In case you’ve missed it, the biggest thing going around the geekosphere today is Windows7, which opened for exclusive pre-release orders in Europe at midnight.
If you’re wondering what’s going on, Microsoft is offering Windows7 (which officially launches worldwide on Oct 22) for advance pre-orders in three zones – North America, Europe and Japan – at a ridiculously special price of 49.99 EUR.
Normally, I don’t make a big deal of stuff like this but what was remarkable about this one is, the demand was apparently so high that online stores’ servers started going down all over Europe this morning!
In fact Amazon Germany was sold out in just over an hour!
Amazon UK is still struggling to keep up with demands – and other stores are having a field day as well.
Now as a person who just missed a free upgrade by getting my new laptop a week too early (Dell is offering this to all laptops bought just a week after mine), I wasn’t going to lose out on this. And so, I now stand, the proud recipient of the greatest Windows to come out in a long time.
I’ve always said I hated Windows Vista – and come October 22, I can finally smile and say,
“I told you so”
…as I get rid of my Vista DVD.
I can hardly wait.
:)
Update:
16Jul09. Its finally official: This link from the BBC quotes Amazon as saying that “sales of Windows 7 in the first eight hours it was available outstripped those of Windows Vista's entire 17 week pre-order period”!
Man, talk about sellout! I guess Microsoft grossly underestimated how much people hated Vista to get to the next upgrade as soon as they could!
10 comments:
Hey! Vista I agree was one big blunder..anti user friendly is the world, had to get it removed from a new laptop, so that I dont have problems..though it had great features but when one cannot use it in the long run, anything else doesnt make a difference.
Thanks for the informative post..window 7 we're waitn!
did u try the beta version ?
I am hesitant to upgrade and I don't think I want to, considering the system requirements Windows 7 demands.
There are only a few features worth the look under the hood, but most of the improvements are on the desktop.
I like how they improved the search and device management. The Taskbar looks cool - but it has become application centric just like the Dock of MacOSX - I always hated that concept really but the Jump-lists sound promising.
The Libraries - I am not sure of. It's nice how all your content will be auto-organized but I am concerned of privacy issues that may arise.
Well, I'll just wait until GNOME or KDE come out with some of those features.
Will be waiting for you in Unix-land - I told ya so !
It's goint to be a while before i try out window7 now... Atleast i can look forward to use it :)
@A new beginning
Yeah, Vista was bad. Fortunately I only need to live with it for the next 3months before I switch to Windows7. Keep your fingers crossed!
@Rayees
No actually my (old) laptop couldn't run it...and I didn't have the heart to load a beta onto my shiny new laptop :)
But I know lots of ppl who have, and everyone gave it an excellent review.
@Jaffer
I don't blame you.
The ones who really need to upgrade are us folks stuck with Vista.
And because it was forced onto almost every new computer sold in the last two years...that's a lot of people.
But I don't think system requirements are that steep. (Either that or computers have so much resources these days it doesn't seem steep anymore)
Besides, one of the reasons I'm upgrading (aside from 'to get rid of Vista') is because MS apparently promised a 15second boot time!
@issam
Well, any new computer you buy now will have the free upgrade option...all you have to do is get a new laptop
:D
Oh yes, I failed to notice the discussions about improvements with boot time - 15s is something that I like to see.
So far Fedora has come close boasting a 30s boot time. But here's what I experience - it did indeed take 29s to boot the operating system, but it took another 10s load the window manager and the login screen.
After I login with my credentials, it take another 5 to 7 seconds to load my desktop.
So really, for me it takes be around a minute from pressing the power button to launching firefox.
Does windows 7 aim to do that in 15s ? That is worthy of discussion !
Wonder where Firas is. He'd be all over this by now !
P.S. Do you have a review of Vista ? I'd like to know what was so bad - so far it's been an alrighty experience for me.
o_0
I dont know whether to be happy for u or to envy you :P
hehehe :P
Thanks for an Informative post! Let me wait for a pirated version (as usual) :)
@jaffer
Lets remember that the 15sec thing is purely in theory...of course, your actual boot would take longer depending on what extras you load at startup as well (I also have my wireless UMTS service enabled at startup - which adds another 10 seconds or so to my already slow Vista).
And regarding writing a review on Vista, so much has changed in the last two years that I'm not sure if its really fair on our part to write one anymore.
When it came out, the two biggest problems it had were:
a) 3rd party driver support
b) speed (or rather, the lack of it)
I think with SP1, the driver thing is okay now...and speed; I guess we have faster computers now than we did when it came out...I don't really see speed as a problem with Vista (unless you compare it with other OSes on the same hardware)
My biggest problem with Vista was dealing with all the pseudo-security software (like defender, UAC etc.) and uninstalling crapware.
@Shimmer
Be happy for me.
:P
Would make me feel a lot better...
@Prasanna
Hmm, not sure if there's even a pirated version of Vista...and you want one for Windows7?
:D
With larger home user markets opening up in places like even India (which traditionally had only corporate users with licensed software) I think it might be a while before Windows7-fake hits the streets.
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