Microsoft Discounting Windows 8 For OEMs to Boost Sales

[exfileme]

Looks like Microsoft is hurting enough to drop the price of its licensing fees for Windows 8 and Windows RT.

Microsoft Discounting Windows 8 For OEMs to Boost Sales : Read more

 

[mforce2]

[citation][nom]BigMack70[/nom]I know there are some folks who like it but personally, you couldn't even pay me to switch from Windows 7 to Windows 8 on my desktop...[/citation]
Haha, my thoughts exactly. Windows 7 is kinda slow but for a Windows it's good enough. I also have Linux on my PC and I'm really, realyl happy. I see no reason to switch to Windows 8.

 

[geoc]

Drop Ballmer, Please...

 

[NightLight]

upgraded for less then 30$, never regretted it! once you get over the metro ui, it boots faster than 7, has a much better explorer and better performance overall.

 

[diddo]

Flogging a dead horse.
It is not about how hard you flog, it is about the horse being dead.
MS does not need discounts, in fact sales were horrible even when IT WAS discounted at launch!
They need a live horse, aka an usable operating system, to be sold instead of 8.

 

[aoneone]

Ha~! Keep sliding Microsoft, won't even consider it until it is about 10 bucks you hear me!?

 

[gardoversoza]

Just give us a black theme for Office 2013! Dark grey is not dark enough! Damn it MS!

 

[ubercake]

Windows 8 is seriously irritating for power users, but much like Android or iOS, for the majority of folks whose PC activities consist of reading/writing e-mail, playing Angry Birds, using Skype, Netflix, Facebook, reading/composing the occasional word doc, shopping online, and just browsing the web, it's perfect.

As a power user, I'll be waiting to see if something better comes along and limit my Windows 8 use to the cheap family laptop.

 

[cats_Paw]

Personally, i wouldent use win8 even if it was free.
I see no upsides, only downsides.
Some time ago people jsut bought stuff, nowdays, since there is an economical recession, people are more carefull with their money, so companies that dont make good products are going to go down real fast.

 

[godfather666]

Dear Microsoft, pricing is not the reason Windows 8 is doing so poorly. It's because it's a horrible barely usable schizophrenic OS.

The sad thing is, they can easily fix it. All they have to do is create two modes that the user can easily switch between: touch mode and desktop mode.

And that's it. Done, you have a winner.

 

[rad666]

I don't care about Win8 because I refuse to get a touch screen for my desktop. Why would I want fingerprint smears all over my primary display? I can't stand the occasional little smudges that get on there.

 

[jdwii]

[citation][nom]aoneone[/nom]Ha~! Keep sliding Microsoft, won't even consider it until it is about 10 bucks you hear me!?[/citation]

I can get it for free threw my college but its not worth it after this release i made sure i got 2 product keys for 7 though

[citation][nom]NightLight[/nom]upgraded for less then 30$, never regretted it! once you get over the metro ui, it boots faster than 7, has a much better explorer and better performance overall.[/citation]

The only reason why is because the desktop does not boot up at first and the performance is the same under many benchmarks when i tested it using 2 different computers.

 

[deksman]

[citation][nom]mforce2[/nom]Haha, my thoughts exactly. Windows 7 is kinda slow but for a Windows it's good enough. I also have Linux on my PC and I'm really, realyl happy. I see no reason to switch to Windows 8.[/citation]

Hm... speaking from personal experience, I cannot really say that Windows 7 is slow.
From what I was able to ascertain... Windows 8 is marginally faster than 7 in general tasks (even the boot-up is basically identical to Windows 7 once you turn off the Hybernate-like shut-down and do a cold boot of the system).

However, Windows 8 might have certain things in its favor compared to 7. For example, some games might run faster, and general responsiveness of the OS might be improved - but realistically speaking, they could have released a SP2 for Windows 7 that does the same thing.
In the end, most people certainly wouldn't notice those differences, and if you switch to an SSD on Windows 7, then basically there would be 0 difference.

Ultimately, right now I see no viable reason to switch to Windows 8, and since I hadn't used it personally, I cannot say anything about it conclusively, but I don't see the need to switch to it seeing how I am comfortable with Windows 7, and it does everything I need/want very fast as is (and I'm using a regular HDD).

 

[stefanGR]

Windows 8 is a schizophrenic OS , not desktop , not tablet , bad at both . I dont hate metro , I just wish there was a way to disable it for desktop users . I know there are 3rd party solutions , but thats not the point . What used to be 2 clicks is now 3-4 . Its slower overall ,except boot times . Its not a bad product under the hood , but whats the benefit if you put a ferrari engine on a truck ? Im sticking to windows 7 , and Im already spending most of my time on Linux . When a couple of games that I play will be available for linux , Im never coming back . Gently pushing all my clients toward linux too , its in their best interest .

 

[belardo]

LOL! Everyone with half a Brian knows why windows 8 bombed. It's crap GUI design. They have been warned by US for months. It's ugly, the desktop is ugly. The layout is changed for the sake of change, not actual improvement.

Price has nothing to do with it. If that was the case, apple should be long dead. But apple only charges $25-30 for OS upgrades.

If windows 8 was given to me for free... It would be placed next to my dusty copy of windowsME.

WIndowsRT of course is a mess... Bait and switch. Win8phone is still different, etc etc... A common looking UI with no compatibility and a worse learning curve than Linux. Then throw on their rip-off tactics of Office 2013???!! Even their Bing vs Google campaign is a farce. I tried it... Bing failed at finding my test inquiries... That google hand no problems finding.

