the way, 50 quid for a retail standalone copy of a operating system, not an upgrade and not an oem, is pretty awesome.

If i could pre-order would, but i cant...damn EU moronic lawsuits .
..so torrent it will be. ...they are really pushing for us not to download "illegal" arnt they ... . so stupid.

where, i need one myself

Well we will get it in Europe for a very good price, £50 in the UK for the "upgrade" version of Home Premium "E" and £100 for Professional "E" (I will get the Pro version)
But since I guess you have already read that there wont be an upgrade version in Europe, due to the unbundling of IE not being tested during development.
So we will infact be getting the FULL version for just £50/£100

I'm a little bummed that it is limited to the UK but some of the stores that will offer it do ship international so no problems there
The offer will start on July 15:th and run untill August 9:th here in Europe

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/buy/offers/pre-order.aspx

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002DUCMTC

"You can pre-order Windows 7 Home Premium E for ERP £49.99 or Windows 7 Professional E for ERP £99.99. The offer is available at participating retailers and through the Microsoft Store between July 15th 2009 and 9th August 2009. Each participating retailer will tell you how to get your copy when Windows 7 is released. Retailer prices may vary."

Just a bit of a shame that Ultimate isnt offered on this special but I won't complain too much. Really want that Home Premium for 50quid :)

Convert those pounds to dollars once we get our pricing figured out in North America and it will likely look the same. Don't get excited just because you see low numbers, pounds have been and will likely remain the strongest currency for a while to come, given the weak dollar we may pay twice as much, but our moneys only worth half as much so its the frickin same.