Microsoft sets Windows 8 upgrade pricing
Microsoft's Windows 8 Upgrade will be available for anyone running Windows XP or newer at £24.99 - a £5 saving over the US pricing.
Microsoft's original announcement held only US pricing, stating that the upgrade edition - which takes anything from Windows XP or higher to Windows 8 - would cost $39.99 on that side of the pond. When asked by press how much that translated to in the Queen's own currency, the answer was staggering: £39.99.
Even allowing for VAT, which is applied to software purchases in the UK, that represented a rum deal: at the current exchange rate and adjusting for VAT, $39.99 is equal to £30.31 - meaning Microsoft would have been pocketing an additional £9.68 for every copy of the upgrade edition sold.
Following a massive - and entirely predictable - slating by the media, Microsoft has issued a statement clarifying matters and claiming that the originally-claimed swap-the-dollar-sign-for-a-pound-sign pricing was nothing more than an embarrassing miscommunication between departments.
Rather than the claimed £40, the official price for the upgrade edition will be a much more reasonable £24.99 - meaning that UK buyers are actually saving around £5 compared to those purchasing the upgrade in the US. Those who prefer physical media for their software purchases, however, will have to stump out £49.99 for a boxed copy, with the £24.99 pricing applying only to the digital distribution edition.
The upgrade deal is not time-limited, applies to all systems running Windows XP or newer and is separate to the previously-announced £14.99 upgrade for new Windows 7-based PCs bought between now and the launch of Windows 8.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyShame they didn't do a special release price like they did with 7. It was only £45
I used the beta for about 2 months on my laptop but got fed up with it looking so crap I ditched it and went back to... GULP....Vista a few days ago.
One of the annoyances with W8 is that the Metro apps won't work below 1024x768 which rules out most netbooks so mine will be sticking with W7.
Then I remember I have access to MSDNAA through uni. Derp.
Is there anymore news on this? I.E. Can I simply download the Win8 ISO (direct from Microsoft like the CP/RP) and install it directly or do I have to have XP installed in the first instance?
Basically given that I have two windows machines (One is a HTPC running nothing but XBMC, and the other is my bootcamp partition of my macbook for gaming) how could Microsoft ever expect me to pony up for an upgrade?
It's an upgrade so a valid xp vista or seven install has to be on already to use it.
26th Oct an installer will be released which does the work for you. Also allows you to create a DVD or USB backup.
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With windows 7 upgrade you could do a clean install without a problem. With any luck this will be the same.
Although... does it have adverts on your desktop? Because yeah, I wont be partaking in that.
Are you high? That's a bargain.
How much are the standalone versions?
Other than OEM there are no standalone versions.
The price is good, but shame it's not an OEM version price. I wonder what that will be.
There will be a system builder edition (like OEM) for as "ms" put it PC's with no O.S. or for dual booting etc. But no price as yet.
You can do a clean install from the upgrade disc (format etc) but it only works if it finds a valid older windows install already on the system, with a new HDD or ssd you would have to install and activate an older OS first.
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and its a bargain compared to what windows 7 cost.
If you have a lappy or some ailing pc with XP though I can see W8 being appearling at this price.
good enough gaming? really?
anyways i bet you're in the minority on this site..
No it's not, it's just cheap compared to what Microsoft have customarily charged. Things have moved on from when MS could charge £100+ for an OS and expect a lot of people to upgrade at that cost.
Linux is free. Android is free. iOS is free. Chrome OS is free. Software updates to consoles are free.
We're all used to getting updates to our free 'Operating Systems' and let's not even mention the free software and web-applications we use daily (Chrome, Firefox, Google et-al)
Now assuming you want a 'normal' desktop experience (and aren't sadomasochistic enough to go with Linux) you either stick with windows or you make the switch to a Mac...
Where Apple currently charges £14 for Mountain Lion, and offered free upgrades if you bought a Mac just before the new OS was released. Okay, ML was a relatively small upgrade but you can still upgrade a 3 year old mac to the latest OS for a lot less than you can upgrade a three year old PC.
It's just a shame that if you want a Mac and still want to run windows software you have to pay up twice.
£25 aint' bad for windows, but like so many I'm not going to be spending £50 to update my two windows installs when I have absolutely zero reason to do so, as for me windows is a purely a launcher for XBMC or once or twice a month a game or two.
