News Dell: Windows 7 price a concern

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2009/05/19/dell-windows-7-price-a-concern/1

Dell's director of product management has openly admitted that the high price of Windows 7 compared to previous releases could hamper early adoption of the OS.

 

All that "higher average price" means is "they're not selling a home basic version any more" which is a very good thing, because home basic is rubbish.

 

i was waiting for win7 too... but price will surely be a barrier to me. hope i can find a student licence or something...
and basic is rubbish indeed

 

How predictably ms

 

Greetings!

I am confused.

At what prices will W7 sell?

Not 100 for the "home" version, 150 for the "professional" version and 200 for the "kitchen-sink-included" version?

 

MS are not fools, by seeing the numbers taking up the "tryouts" for a year and getting used to it after the debacle of Vista then they have virtually a captive market, and can charge a premium that is why , at this moment, I have not installed the "free" version of 7 in my new build

 

Interesting comments coming from a company that charges the same for an opensource run machine as a Vista run machine.

(I like Dell BTW, just never been able to work that one out).

 

Sometimes I wish software developers started making more software/games for Linux. I've been seriously thinking about switching to Linux, really...I'm tired of M$ monopoly behaviour.

 

Hmm .. M$, eh? I thought that meme died years ago ...

Oh, and woe be it for a company to set the price of it's software ...

 

Is that the typical "But I wanted it cheaper!" talk you always get from someone?
Or is it Dell trying to make sure THEY can charge you more when you buy a WIn7 license?
Or did MS really raise their prices?

Wait, we'll all know at the end of the year! Goddamnit, calm down. MS won't charge you 50% more all of a sudden. Maybe 5%, and I'd pay 5% more for 7 than I'd have to pay for Vista....

 

I can see them raising the OEM prices as i'm sure the majority of people who bought vista purchased an OEM copy.

 

Vote with your feet then. Seriously, I'm sick of people threatening to THINK about doing something, especially when it's something as superficial as an operating system choice! But nooo, it's made out to be a world-changing event that will HARM THE EVIL CORPORATIONS MORE THAN THEY CAN BEAR. Yes! You, fellow ubernerd, are our voice! By sounding your dissent you will bring balance to the force and strike a mighty blow for fair pricing everywhere! Or, you'll just sound like a whiny idiot. Try linux by all means, just don't feel like you need to loudly justify such a move with pithy excuses. Just shut the hell up and do it already, it's not a freaking huge deal.

 

QFT.

 

OK, you're right. I have already seen Ubuntu in action and I'll give it a shot. It's fairly customizable and I really like it.
I didn't wan't to sound like anti-MS-fanboy, definitely not.
But you can't just boot Linux and play Crysis, can you? Maybe games developed by id software...

 

Now, I consider my £80 odd I spent on XP Pro to be a worthy investment for how long I've used the license. I disagree with Microsofts business model in some ways, but damn they're successful. I would switch to Linux in a heart beat if it weren't for two things.
1) Games. I play ETQW and Quake Live which are made by id Software, so that's not a problem. It's running steam and the steam games with in that become a problem for me. I love L4D to bits. Not sure how Cadger (sp?) performs over XP, but it's more hastle than I currently have to go through to do my stuff.
2) Audio Applications. Linux has an array of Music Production tools, but I've been using Ableton Live for years now and I believe it's got the best innovation and creation system of any. Considering they haven't made a version for Linux yet, this is the true thing preventing my move. I need 100% assured compatibility with my audio hardware and software and that's why I stick to Windows.

It'd be lush if someone formed a complete standard across the operating system board (Nix, Mac, Win) that would mean any application could run on anything. Hopefully then the competition would come down to performance rather than compatibility...but until then I'll just have to "cope".

 

But none of the systems Dell sells actually ship with Home Basic - even their lowest end desktop and laptop models ship with Home Premium, so I don't see how that is the issue.

 

I'm still waiting for a compelling reason to change from XP. All I'd get from upgrading the 20 something pc's at work is a major support headache, there would be zero benefit for the company. At home the situation is much the same, I have a copy of Vista, I built a pc especially for it and it sits unused. I have a dual boot XP/Win7 pc but I seldom have reason to boot Win7, indeed to me Win7 is to Vista what the new clothes were to the Emperor, scarcely enough improvement to cover its embarrassment.

A few things that would persuade me to make an early switch to Win7 on my main pc :
Seamless upgrade to avoid the hassle of installing my apps.
Price, say Home Premium £50, Ultimate £100. Anything over £100 and I have far better ways of spending my cash.
The mass abandonment of DX9 by the games industry.
Faultless XP and possibly Win98 emulation, granted the Virtual Machine technology may allow this but I'll wait the reviews.

 

I'm not so sure. I've downloaded the RC, installed it, uninstalled it and went back to Vista. Windows 7's problem is that it is really just Vista with a KDE4-alike front end. I like Vista, but I've already paid for that. I'm not paying for it again.

I've already migrated mostly to Ubuntu, I just boot Windows to play games. When Vista support ends, I'm gone.

 

While this isn't indicative of what Dell sell direct... the Dell Inspiron systems that my local Tesco sell come with Vista Home Basic. I think they're a specific SKU for Tesco to flog to people who don't know better, though, as they're not a spec that you can buy on the Dell site.

 

Yeah they do - just go to the dell site and click on the cheapest Inspiron 15 - it comes with home basic and they want £30 to upgrade it to home premium... I still see your point though - it doesn't affect many systems.