News - Microsoft Windows 7 Release Candidate won't expire until June 1st 2010

[HEXUS]

But will over a year's free use deter would-be buyers?

Read more.

[shaithis]

If I was having to buy it myself, I would run it for free as long as possible.

Less chance of them pulling the same stunt they did with Vista. I still find it unbelievable that there will not be a Vista update to add the Windows 7 UI tweeks....especially when it was Vista purchasers that gave the feedback that led to those UI changes.

Despicable practice and I hope lots of people do run the RC as long as possible.

[aidanjt]

I'll likely run the RC until it's expiry time. I think this is a good idea by Microsoft. Most of their OS purchases will always be with new PCs, but I'd think that giving RC users such a long grace period will give them cause to become 'attached' to the OS, and thus encourage upgrade/retail/oem purchases from a group who'd probably not otherwise bother.

[this_is_gav]

There's little incentive for most to update from Vista to W7, so many would only do it when they bought a new PC and a new OEM license was required. This gives them a bit more flexibility... continue running with Vista or try a perhaps not-entirely-finished OS.

Those in that boat might not have updated anyway, so MS lose nothing from them.

Plus I guess if W7 continues to get the great publicity (both from the positive reports and the PR that this extended RC gives) that was missing from the Vista launch, then it will pay them back in the longer term.

Finally... free OS... it's not Linux, so all of gran's software will continue to work... keeps their mitts off of Linux.

[scyllabub]

I'm currently running Vista Home Premium and hating it but I'm not installing XP on my Asus G1Sn notebook because (I am assured by the previous owner and he knows what he's talking about) it would be quite a long job and Asus don't support XP on this model. Also, I'm told that there will be no direct upgrade path from XP to Windows 7.

If I install the Windows 7 RC, will I be able to purchase the upgrade as if I were still running Vista, when the time comes?

TIA,

scyllabub

[Hicks12]

I love Windows 7 and can safely say its alot better than XP(vista is aswell but with pros/cons), i was planning on buying windows 7 when it was released but if its coming with a 1 year license then ill just use that till prices are cut and if a new windows is released ill go back to xp till then xd>

[Sumanji]

So this will be a public release candidate on 5th May right? Will probably give it a go on my netbook (XP is being a bitch for some reason!). Can I squeeze Windows 7 + Office 2003 onto an 8GB SSD?!

Cheers,

Suman

[chrism]

aargh, hit 'thanks' by accident

I can't see how this would deter buyers - the way I see it, people who have used it for a year probably won't want to go back to what they had before (assuming the RC lives up to expectations).

I'm thinking about making the jump from XP to Windows 7 and 64 bit, so will definitely be giving this a go.
Hopefully the (re-)activation process won't be too laborious.

[Barrichello]

There's little incentive for most to update from Vista to W7

Yeah this is what i heard.

There are though allot of people that are still on XP though (myself included) who may take a look. I not tried the RC of Windows7 though yet, anyone know how most games run on it at the moment?

[scyllabub]

There's little incentive for most to update from Vista to W7

That's not what I heard. I'm under the impression that Windows 7 is much less resource-hungry than Vista.

No?

scyllabub

[jefCon]

Yeah this is what i heard.

There are though allot of people that are still on XP though (myself included) who may take a look. I not tried the RC of Windows7 though yet, anyone know how most games run on it at the moment?

Everyhting I tried worked fine - however Punkbuster dosen't work properly which rules out a lot of the online action...

[Shev]

I'm buying a new computer within the next month or so, and the long RC phase coupled with a public release guarantees that I'll be buying it as opposed to Vista. I was quite worried about buying a copy of Vista and then seeing the new OS come out. I can see this applying to a lot of people building their own systems.

[3dcandy]

Windows 7 seems much snappier than Vista. I have the RC on a few pc's and won't be going back to XP or Vista, so this appears to be a good move....

[this_is_gav]

That's not what I heard. I'm under the impression that Windows 7 is much less resource-hungry than Vista.

The assumption being that those tech-savvy/sensible enough to know what they're doing by replacing the OS won't have a system that Vista will bog-down. I'm yet to read many (or even any) user-reports of a mature 7 being noticeably any better than a similarly mature Vista on a good machine (say Q6600, 4GB RAM, half decent hard drive (Samsung F1 or WD AAKS or something)).

For Mr. Joe Public just using Vista Home Basic because it came with his 1GB RAM Acer Extensa, 7 would make a difference... but he's the sort of guy who wouldn't upgrade until he got a new laptop anyway.

7 is basically Vista with tweaks. It just scales much better (far, far, far better at scaling backwards). Don't get me wrong - I love 7, and if I had half a chance, I'd be rolling it out across our network the moment I'd checked for compatibility, but for the power user who has a decent PC, the real differences are cosmetic and ergonomic.

Can I squeeze Windows 7 + Office 2003 onto an 8GB SSD?!

I can't say I tried Office, but 7 does fit on an 8GB SSD (the worlds slowest SSD at that... the one in the Acer Aspire One). It reports next to no free space, but I'd imagine it just sucks up what it can (a full-blown install on a normal hard drive is probably around 10-15gb remember!), and will free up as much space as it can when needed. If the Aspire One SSD wasn't so completely unusable, I'd have tried installing more and seeing how flexible it was once installed.

[Tidus]

Looks like a good move as users will have a long time to get familiar with the new OS if moving from XP and they'll have to upgrade to the official version eventualy, I'll be upgrading from XP on the 5th and I'll probably wait till the RC expires before I updrade unless there's something added to the official version.

[Rob_B]

Is there anywhere I can still get a copy of Win7? I got a beta code when they were flying around but with the server issues & the fact I was busy I never got round to downloading it!
I know MS have stopped allowing D/Ls, I could torrent but would prefer some legitimate means to get it!