I think I'll....
Microsoft Windows 8
MS Windows 8
Windows 8
Win 8
W 8
W8
Wait.
There's no pleasing some people...£25 is peanuts for an operating system. I spent that last night on Vodka that lasted about 3 hours. I'll get, what, 3 years of use out of Windows 8? For £25 it's a bargain.
Instead of running your XBMC setup on Windows (and then grumbling about the upgrade cost) why don't you move over to XBMCbuntu...it's superb for what you're doing with it, i.e., only using it as a launcher for XBMC :)
It is perverse that you can not do that - why not let you run windows 8 on a fresh drive and then just put in your windows 7 key followed by your new windows 8 key?
It makes life difficult just for the sake of it, so they can kiss my as*.
This seems to be the big problem with Windows 8... it lacks a killer feature. Touch screens are not popular with desktop users, the user interface while tweaked is nothing revolutionary. It offers virtually nothing over Windows 7, and most people (and companies) I know are more than happy with Windows 7 (some even with XP), as it does what they need it to do. Most UK companies turn off all the bells and whistles anyway! Home users don't get anything new to rave about... so it's a tiny bit faster here and there, but so what?! It doesn't boost your gaming speed or skill by 400%, it doesn't make your programs load 3 hours faster, and it doesn't do the washing up!
Windows 8 is more like an update to Windows 7 as far as Desktop Users are concerned, and as such would need to be virtually free to attract consumers! To me going from Windows 7 x64 Pro to Windows 8 x64 Pro is worth about £10 at most!
So I will be sticking with Windows 7 for the foreseeable future.
I still stick by my prediction:
If I can, I feel this will drive the KDE community to finish the Windows port.
Ah well. It's a moot point for me anyway, since "the UI commonly referred to as the UI formerly known as Metro" and what that begets is the ultimate dealbreaker for me.
Even Nokia phones ffs!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_Windows_8
Looking for a single stand out feature is missing the point as the sum is greater than the parts IMO.
Nothing wrong with my Windows 7 install, and do I really want to be an early adopter to gain very little (if anything), yet suffer from various program and game instability issues that will no doubt arise in the first few months.
Im also irked by the fact that people are saying I have to install W7 , then W8 on top... rather than just a stand alone W8 on a fresh drive. Not sure on the pricing of this 'system builder' edition either, or how that might work.
All in all, W8 just isnt that exciting to be honest. Other than metro (a gui for tablets not desktops)... there seems to be little to like.
No it's not. Not when the 'alternatives' are all cheaper. Yes I know these 'alternatives' are not suitable for everyone but you can't deny that they're cheaper.
Pro users will always the pro features of windows (AD support etc). But for many home users / students / kids / OAPs there exists real alternatives to having a traditional windows machine. You've got the obvious 'Mac' option if you want to play that way, but traditional PC sales are falling relative to the 'post PC' devices of iPads and Android tablets.
How very grown up of you.
I had (have) a powerful machine running windows 7. I moved it into the family room and wanted to run XBMC on it. Simply installing XBMC was easier than installing XBMCbuntu and running win7 gives me the most flexibility.
I'm not grumbling about the price of Win8, I think MS have set the price 'about' right. But I'm not going to upgrade my HTPC and there's no reason why I should upgrade my laptop when windows is nothing more than an unfortunate necessity to running windows games.
If MS wanted everyone to upgrade to windows 8 they should have set the price even lower, set it so low and make it so easy that everyone just upgrades for the hell of it.
Forcing people to accept 'The UI formally known as metro' and charging a minium of £25 is going to put off a lot of people.
Difference being that Apple is a hardware company, MS is a software company.
OEM license, when it drops. Otherwise, if I'm understanding the situation correctly, install Win7, upgrade to Win8, which frees the license for Win7 to be installed elsewhere. Delete Windows.old and done. (Yeah, not perfect, but I once reinstalled Windows 4 times over a weekend.)
Kindly hush. You've been screaming 'Linux is free' at the top of your lungs for damn near twenty years now. We get it - Linux is free. I (and ~99%) of the desktop market don't use Linux because it doesn't fit our needs. Give Mint another 5 years to mature (and moar Steam games to get ported) and we'll talk. In the meantime *finger to lips* Sssshhhhhh.
