Microsoft grinches W7 Family Pack in US Microsoft has left children across the US tearful and upset after pulling the Windows 7 Family Pack offer that promised the whole family could enjoy the upgrade from Vista. However, UK customers can continue to enjoy the benefit of the package - for now anyway. Windows 7 Family Pack gave US consumers three licences for Home …
We don't want them to see the light, because that'd mean less for us. And definitely don't mention how neither the standard OSX upgrade nor the OSX family pack uses license keys, since Apple doesn't treat its users like criminals. Now repeat with me, and try not to giggle:
That's right, those macs are way overpriced compared to a comparable PC, because you can buy a high-end Dell (which would actually have specs comparable to a Mac) for the same price that Dell sells those disposable shovelwared desktops! Oh, and you could always just build your own laptop from parts, right! And it's not like the laptops are built more solidly or anything; black plastic is just as strong as aluminum if it's got enough of those Intel Inside stickers on it!
But they shouldn't be allowed to run around loose, they will surely hurt themselves. Where to start, ...
1. Of course Apple don't need to protect their software - their profits come from the hardware (doh!).
2. I have a crappy Dell made from recycled condoms, whereas Macs are hand-hewn from dew-besprinkled ingots of solid aluminium by virgins. In reality they're both produced from the same components in the same shitty factory in south China.
3. Windows users have to pay an annual upgrade tax to Microsoft. So this 10-year-old file server running Windows 2000 on my desk must be a mirage, then? 'Tap, tap' - nope, seems solid enough.
4. Microsoft are evil money-grubbers only looking to screw their customers to fund their next Ferrari, whereas Steve Jobs is a living saint. Hmm, do the words "Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation" ring any bells? Do let us know of the blessed St Steve's charitable donations.
Bottom line - both Microsoft and Apple are commercial organisations looking to make a profit by delivering product to willing buyers. Both of them are rather good at this, but with somewhat different business models. Both of them sail as close to the legal wind as they can get away with. If you can't deal with this, feel free to relocate somewhere with a different approach - I hear the weather in North Korea is quite mild at this time of year.
"Those suckers that bought Vista Ultimate, myself included, are screwed," said yet another commenter. "There isn't a chance in hell that I am paying $219 for what should really be Vista SP2. We were promised 'extras' which we never got, now we are being excluded from the pre-order special. Anyway even at $49, it is still too much to pay."
The extras that commenter mentioned refer to "Ultimate Extras," one of the main features Microsoft cited in the months leading up to the 2007 release of Vista Ultimate to distinguish the operating system from its lower-priced siblings. According to Microsoft's marketing, Extras were to be "cutting-edge programs, innovative services and unique publications" that would be regularly offered only to users of Vista's highest-priced edition.
But users soon began belittling the paltry number of add-ons Microsoft released and the company's leisurely pace at providing them. Just five months after Vista was launched, critics started to complain.
Earlier this year, Microsoft dumped the feature, saying that it would instead focus on existing features in Windows 7 rather than again promise extras.
The furor over Vista Ultimate has even reached analysts' ranks. In May, Michael Cherry of Directions on Microsoft urged Microsoft to give Vista Ultimate owners a free upgrade to Windows 7. "It would buy them a lot of good will, and I don't think it would cost them much," Cherry said at the time.
Some of the commenters in the latest Computerworld stories about Windows 7 echoed Cherry.
"I am running Vista Ultimate and feel ripped off by Microsoft because ... [we] never received the extras we paid good money to get," said "Hellfire" in a long comment. "The very least that they should do is offer a heavily-discounted upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate to those that have lost money by purchasing Vista Ultimate."
check google for source
"Those suckers that bought Vista Ultimate, myself included, are screwed," said yet another commenter. "There isn't a chance in hell that I am paying $219 for what should really be Vista SP2. We were promised 'extras' which we never got, now we are being excluded from the pre-order special. Anyway even at $49, it is still too much to pay."
The extras that commenter mentioned refer to "Ultimate Extras," one of the main features Microsoft cited in the months leading up to the 2007 release of Vista Ultimate to distinguish the operating system from its lower-priced siblings. According to Microsoft's marketing, Extras were to be "cutting-edge programs, innovative services and unique publications" that would be regularly offered only to users of Vista's highest-priced edition.
But users soon began belittling the paltry number of add-ons Microsoft released and the company's leisurely pace at providing them. Just five months after Vista was launched, critics started to complain.
Earlier this year, Microsoft dumped the feature, saying that it would instead focus on existing features in Windows 7 rather than again promise extras.
The furor over Vista Ultimate has even reached analysts' ranks. In May, Michael Cherry of Directions on Microsoft urged Microsoft to give Vista Ultimate owners a free upgrade to Windows 7. "It would buy them a lot of good will, and I don't think it would cost them much," Cherry said at the time.
Some of the commenters in the latest Computerworld stories about Windows 7 echoed Cherry.
"I am running Vista Ultimate and feel ripped off by Microsoft because ... [we] never received the extras we paid good money to get," said "Hellfire" in a long comment. "The very least that they should do is offer a heavily-discounted upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate to those that have lost money by purchasing Vista Ultimate."
check google for source
I cannot for the life of me imagine why people are getting so upset at Microsoft. This is what they do, we've all seen it before. If people ever thought Billy-boy lacked customer ethics they ain't seen nothing yet. By comparison Ballmer is the great Satan himself (time to change the icons below el Reg).
Having bought the Family Pack to "upgrade" from XP I'm reasonably satisfied. £129 from PCW/Currys Digital was an OK price to pay having experienced the first Beta that convinced me Windows 7 was not Vista reincarnate. But there'd be no way on this blue planet that I'd pay that kind of money for a single licence.
There is a certain element of shooting themselves in the foot, I reckon. This kind of thing only inspires people to get a hold of cracked versions of the OS. M$ have never really understood the consumer model. And so now they face the prospect of continued illicit copies of their OS doing the rounds. The Family Upgrade Pack, being Home Premium, had pulling power. But now I suppose we're back to the bewildering array of five different versions again, together with the confusion and disappointment that is going to cause.
Ballmer, the man able to snatch defeat from the hands of success.
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