• Welcome to the Off-Topic/Schweb's Lounge

    In addition to the Mac-Forums Community Guidelines, there are a few things you should pay attention to while in The Lounge.

    Lounge Rules
    • If your post belongs in a different forum, please post it there.
    • While this area is for off-topic conversations, that doesn't mean that every conversation will be permitted. The moderators will, at their sole discretion, close or delete any threads which do not serve a beneficial purpose to the community.

    Understand that while The Lounge is here as a place to relax and discuss random topics, that doesn't mean we will allow any topic. Topics which are inflammatory, hurtful, or otherwise clash with our Mac-Forums Community Guidelines will be removed.

MS offering Windows 7 for free to Australians

the8thark

the8thark


Joined
Jan 27, 2007
Messages
5,658
Reaction score
159
Points
63
Location
*Brisvegas*
Your Mac's Specs
17 inch 2 GHz C2D imac (5,1) with 3GB DDR2 RAM, X1600 (128MB memory) GPU - OSX 10.6.3
An article I read in the local MX paper 5th may 2009. I'll copy type it below.

Microsoft will tonight release free copies of it's new operating system to the public in a bid to win back disgruntled windows Vista users. Australian PC owners will be able to download the Windows 7 Release Candidate and use it for free over the next 12 months.

The 3 GB Release Candidate is a near-to-retail version and feedback will be used to iron out any remaining glitches. It incorporates suggestions made by those who tested Windows 7 beta versions earlier this year.

At the end of 12 months, users can choose to pay for the full retail version or have their PC revert back to it's current operating system. Microsoft Australia spokeswoman Sarah Vaughan said there was no need to buy or upgrade computer hardware, as was the case with Vista, to run Windows 7.

"The first thing you will notice is responsiveness, we heard feedback that Vista took too long to boot up and there was a wait for things to happen." Vaughan said. She said the system would also learn and adapt to it's users' habits, such as extending the PC's automatic sleep timeif you are continually waking it up not long after it dims.

Windows 7 users will also be able to stream photos and videos on their PC's to any internet connected computer via the Windows Live website. The full Windows 7 retail version will be released some time before January 2010. Windows 7 RC can be downloaded from Welcome to Windows 7
Click to expand...
 
gagnerants

gagnerants


Joined
Dec 23, 2007
Messages
847
Reaction score
20
Points
18
Location
Claremont, Ca
Your Mac's Specs
iPod Nano 4gb, 20" 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB of ram, ATI HD 2600 pro
It's not just for Australia I believe that anyone that downloads and uses the RC 1 will be able to use it for a full year for free. Although of course that's the RC and not the retail release, so it's got its plus' and minus'.
 
D3v1L80Y

D3v1L80Y


Joined
Feb 2, 2004
Messages
12,455
Reaction score
604
Points
113
Location
PA
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook
They did the same thing with Vista.
I actually sent away for the discs instead of downloading them.
 
cwa107

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
Exactly. I've got it installed in a VM. So far no major changes from the last release, but it's still got a comparably better footprint than previous releases (and OS X too). A clean boot uses >350MB of memory.
 
vansmith

vansmith

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2008
Messages
19,924
Reaction score
559
Points
113
Location
Queensland
Your Mac's Specs
Mini (2014, 2018, 2020), MBA (2020), iPad Pro (2018), iPhone 13 Pro Max, Watch (S6)
Installed it yesterday. I notice some small changes (mainly aesthetics) but am still fairly happy with this one.

I was pretty frustrated yesterday though. I installed the VBox guest additions and they must have been installed incorrectly, despite there being no errors. I got an amazing 256 colors and nothing more. After a reinstallation of the guest additions, all is well.
 
December

December


Joined
Oct 20, 2008
Messages
173
Reaction score
4
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
eMac 1.42 GHz, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB HDD, OS X 10.4
I'd put it on my PC, but I'm way too used to how MS Paint works in XP. :( (If I could run the XP version of MS Paint in 7, I would upgrade in a heartbeat.)

It's nice that they're doing this though, I might put it on a netbook I may be getting soon.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top