Microsoft prices Windows 7 Family Pack, Anytime Upgrade

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Jos

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We already had a pretty good idea on what the going price for a Windows 7 multi-license “Family Pack” would be, but today Microsoft has gone and made it official. As reported earlier this month when resellers leaked the information, the company will charge $149 ($199.99 in Canada) for the right to upgrade up to three PCs to the Home Premium edition of its forthcoming operating system. The Windows 7 Family Pack will be available on October 22, 2009, the same day as the OS’ debut.

Microsoft also announced pricing for the Anytime Upgrade option, which lets users move from one version of Windows 7 to a higher edition. These upgrade packages include: Windows 7 Starter to Home Premium ($79.99), Professional ($114.99) or Ultimate ($164.99); Windows 7 Home Premium to Professional ($89.99) or Ultimate ($139.99); and Windows 7 Professional to Ultimate ($129.99). Since the move involves only entering a new product code, Microsoft claims the Anytime Upgrade in Windows 7 can be done in as little as 10 minutes.

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These seem rediculously over priced to me. Considering the difference in the retail version of say professional ($299.99) and ultimate ($319.99) will be only $20. Yet to upgrade from professional to ultimate is going to cost $129.99. That is a nice $110 price gouging.
 
I should probably point out that I am talking about the Anytime Upgrade option, not the Family pack. The family pack seems quite reasonable.
 
I suppose that $50 per PC isn't a bad deal. But two of my PC's are running Vista 64 Ultimate while the other is running XP 2005 MCE. And 2 additional laptops we use are running Windows 2000 and XP Pro. The 3 Home Premium versions are ok. I just wished that Microsoft had a fixed version and a flat price.

I agree with pgbsamurai. Microsoft is going to nickle and dime us to death with the mini upgrade packs. And at $79.99 - $164.99, that's some awfully large change.

I'm thinking that since my kids can use Open Office for their reports and mostly use Internet, that OpenSuSE or Ubuntu is going to work just fine instead, and save me hundreds.
 
Seeing as the only difference between Pro and Ultimate is multilanguage and bitlocker support, I have to agree with pgbsamurai that the upgrade pricing is ridiculous.
 
My suggestion to all of you is to buy a bit of hardware from time to time. When all is said and done, you should be able to buy an actually really decent motherboard and an OEM copy of the OS for the same price as a retail version, perhaps less.

I'm sort of baffled as to why we're not, "all complained out", so to speak, as to the pricing structure of Windows 7. Was everybody thinking that the Microsoft Corporation was suddenly going to grow a conscience?

At the end of the day, they have an even tighter grip on your ***** now, since the hardware associated with many XP systems is quite aged. With many users staying with XP and skipping Vista, 2 new generations of hardware have come to pass
 
How much did each version of Vista cost when it debuted? Was it around the same or less?
 
What I do remember distinctly, is that XP Home retailed for $199.95 almost until it was replaced by Vista. I did see some sales on the upgrade version,which typically sold for $99.95
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this upgrade is specifically for Vista users. Now who the hell actually bought Vista!?! They should be talking about upgrades from XP. That's where the majority of the user community is! As usual, MS doesn't think!
 
The upgrade pricing is valid for XP users as well. The catch is that XP users will have to install Windows 7 from scratch on XP systems as there is no direct upgrade from XP to Win7. Vista users will be able to simply put the Win7 disc in and run the update with out having to completely rebuild their hard drive.
 
You are right, but numerous tests indicate that upgrades run very slowly compared to clean installs. I for one will be doing the old 'backup-clean install-reload' dance to give me the best performance!
 
as far as the guy who said "who bought vista?!" like if its junk. Are you not aware that windows 7 is just a relaunch of vista? They are exactly the same. There aren't going to be as many difficulties because all companies had a chance to make vista drivers and guess what? all vista drivers work on 7. I just remember the good old days when everyone cried how awful Xp was because companies did not make drivers for it, now everyone is holding on to it for their dear lives. Vista did not deserve its bad rap and if they stuck with it I'm sure it all would have smoothed over like Xp. The next big change in OS is gonna be the same junk. Pirating helped Xp last so long because you can practically get Xp for free. If windows 7 is going to be out for a while I wouldn't be surprised if vista gains some popularity after being hacked and offered for "free"........ at least until there is a legit crack for W7.
 
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