Microsoft has announced what consumers will be paying for Windows 7 when the new operating system is launched in October, which may seem a bit rich to those who feel they have been paying for a long time for choosing to use the current Windows Vista.
Vista has been a clunker of an OS from Microsoft, so bad its 8-year-old predecessor Windows XP is a joy to use in comparison and remains the safe OS of choice for the corporate world.
Vista has suffered long-running incompatibilities with other programs and driver software and can turn powerboat PCs into chugging tramp steamers.
I thought the Windows BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) was a thing of the past, but my new Dell desktop with a quad-core i7 processor turns blue, along with the air around it, as it regularly crashes due to some conflict between Vista 64-bit and the graphics driver.
I upgraded my dual-core laptop from Vista to the Windows 7 Release Candidate recently and it was something of a revelation as its tortoise-like performance picked up remarkably and the interface was a marked improvement right down to the cool new wallpaper.
The installation process was smooth and everything was just as I had left it in Vista, which made it feel more like a free Service Pack upgrade than a new operating system.
It was Vista finally done right, or as Steve Ballmer had put it: “Windows 7 will be Vista, but a lot better.”
Which begs the question: why is Microsoft charging us for fixing something they got horribly wrong, making victims out of consumers?
I am not asking for compensation (although I could make a case), but a free upgrade for all Vista users would have been a nice thing to offer after all that we’ve been through.
Next best thing? How about a $29 upgrade for the PC guy, the same as the Mac guy is being charged by Apple to upgrade to the Snow Leopard OS this year.
But no, scanning the price list, the best Microsoft can do is a $50 limited-time offer to pre-order an upgrade by July 11 in the US.
“Hurry, quantities are limited,” says the offer page, but if you act fast, you can “sit back and smile. You scored.”
So $100 to fix both my machines and yes, I will pay this to escape Windows Vista hell. But it feels like extortion somehow, and any smile I can manage will be one with gritted teeth.
