Technology news and Jobs 
Fuzzy Logic Microsoft promises to release Windows 7, free
Fuzzy Logic Microsoft promises to release Windows 7, free | Microsoft promises to release Windows 7, free |
|
| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Wednesday, 01 April 2009 | |
|
Page 2 of 3 Steve: Let’s not beat around the bush. We can see that Linux distros are steadily improving, and we narrowly avoided Linux becoming ultra popular on netbooks, which we call “mini-notebooks”, by effectively giving Windows XP away free to OEMs – thus giving us a very good idea of what life would be like with one of our major products not generating all the income it has for us in the past. Featured Whitepaper
5 Best Practices for Smartphone Support
We are not only listening to our customers more closely than ever these days, but we’re also reading and considering the views of technology journalists and the blogosphere at large. We’ve read your articles (and those of many others) calling for cheaper Windows 7 pricing, and after careful consideration, we’ve decided to make a move that no-one will ever forget, while further cementing Windows’ dominance in the desktop operating system space, while we transition towards the online, software as a service, cloud computing, “software plus services” future we’re all moving towards. As noted previously, we want more legitimate users in the tent than out of it. Making Windows 7 Home Premium free destroys the pirate market, eliminates Windows as the most pirated software of all time, and allows us to ensure that cracked copies of Windows 7, potentially loaded with malware, won’t be wanted by consumers from the pirates. Alex: So, which versions aren’t free then, and won’t this put a massive hole in Microsoft’s bottom line? Steve: A good question. While Windows 7 Home Premium will be free for anyone that wants it, available via download from Microsoft’s website, Microsoft isn’t relinquishing all Windows revenue. We know there are plenty of XP users out there on older Pentium 4 machines with 512mb of RAM (or better). Given that a Pentium 4 processor is at least as powerful as an Intel Atom processor, if not a lot more powerful, there are millions of computers out there that will run Windows 7 beautifully, especially once that 512mb of RAM is upgraded to 1 or 2GB, something that is very cheap these days. In the current economic climate, not everyone will be able to race out and buy a new Windows 7-equipped computer, and because Windows 7 is the first version of Windows that actually runs better on older computers than its predecessor Vista, and as well as (if not even better than) Windows XP, there’s a massive upgrade opportunity for all those older computers. Before you ask me if that’s cutting our throat, consider this: One of the big things we’re pushing with Windows 7 is the touch capabilities. We’ve been in touch for years – remember Pen Windows 3.1? Our Tablet PC initiative from earlier this decade took that a step forward, and now Windows 7 with its multi-touch technologies takes it to an entirely new level. Most consumers who want that full multi-touch experience will only get it with a brand new computer, one whose screen is multi-touch enabled. These will flood the market in 2010, and while we know some Pentium 4 users will just buy a multi-touch screen, for many, a new PC upgrade to an Intel Atom, Core 2 Duo, Core i7 or AMD processor will be strongly considered in 2010, especially as prices keep falling. Alex: So, to re-state my previous question, which versions of Windows 7 won’t be free? And isn’t this going to be massively expensive for Microsoft? Please read on to page 3 for the final part of iTWire's Steve Ballmer interview. |
| < Next story in category | Previous story in the category > |
|---|
