I devoted this week's column to Microsoft's offerings for Windows 7, partly because there has been so much rubbish written about it on the web. However, there is plenty more that we still don't know, such as when Windows 7 is going to appear, and how much Microsoft is going to charge for it.
The main point of the column is that, as far as most of you are concerned, there will only be two versions of Windows 7: one for home users and one for business users. This is much like the situation with Windows XP, but not exactly the same. With Windows 7, I expect most home users will buy Home Premium, whereas with Windows XP, the biggest seller overall was Windows XP Pro.
The more difficult question is how you can upgrade to Windows 7. It seems there will only be three options:
Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium
Vista Business to Windows 7 Professional
Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate
Each of those will be a paid-for upgrade, at a price to be announced. But it should be a simple process, because Windows 7 will migrate your data across (9GB of free space needed). However, if you have a 32-bit version of Vista, you should really be moving to the 64-bit version of Windows 7, and that will mean reformatting and starting from scratch.
If you are still on XP, which most people are, then it looks as though you will have to pay full price for a copy of Windows 7, then do a clean installation, then reinstall all your software and data. Given that full price copies of Windows 7 are rather likely to cost the same as full price copies of Vista (I'm guessing), then it may make more sense to buy a new PC.
This isn't so much a technical issue as a financial one. You could have had a cheap upgrade to Vista then a cheap upgrade to Windows 7. If you didn't pay for the Vista upgrade, Microsoft lost out financially, and Microsoft isn't about to give you another discount for that.
However, if you paid extra for a PC running XP as a Vista downgrade, you can now upgrade your XP to Vista, then upgrade Vista to Windows 7. What fun. Make sure you back up your data first.
If you're a business with 50,000 XP desktops, and hundreds of Windows apps that need testing in what to you is a wholly new environment, then I wish you the best of luck.
Of course, I'm sure that, being sensible people, you've already fully tested the migration to 64-bit Vista, and updated your in-house software, even if you didn't roll it out. Windows 7 uses the same drivers and probably won't break too many programs. But if you just lazed around dimly enjoying XP's long run, you're in for a tough time against a rapidly approaching deadline. Let's face it, you don't have time to wait for Windows 7 SP1. As soon as Microsoft stops providing patches for XP's many insecurities, you're toast.
At some point, as Windows 7's launch date approaches, Microsoft will allow PC manufacturers to offer Vista PCs with a free upgrade to Windows 7. It always does. Most PC suppliers will take this optional deal because they're afraid of losing too many sales while people wait for Windows 7 to appear.
But the idea that Microsoft will offer all Vista users a free upgrade is, I think, wishful thinking. I'd do it. But there will be 300 million Vista users, and if 10% of those are willing to spend, say, $100 on an upgrade, that's $3 billion in Microsoft's pocket. Frankly, Steve Ballmer doesn't look like the sort of Fairy Godmother who is going to pass up the chance of an easy $3 billion during these harsh economic times.
