Users will begin to experience unpleasant interruptions

As forewarned, if you are among the millions who downloaded the Windows 7 beta and you haven’t since upgrade to the Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC), you are about to experience unpleasant service interruptions.  In lieu of an October 22 release, and a wrap-up for the RC phase, Microsoft began the end of life process for the beta release today.

Starting today users running the beta version of the OS will have their system shut down every two hours.  Microsoft is urging users who stuck with the beta to jump to the release candidate, which includes a number of additional features and refinements.  Writes Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc in a Windows team blog post, “If you’re still on the Windows 7 Beta you should certainly look at giving the Windows 7 RC at try!”

For those enjoying the free Release Candidate, the good times will roll until June 1, 2010, when the RC build will cease to function, forcing users to purchase the new OS (or revert to Vista/XP).  The RC download program ends August 15.

Microsoft’s Windows 7 is currently in its second week of the pre-order program, which is nearing its end.  The pre-order program will end on Saturday, July 11.  Users can still snag a pre-order copy of Home Premium upgrade for a mere $49.99 or Professional for $99.99.  Once the pre-order expires, these upgrade prices will jump to $119.99 and $199.99 respectively, with Ultimate edition being priced at $219.

Pre-orders will soon also available still in UK, Japan, France, and Germany.  For EU customers, the pre-orders are especially sweet as they allow Europeans to snag the OS at its cheapest full-retail prices.  In the European Union Microsoft will not be offering an upgrade SKU, but will be offering full retail versions at the same price as the upgrade versions in America.  The international pre-order program runs from July 15 to August 14.

Source: Dailytech

According to NetApplications, Windows XP is still the OS of choice for users out there in ComputerLand, with some two-thirds of users still making use of the aging OS. By comparison, Vista is struggling to capture a quarter of the market share. Vista’s “WOW!” failed to capture the attention of users, as many chose to stick with their older OS.

If you are an XP user, has what you’ve seen of Windows 7 made you willing to ditch XP?

The way I see it, Microsoft needs to be putting effort into marketing Windows 7 to those currently using XP. After all, those already using Vista have shown a willingness to switch OSes already, and moving from Vista to 7 isn’t that much of a leap. It’s those entrenched XP users that present a problem for Microsoft. These people, for whatever reason, turned their backs on Vista, and it’s these people that Microsoft needs to win back.

But it’s not going to be easy.

While Microsoft tried to convince people that Vista wasn’t really as bad as they thought it was by resorting to a web ad campaign that was thinly disguised as an “experiment”, those still using XP weren’t buying it. In fact it wasn’t until Microsoft’s “Laptop Hunter” ad campaign that the Redmond giant started seeing its ad dollars really having an effect. Problem for Microsoft is that these ads spend their time selling Windows-based PCs rather than Windows itself. It seems that Microsoft knows that selling Windows is an uphill struggle.

Another problem for Microsoft is that there’s no easy upgrade path for XP users wanting to move to Windows 7. While I usually hate doing in-place upgrades on an OS (that’s where you apply the OS over the top of the existing one and keep all your old settings and programs) because it leads to more problems than it solves, I know that there are a lot of people out there who like this method because it saves them a lot of time and effort. You can’t do this going from XP to 7. You can use Windows Easy Transfer to move your stuff (data, not apps), which is probably the safest method, but it’s a multi-step hassle that many won’t bother with.

As I see it there’s another obstacle in the way of XP users adopting 7, and that is the fact that if you peel away the Windows 7 veneer, what you end up with resembles Vista. A lot. Sure, it’s Vista SP2, and not the poor quality RTM code that Microsoft shoveled into user’s faces, but it’s still Vista. There may be fewer comparability roadblocks than there was for those who tried moving from XP to Vista, but users going from XP to Windows 7 are still going to stumble across roadblocks. XP Mode will help, but ultimately it’s a kludge. A kludge that’s only available to people who buy the most expensive versions of Windows 7.

It’ll be interesting to see how Microsoft tries to win over the entrenched XP user. Microsoft may decide to throw ad dollars at the problem. Alternatively, Microsoft might stick with the current “Laptop Hunter” style ads and rely on user’s PC growing obsolete over time.

Thoughts?

Source: ZDNET

Public excitement causes a happy headache for Microsoft

Companies seldom receive the news that their web servers have crashed with much joy, but compared to a crash from poor service or a botnet attack, this type of malfunction is about as happy as they come.  Microsoft’s release of the Release Candidate (build 7100) of Windows 7 to MSDN and TechNet subscribers in both 32- and 64-bit forms was slowed by a server crash Wednesday.

Similar to the launch of the beta of Windows 7 in January, the demand was so overwhelming that Microsoft’s servers were taken off line as of noon Eastern Time yesterday.  MSDN users were greeted with the message “Sorry, we were unable to service your request,” while TechNet subscribers were met with the equally disappointing message, “We’re sorry! The page you were expecting to see has been removed or is unavailable.”

Microsoft’s message boards were stormed by disgruntled and disappointed users.  A user by the name Lyle Pratt wrote on the TechNet forum, “Man, this stinks.”

John Butler, a Microsoft partner, comments, “I can’t believe we can still bring MSDN to its knees!  Surely, they should be able to deal with this? Not a good advert for Microsoft.”

Microsoft urged users to keep trying to reach the page.  They insisted the downloads were available, despite the press and public being generally unable to reach them.  No other reason for the failure was given, other than the implied cause of demand.

While the news is certainly a headache for Microsoft, it isn’t all bad.  The news makes great PR for the new OS, which is already being lauded by the press.  DailyTech’s reporters have tested and tried the new OS, and we can report that it is indeed shaping up nicely, with a polished, intuitive interface, and greatly improved hardware compatibility versus Vista at launch.  It is good to see that Microsoft is listening to its beta testers, too.  The company, known, like its competitor Apple, for going its own way in the past, has turned over a new leaf, fixing over 2,000 bugs in the new OS pre-release, all based on user feedback.

The fun will start all over again, likely, when Windows 7 RC is released to the general public May 5.  The build is already circulating the torrent community.  Users looking to install should note that the release candidate requires a full reinstall, unlike updates to the beta builds.

Source: DailyTech