News Microsoft plans Windows 7 Family Pack?

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2009/07/03/microsoft-plans-windows-7-family-pack/1

Eagle-eyed Microsoft watchers have spotted wording in the EULA of a leaked Windows 7 build which makes reference to an unannounced Family Pack SKU.

 

Well you can buy a 5 pack 'Family Suite' of OSX for £126 (or £83 for one licence). I doubt Win7 will be as good a value as that !

Other than the pre-order pricing for Win7, I find the normal retail version pricing over the top. In OSX land you also do not have OEM (for obvious reasons!.... wonder if Psystar gets a discount though !! ) , so its a much simpler model. All versions are the same as well... none of this home/premium/starter/ultimate stuff.

And whilst Apple runs into criticism regarding 'yearly upgrade fees' for your OS (if you choose to buy them), it must be noted that Snow Leopard will only cost about £20 this time. Ive never actually bought an upgrade before though.. just run the same OS until I replace the machine usually.


I will be buying x1 licence of Win7 at pre-order pricing only for my desktop gaming PC. No more than that despite having a few PC's/laptops. They can carry on with XP/Vista etc until they die.

 

Who the hell buys 5 OS X? 1 is already rare enough.

 

Apple doesn't like people who don't buy their hardware, they say &^%* off to people who want to buy OSX. Why would I buy 5 of something I can't install?

 

You wouldn't. I'm sure a household/small business with 5 macs would though.

 

I definitely want one of those. I've already done so with Office (and PerfectDisk) Only hope this sill be an option in Norway.. (Isn't/Wasn't Vista sold with some kind of multiple licenses for private use in the US?)

 

why would you buy 5 copys any way of osx when 1 will load on all of them any way

 

Apple has an advantage over Microsoft here in that Apple makes money from the sale of the computer itself, ie. Apple is both a hardware and software company. Microsoft, on the other hand, is a software company only (aside from a few peripherals). This is why Apple can charge substantially cheaper for OS, because they have already made most of the money from the sale of the computer and support plans (and also why they don't like PsyStar that much).

 

Retail versions? I thought they were just place holders in the shops. I don't know anyone who has ever bought a retail version of Windows.

If however the family pack comes out cheaper than 3 OEM versions I would consider getting it for our computers.

 

should've mentioned this in my other post, not sure why i didn't...

i bought vista retail, mostly because retail copies have much better support and waranties from microsoft than OEM. and when 7 comes out, i'll be buying retail again. if there is indeed a family pack, then i'll be getting that, simply because i plan on having 3 or 4 computers sharing media, and i like the expanded media sharing that's been added with 7, especially as far as integration with the Zune and 360 goes. really hope we see this in australia

 

The reason Retail has better support than OEM is because the inflated price IS the support fees. OEM is designed for system builders/installers that provide support to customers.

I usually buy OEM myself as I am more than happy with sorting my own issues out/can figure it out most of the time.

I do think the family pack is a great idea though. I've been wanting them to do this for ages but as I have TechNet currently I won't be needing it. If I ever do stop my TechNet sub though I will definitely think about this deal, price depending.

 

If the price isn't reasonable I won't be paying for multiple copies.

I plan on buying w7 pro when it releases, and I could see the need for maybe 2 copies... but I'm not ready to part with that much money for windows just yet.

 

from my point of view, it would be a boon.

with all the computers kicking about in my house i definatly need at least 2 copys of windows 7 (after SP1 is released - personal preference not to get an OS untill the first SP is out). The third could be used for the spare laptop that the woman has (unless shes sold it) or i could give it to my sister.
Having a paying job these days im slowly moving towards actually owning my software instead of "borrowing" it off the internet like i did when i was younger.

 

They had this with Vista as well didn't they?

 

It'd be ideal for me, although I'd need four so I hope as you buy more, the price per licence drops a little.

 

If the cost per licence is lower then I'll go for it, but what is going to stop unscrupulous system builders buying family packs, and having three customers sharing a license?