Windows 7 RC dated - April

[wolfgar]

(edit: Correction :: May,, sorry)

according to ZDnet, ArsTechnica and others, the Windows 7 RC has now been dated for public release in May. (I'm assuming late May)

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=2369

... screen shot of the Win 7 RC download page. As Ars notes, the RC download period is set to last through June 2009 and the RC set to expire in June 2010. Ars also grabbed a shot of the expected hardware requirements for the Windows 7 RC:

The RC will be good until June 2010??
Am I reading this wrong? Is MS is offering effectively a free 1 year trial for windows 7 early adopters?

I keep reading reports of people using the beta (followup build 7057) for their day-2-day including gaming; and that they are quite happy.


Just buy a new HDD, and install. (swap BIOS boot order back and forth as desired)

So it expires in a year. Most of us will probably have a major system update by then anyway, and we'll go get the retail at that point.


Has someone in MS actually learned the value of reaching out to their critical customer base: The enthusiast home user base...

Has MS gotten a clue as to how to get Win7 adopted? Give us a few hits for free and get us hooked?
Will it the Ultimate edition?
Will it be 64-Bit?


Is anyone else tempted by this?
(assuming its correct)

[thor1182]

waiting till they give it out to MSDN...

I have one of the newer leaked builds out there, but haven't felt safe using it over the beat msdn version.

[ASUSEN7900GTX]

coool that would be great have the 7057 but no intalled yet

RC for a year then again it might be buggy or not time will tell

[mailman2]

Wonder what build it is?

[Bman212121]

Originally Posted by wolfgar

(edit: Correction :: May,, sorry)

according to ZDnet, ArsTechnica and others, the Windows 7 RC has now been dated for public release in May. (I'm assuming late May)

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=2369



The RC will be good until June 2010??
Am I reading this wrong? Is MS is offering effectively a free 1 year trial for windows 7 early adopters?

I keep reading reports of people using the beta (followup build 7057) for their day-2-day including gaming; and that they are quite happy.


Just buy a new HDD, and install. (swap BIOS boot order back and forth as desired)

So it expires in a year. Most of us will probably have a major system update by then anyway, and we'll go get the retail at that point.


Has someone in MS actually learned the value of reaching out to their critical customer base: The enthusiast home user base...

Has MS gotten a clue as to how to get Win7 adopted? Give us a few hits for free and get us hooked?
Will it the Ultimate edition?
Will it be 64-Bit?


Is anyone else tempted by this?
(assuming its correct)

All release candidates are like that. They are timebombed for a certain date where after that time you can no longer use or install it.

[mailman2]

Originally Posted by Bman212121

All release candidates are like that. They are timebombed for a certain date where after that time you can no longer use or install it.

Right, but I think he was praising MS for giving you a whole year.

[ASUSEN7900GTX]

that is indeed unusual by MS

[Sazar]

Originally Posted by thor1182

waiting till they give it out to MSDN...

I have one of the newer leaked builds out there, but haven't felt safe using it over the beat msdn version.

Same here.

The only build I have is the MSDN one, I haven't tried any of the newer builds and now I am just back to using Vista Ultimate till 7 RC drops on MSDN's downloads.

[wolfgar]

Originally Posted by mailman2

Right, but I think he was praising MS for giving you a whole year.

Its was some praise, with a fair amount of surprise, and some healthy 'What's the catch?'.
That's a full year of letting people have a free version of their OS.

Are you not a bit tempted to install it; for free?

If nothing else to run it in parallel, just to see for yourself?
You can buy a 200GB HDD for $60.

I never made the switch to Vista. At that time, I had too much incompatible hardware, and had read too may negative reviews of the original Vista release. By Vista-SP1 time, Win7 was looking promising. No need to update twice.

Now, hardware-wise I am fully 64-bit ready and most my HW (hmmmm, need to check on my crazy gamer KB) is Vista supported; but have decided to wait for Win7.

Vista may not suck anymore, but it did originally, and too many people zoned out after that. It does not matter if was MS's issues or the OEM's and their bad drivers (if any drivers) that were responsible. The Vista rollout was a PR nightmare.

We early adopters panned Vista. MS Ignored us and tried to trivialize our reviews. And look at the results? Vista struggling for survival 2 years later; even with MS trying to force it upon us.

I am now coming to believe that this is the new viral marketing campaign MS will be using to try to win over the previous Vista complainers. 'Try it for yourself! You'll like it!'

If MS can get us nerds on board early and enthusiastically; they can quickly change the 'vista sucked' message into a 'Win7 Rules'.. IF they can get us to try it??
How to do that?? DUH! Give us free copies. (we love free)
We won't be able to resist.

Even if they give us a free year, they know we will likely buy it quickly after release, IF we like it.

Honestly, do you think we will have any real choice in the next year or so. MS is screaming that XP support is ending. You can't really get a new XP license. Now we have a carrot to go along with the stick..

In reality, this costs them $0.00 over 2 years and could be a massively successful advertising campaign.

MS may actually have learned the value of releasing a demo, especially if its a good product.

They desperately need an early win on this release, or the critical X-mas season is lost again.