Pay twice as much for computer. Save £10 on Operating System.
Much cheaper!
I think he is referring to the cost of Linux, but forgot that time is money.
If the 'alternatives' aren't suitable then they aren't really alternatives.
Anyways I do agree with you on waiting on adopting, microsofts 'Ticks' tend to to be much better than it's 'Tocks'
What are the new features of windows 8?
What does it do?
What does it offer over Windows 7?
The user experience of windows has not changed more than very slightly since the mid-90s and my only impression is that every new version simply introduces more needless crap that has to be turned off after install.
I don't care how cheap it is, what does it offer? Other than the obviously-worthless tile interface, that is?
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=3150873&postcount=43
You buy a WP8 or tablet with WinRT, you will be using Microsoft Metro apps for the basic stuff.
Then you go to your desktop\laptop and, to keep the information flowing between the gadgets and your more powerful devices, you will be configuring the same Metro apps on desktop\laptop.
Staying in Microsoft world, Metro apps will be unavoidable.
Erm it's 2012 you know...
It's been a very long time since Macs were twice as expensive as an equivalent PC. Apple doesn't produce low spec, cheap material computers. If you want a Mac laptop for example you're only option will be to purchase an all aluminium & glass machine with great keyboards, trackpads, screens and batteries. This build quality and feature set will always cost more no matter whether it's an OSX or windows machine. Because of Apple's size PC manufactures find it near impossible to build their machines for the same price Apple is able to. More often than not they end up costing just as much (for the same features / quality) and with a much smaller profit margin.
Show me a PC ultrabook as lightweight and as well built as a MacBook Air that's available for half the price. No not any old generic PC laptop because we know they're as cheap-as-chips but a genuine lustworthy bit of kit.
Intel created the entire ultrabook 'spec' to compete with the Airs, and it's only now becoming possible to buy genuine ultrabooks that compete with Apple on price, and even a PC is cheaper they're a very long way off being half the price... unless you make major compromises on spec, form-factor, build quality AND support.
Disclaimer: I'm typing this on my retina RBP that is the most expensive computer I've ever bought, and while it without equal in specification (ATM) I understand that paying such an insane amount for a Mac may invalidate my argument somewhat! Oh well.
Sorry, pet peeve, I couldn't help it :)
In any event, Guinevere's argument was nothing to do with Windows - the point was (and I agree) that there are no laptops of equivalent quality to Apple's which are available for anything close to half the price. In fact, any non-Apple laptop which is remotely comparable on build quality and spec to Apple's offerings (Sony Z Series, for example) is very close on price.
Please remember that Apple's OS upgrades are cheap because they turn a huge profit on the hardware and restrict the upgrades to recent machines to keep people buying new ones. Microsoft only sells the OS, and doesn't place any restrictions on it. It's a totally different model and you can't really compare the two.
In retrospect, I do agree with the ultrabook bit, i take back my remark :P and i'll put the peeve demon on a shorter leash ^^
On apple's build quality however i'd disagree. Yes they don't creak or flex like some other laptops/pcs do, but they have to be one of the more common returns due to faults. Or the people who buy from where I work just treat them like crap.
On one of their upgrade sites they did say it was "for use on individual PCs", don't know if they'll be launching a family pack or anything like that. Still though, at least you can upgrade from anything running XP onwards. Not being able to upgrade from Leopard to Lion (skipping Snow Leopard) is one of the reasons I got rid of my mac. Swings and roundabouts.
TBH, I completely lost interest after seeing the UI so, if I'm turning it off, what does 8 bring to tempt me away from 7?
I can only see the appeal if you have XP on a machine and want to save some pennies when upgrading.
I am not the greatest fan of Metro in the Desktop (it works well with touch enabled, small screens gadgets, though) but Windows 8 is a great technical achievement from Microsoft.
If not for the absolutely stupid decison to force Metro (SS, Charms, apps, etc) it would be regarded as the best Windows OS ever, I have no doubt about it.
Thankfully there are tools to make it behave better as a desktop\laptop OS. Try Windows 8 with ViStart, Classic Shell or Start8. Those tools still need some polish but make you appreciate the work done in Windows 8.