Microsoft / Windows = irrvelent

 

[wiyosaya]

What this article really says: M$ is desperate for Windows 8 sales. We've heard nothing about how well it is selling since November. My bet is it is not selling well; otherwise, M$ would be, everywhere, telling the world how well it is selling.

 

[Soda-88]

[citation][nom]ubercake[/nom]Windows 8 is seriously irritating for power users, but much like Android or iOS, for the majority of folks whose PC activities consist of reading/writing e-mail, playing Angry Birds, using Skype, Netflix, Facebook, reading/composing the occasional word doc, shopping online, and just browsing the web, it's perfect.As a power user, I'll be waiting to see if something better comes along and limit my Windows 8 use to the cheap family laptop.[/citation]
Sorry, but nobody bitching about default UI is a power user.

 

[DjEaZy]

... Microsoft Discounting Windows 8 For OEMs to Boost Sales? Because it's CRAP!!! Everybody i know are downgrading from 8 to 7... or buying new PC with Linux or empty, to boot in Win7 later...

 

[belardo]

For $40 to get win8 upgrades? I didn't touch it. Even thou I have 5 XP lic. No longer used and 3 win7 systems. Hell, even for beta installs, anyone or I could have gotten the $40 upgrade deal. For clients, we still just went wi 7... Period. Not planning on windows9 either. Hopefully win7 will be my last MS OS.

Other than deep pockets... MS seems to be much dumber than RIM.

 

[belardo]

For $40 to get win8 upgrades? I didn't touch it. Even thou I have 5 XP lic. No longer used and 3 win7 systems. Hell, even for beta installs, anyone or I could have gotten the $40 upgrade deal. For clients, we still just went wi 7... Period. Not planning on windows9 either. Hopefully win7 will be my last MS OS.

Other than deep pockets... MS seems to be much dumber than RIM.

 

[damianrobertjones]

Is it me or have some of you guys hardly even or EVER used Windows 8? Just reading through the comments makes it more than clear.

I'm a supposed 'power' user and find no issue with Windows 8 on the desktop, laptop and of course, tablets. Why not? It's Windows 7 with extras. What is a power user anyway? I run multiple VMS, administer a network etc and Windows 8 has never gotten in the way of my day to day work. I actually like having easy access to the Kindle/ebay/other app and it saves a whole load of crap being installed across my SSD.

Don't any of you actually see the benefits of Windows 8? The GUI is damn easy to use, the OS 'is' better than Windows 7 (Seeing as it pretty much is 7 anyway) so I'm not too sure why we have a whole load of negativity?

Baffles me.

 

[diddo]

[citation][nom]Soda-88[/nom]Sorry, but nobody bitching about default UI is a power user.[/citation]
Maybe is a power user providing software / scripts / services / support for third parties on average getting crazy if you change a bit in the default UI?
Maybe is a power user doing close to metal works who does not care spending time to customize the UI and expects it works out of the box?
Maybe is a power user worried by Windows API being called "legacy" and WinRT being called the future, because you know, it is more than a bit worrying having a single Store for distribute your work - that may compete with MS ones, see OpenOffice, see Chrome, Firefox and Opera, see any messenger competing with Skype, see Dropbox and other cloud storage services, see games developers competing with MS Xbox games, etc: will you trust switching to a business model where YOUR COMPETITOR IS YOUR ONLY MASS DISTRIBUTOR?

 

[damianrobertjones]

P.s. Is this article with regards to MS discounting the price to push smaller devices? If it is then it's been twisted

 

[Junoh315]

Microsoft is really getting much worse. Windows Vista was actually an extremely good OS. I had it on my old PC and it worked wonderfully. Windows 7 is also an improvement but MS dropped support of Windows 7 just because they brought in Windows 8. This is ridiculous. A lot of people didn't upgrade to Vista from XP because they were scared of the changes. I can kind of sympathize with them now that I've seen Windows 8 and have used it on my friend's PC. If I had a touch screen PC then I would love Windows 8 but it wasn't designed for a mouse.

Making an OS because you want to cater to the touch-screen market is okay. However, you don't get rid of all support of your desktop version.

 

[Junoh315]

[citation][nom]diddo[/nom]Maybe is a power user providing software / scripts / services / support for third parties on average getting crazy if you change a bit in the default UI?Maybe is a power user doing close to metal works who does not care spending time to customize the UI and expects it works out of the box?Maybe is a power user worried by Windows API being called "legacy" and WinRT being called the future, because you know, it is more than a bit worrying having a single Store for distribute your work - that may compete with MS ones, see OpenOffice, see Chrome, Firefox and Opera, see any messenger competing with Skype, see Dropbox and other cloud storage services, see games developers competing with MS Xbox games, etc: will you trust switching to a business model where YOUR COMPETITOR IS YOUR ONLY MASS DISTRIBUTOR?[/citation]


The main issues isn't the GUI in my opinion. It's the lack of support from older programs. Why get a PC that can't even play Sims Medieval if the number one reason why I wanted a new PC was because my old PC could only play the Sims 2 generation of games. Gamers should stay away from Windows 8 for now. Maybe skip over it. Windows Vista is still usable and is supported by game developers so before the next OS comes you don't need to worry about getting Windows 8.