News - Microsoft confirms: Windows 7 Family Pack is real, coming soon

[HEXUS]

Just as the low-cost Windows 7 pre-orders sell out, Microsoft confirms that there will be a multi-license Family Pack.

Read more.

[scaryjim]

who knows, it may work out cheaper than having pre-ordered three copies of Home Premium E at £49.99 apiece.

I know - it won't There's no way Microsoft will take software with a published retail price of £79 and sell three copies of it at less than £150. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it at around £150 - at that point it almost becomes a "buy one, get one free" offer and I reckon it'd still represent good value. It'll definitely be on my shopping list if it does end up being made available in the UK...

[cordas]

How retarded are the people at M$, are they trying to piss off as many people as possible?

Why can't they get their act in order and release the release dates, prices, multi-license, pre-order price e.t.c. at once and then sit back and let the customers make an informed decision about what they want to buy... instead of this bullsh1t mickey mouse shell game.

[Singh400]

Not everyone has 3+ PC in their house...

[UnixNerd]

I know - it won't There's no way Microsoft will take software with a published retail price of £79 and sell three copies of it at less than £150. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it at around £150 - at that point it almost becomes a "buy one, get one free" offer and I reckon it'd still represent good value. It'll definitely be on my shopping list if it does end up being made available in the UK...

If the US $ is correct then normally we'll see it hit the UK at the same price in £ however I can see it being $199 or £199 over here . Still cheaper than buying 3 at £79.99 by a decent chunk but at £149 it would be a definite major hit. I'd need 2 packs to do my house with all the desktops and laptops in it.

[TheAnimus]

How retarded are the people at M$, are they trying to piss off as many people as possible?

Why can't they get their act in order and release the release dates, prices, multi-license, pre-order price e.t.c. at once and then sit back and let the customers make an informed decision about what they want to buy... instead of this bullsh1t mickey mouse shell game.

Incredibly retarded.

Look at all the hype they have managed to get, all the good PR. Even when jurnos are just saying "well its better than the <fun media bashing word here> vista", its positive PR worth a lot of money.

Compare it to how vista was recived, the press had their nickers in a twist before it was even out, i remeber getting told off on another UK review tech site for slating their reviewer looking at a beta version of vista, the lazy rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbish hadn't even looked at the release notes, and spent ages talking about the installer.... which was the old one from XP verbatum......

My point is they where wanting to slate it before it was even at RC stage, this time with 7 they have handled the press much better, people are glossing over the downsides, rather than focusing on them as they did with Vista.

[shaithis]

If the US $ is correct then normally we'll see it hit the UK at the same price in £ however I can see it being $199 or £199 over here .

Considering the current financial mess, I wouldn't be surprised if it costs more £s then $s

[mercyground]

My betting is 150quid at least and thats IF it is made available here. Given the snit they are in over the EU I can believe they will withhold it from the EU as another petty "We've taken our ball and you cant play with it".

I'm not bothering waiting. I'm just going to get a single copy at intro price and leave it at that.

[will101]

Fudzilla reports it as being a pack of 3 upgrade licences...

Whichever, I'm happy with my 2 pre-order full licences from Amazon. Now don't let me down Amazon!

[deadun]

Well regardless of pricing and also linking back to the previous Windows 7 Family Pack article (referenced from this article)...I was more concerned about the 'c' clause
"c. Licensed Computer. You may use the software on up to two processors on the licensed computer at one time. Unless otherwise provided in these license terms, you may not use the software on any other computer."

So where exactly does/would that leave Quad-core users?
(1 gaming pc quad, 2 media centre pc's dual core...exceeded licence conditions? - 3 x core i7? exceeded by the second install?)

Or am I missing the point of that clause altogether?

Hmm?

[pauldarkside]

Fudzilla reports it as being a pack of 3 upgrade licences...

Can't see that being the case unless they actually make E upgrade versions. If it were, then surely we'd have had upgrade versions for the pre-order offer.

[TheAnimus]

Well regardless of pricing and also linking back to the previous Windows 7 Family Pack article (referenced from this article)...I was more concerned about the 'c' clause
"c. Licensed Computer. You may use the software on up to two processors on the licensed computer at one time. Unless otherwise provided in these license terms, you may not use the software on any other computer."

The definition of per CPU isn't the same as per core.

The HyperThreading thing with XP idea should mean that its a case of more than 2 sockets on a non server license.

[scaryjim]

Can't see that being the case unless they actually make E upgrade versions. If it were, then surely we'd have had upgrade versions for the pre-order offer.

I don't see how they'd do a family pack as upgrade licenses - that makes a huge assumption that people are running 3 Windows computers at home (although I suppose that's as likely as anything). If it's true, though, it'll probably be used by Microsoft as a reason to *not* release this in the EU...

[Agent]

Well regardless of pricing and also linking back to the previous Windows 7 Family Pack article (referenced from this article)...I was more concerned about the 'c' clause
"c. Licensed Computer. You may use the software on up to two processors on the licensed computer at one time. Unless otherwise provided in these license terms, you may not use the software on any other computer."

So where exactly does/would that leave Quad-core users?
(1 gaming pc quad, 2 media centre pc's dual core...exceeded licence conditions? - 3 x core i7? exceeded by the second install?)

Or am I missing the point of that clause altogether?

Hmm?

Multi-core does not equal Multi-Processor

I'm fairly sure it will be referring to multiple CPU systems that use different physical sockets for them. Vista / W7+ utilise multi-core significantly better than XP did. Crippling the OS with licensing that changed this would seem stupid.

[deadun]

Fair enough lol

[SiM]

I think Microsoft want to play the "look, the EU is bad for consumers" card

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/263014/d...ack-in-uk.html