Comments on: The scandal that is Microsoft’s Windows 7 pricing in the UK

By: SKGiven

SKGiven — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 11:31:25 +0000

Remote Desktop connections to Vista and Windows 7 are too slow due to the underlying slow responsiveness of both platforms. It’s as simple as this; if you need to connect remotely to your computer regularly, don’t even consider a Vista or Windows 7 upgrade! Besides, I doubt the “possibilities” offered by Windows 7 justifies an update from Vista Ultimate. I think the possibility of most people finding all of the Windows 7 new features is slim, let alone remember how to use them the next time they try. By the way the search facility in XP is so easy to use, why change it in Vista and then again in Win7? It is now total rubbish and endlessly thrashes the life out of your hard drive.
Update issues. If you only use your computer occasionally, stay away from Vista – you will spend ALL your time installing updates and get absolutely nothing done on the system. The number of updates is a good indication of how poor the operating system is! Obviously it is too early to tell how Windows 7 will fair in this respect – but that’s a good enough reason to stay away from it, never mind putting on the Win7 update. Yes, that’s right, Win7 is just a Vista revision that actually works! It’s not like it was built up from the ground.
If you live in the UK and you buy a new computer system, Make Sure you get the Operating System you want – it’s now as important as the computer hardware specs, given the upgrade prices!
I don’t think it is fair to Blame the Rip-Off-UK culture on one company though, everyone else is at it too, especially the retailers!
Think about this. What are net books used for?
So if you can’t upgrade to Windows 7 from a Vista version that has IE, it’s a bit of a crippler!
I thought Microsoft spent millions to let you uninstall IE from Vista and XP, so why can’t you just uninstall IE, upgrade to Win7 (should you feel your pockets are too heavy) and then install IE again?

By: Lloyd

Lloyd — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:47:44 +0000

What is the point of this rant?
“I don’t like what your doing but I’m still going to give you all my money. Just remember I don’t like it!”

Microsoft couldn’t give two hoots about your bad press so long as everyone keeps buying the products it churns out.

Personally I feel cheated by M$. I got Vista pre-installed, it’s obivously built with only 2 things in mind
1) Making sure that it’s hardware partners get a hefty chunk of your money with it’s 100’s of MB of bloatware loaded at boot, making people think the computer can’t handle the OS. When the truth is the OS isn’t far short of being a criminal venture.
2) Tie you deeper into the Redmond way of working; OpenGL support dropped on release, bugs and unfinished/not working basics like file transfering. “It’ll keep them upgrading to more of our software for years” to quote that Bond vilan.

It’s been laughable over the past 2 years with the take off of netbooks, Microsoft has been stopped in it’s tracks a forced to do what it should have done with Vista, release an OS that works and works on hardware specs that existed at the time Vista hit the shelves.

WAKE UP PEOPLE! EITHER STOP BUYING OR STOP BITCHING! Because M$ only cares about 1 of those options.

By: Rik

Rik — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:31:12 +0000

I’ve only been using a computer for about three years. I seem to have spent more time learning than I have doing, especially about PC security issues, which is understandable. What irks me is M$’s regularly outdating its own OSs, charging for the upgrades, and so many users flocking to stump up the cash. Then there’s those constant security issues. I’m currently dual booting a laptop with Vista and Linux Mint installed. For what I need – and I’m an average home user – Linux MInt is easy to use, updates are a sinch, security issues are virtually non-existent and it costs absolutely nothing. Booting to Microsoft just becomes increasingly less attractive. People need to vote with their fingers and download an alternative to anything not M$.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:52:46 +0000

They have a monopoly in the world, so not sure why the pick on UK more than any other nations? They could fleece everyone.
Note: Amazon UK are selling Windows 7 for £70(inc VAT, £59 exc) or €82, Amazon Germany €120 and Amazon USA $120 so in theory Amazon have a work around?
Are Microsoft just winding us up? in reality selling their OS to UK machines at the same price as USA but putting a silly price online? why

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 11:09:40 +0000

This issue seems to be a hardy perennial in these forums. Most of the time the finger of blame is left hovering in the direction of malevolent foreign (read ‘American’) capitalists and their avaricious ways. Somehow it is never resolved and the mystery allowed to linger. Wake up people! Just do the maths. It’s your own Government that is ripping you off, VAT, import duty and shipping charges. If you order retail they even send it by the most expensive means available. These additional taxes explain everything. Now could PC Pro find another issue to whip up the mob with?

By: John K

John K — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:41:44 +0000

I’m guessing our domestic situation is pretty normal these days — two desktops, two laptops, acquired over a number of years, all running XP.

Does anyone at Microsoft actually expect me, or anyone like me, to pay more than £300 for the pleasure of upgrading to win7?

I’ve run a trial of Win7 out of curiosity, and it’s a good OS. But I won’t even be upgrading my own desktop because (a) as the one-man domestic IT department, I refuse to support more than one OS at a time, and (b) even if I found £300 under the mattress tomorrow, I can’t imagine deciding that upgrading a perfectly serviceable OS would be a sensible way to spend such a big chunk of the household budget. Who buys these upgrades?

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 23:49:23 +0000

Paul B – yes you are correct I realise they are not exactly comparable the NVidia is a better graphics chip that the Integrated graphics chip but it’s still a heck of a markup – especially when most laptop owners aren’t bought for serious gaming and the Intel chip will play back dvds etc without problem.

Likewise you can’t (from what I can see) buy the UK model in Canada. Call me sceptical but I think they sometimes give each country it’s own model number so direct comparisons cannot be made

By: Paul B

Paul B — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 22:07:45 +0000

@Paul – To be fair, in the example you chose, the two laptops aren’t the exact same model. The Canadian model isn’t available to buy in the UK. Also, it has integrated Intel graphics, whereas the UK model has an Nvidia 512MB GPU. And, PCWorld are generally quite expensive.

Not saying that we don’t pay a premium, here in the UK, though.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:22:33 +0000

and they wonder why people are so ken to download stuff off sites and try to hack stuff. i know people will do it anyway no matter what the cost. the eu complains about browser integration what about us getting totally stuffed by all these american software houses.

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:06:59 +0000

Trouble is people will pay it. Look at other examples – when the Rocj Band game first came out for example, or the ridiculous prices for virtually everything Apple produces (although to be fair they do that everywhere). Some idiot, somewhere, pays it and makes it a feasible business proposition.