For those of us who have stuck with Microsoft through the initial pains of Vista to find a competent, but mediocre offering, or hung on to XP for dear life waiting for something new, a decision has arrived: whether to upgrade to Windows 7, which will come out later this year. The reviews have been largely positive, and many reports show that certain interface tweaks give the appearance of a faster operating system.
Today, the upgrade pricing was announced. In a gift to users, Microsoft has priced the home version of 7, for those who are currently using either XP or Vista, the upgrade price is $49, for a limited time and/or for a limited number of copies.
The traditional logic is that most people shouldn’t buy an upgrade to an operating system for a machine they already have; the upgrade will traditionally be slower, more bloated and potentially less usable due to it being more demanding on hardware. Indeed, it’s usually smart to wait until buying a new machine to get the latest from the OS maker.
Microsoft returned to the drawing board, doing a top-to-bottom fine tuning of Vista, with some new fit and finish, that brings Windows 7 into a class of its own. More stable and secure than XP but faster than Vista, with some additional features thrown in, Windows 7 seems as much a “must get” as Office 2007 did when the revolutionary ribbon menu interface was introduced. In both cases some smart enhancements and evolutionary changes, rather than a feature dump, made all the difference.
Windows 7, with all its improvements, is the first time an OS looks good enough to simply purchase the upgrade. The beta process ran very smoothly, and the software is ready for prime time. With such a low price (although the deal is only available until July 11), it may be the best chance of getting the upgrade short of buying a new machine.
Coincidentally, Mac users are facing the same type of decision right now, as Snow Leopard, which is a fit-and-finish overhaul of Leopard, is available for $29 for Leopard owners, Apple announced earlier this month.





