Microsoft drops European Windows plan, so where next for upgrades?

PC Advisor:

“It’s unclear how Microsoft will deal with customers who have already pre-ordered Windows 7E and paid the upgrade price but were told they would receive a full-package edition.

Ironically, the users who may be most affected by the return of two-tier pricing are those who use Macs, but want to run Windows in a virtual machine. While PC owners typically upgrade from an older OS to a new – and so can get by with the cheaper upgrades – users who run Windows in a virtual environment often create the ‘machines’ from scratch, and so require a full-package version.”

One of the ironic things about Microsoft throwing a bit of a tantrum and not selling upgrade versions was that it actually simplified the product line and made it easier to understand. I pre-ordered a copy of Win7 which I’ll use on my MacBook Pro’s Boot Camp partition, because it was a full version – otherwise, I’d have stuck with XP (all I use it for is a couple of legacy apps and one game).

In fact, I was about to order a second copy for my netbook – but we’ll see whether it’s still going to be a full version rather than an upgrade. If it’s an upgrade, I won’t bother. Ubuntu Netbook Remix or Moblin will go on there instead.

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