Good news for folks in the European Union who plan on upgrading to Windows 7, there will be no special temporary 'Windows 7 E edition', Microsoft confirmed this evening to CNET News:

It looks like there won't be a browserless version of Windows 7, after all.

Microsoft said late Friday that it won't ship the Windows 7 "E" version of Windows even though Europe has yet to sign off on its revised plan. The plan calls for the company to ship Windows 7 with Internet Explorer, but present a ballot screen in which users in Europe can decide whether they want Internet Explorer or another browser.

The software maker had originally proposed shipping Windows 7 in Europe without a browser at all--the so-called "E" version of the operating system. However, European regulators indicated that might not satisfy its concerns.

Read the entire article here

The good news too, pre-orders will revert to Windows 7 with Internet Explorer, but will contain a ballot with additional third party web browsers from which users can select. Pre-orders made available this summer will still be the Full Packaged Product license that customers receive. Customers in Europe will not have to do a clean install either and will be able to do an upgrade from Windows Vista SP1 or later.

This is great news for everyone and it sounds like a good compromised is being reached with other web browser developers too!

Resources

A Quick Look: Customizing your Windows 7 Installation

In addition to pricing information for Windows Anytime Upgrade, Brandon Leblanc gave a quick tutorial of how the process works. Check it out here

Back in April, I took a look at the Anytime Upgrade process and I must say I was most impressed by how quick and simple the entire process is. Here is an excerpt from that article:

The amazing thing about Anytime Upgrade is how quick and simple the process is, Microsoft estimates at least 10 minutes in comparison to Vista’s 30 minute or more process. Based on my trial, it was at least 7 minutes, some persons have even reported at least 5 mins for Anytime Upgrade from Windows 7 Home Premium to Ultimate.

If you are running supported SKU’s such as Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium or even Professional, you will have the option of upgrading to a higher SKU. Microsoft has made each of the SKU’s a subset of features, so a user can do an Anytime Upgrade from Windows 7 Home Premium to Professional, unlike Vista which only allowed Anytime Upgrades from certain SKU’s:

Vista Home Basic – Home Premium or Ultimate
Vista Business – Ultimate

All that has changed, if you want to move from Home Premium to Professional, you will have that option. No need to reinstall your applications or backup your personal data.

Read the entire experience here

Resources

Windows Anytime Upgrade and Family Pack Pricing details revealed
Upgrading: Starting the Move to Windows 7 Release Candidate

Related

Dell Windows 7 Option Upgrade Program
More information on Windows 7: Pricing and Availability
Windows 7 Editions – More detailed information
Official: Microsoft Confirms Windows 7 Editions

 

Brandon Leblanc today discusses the much anticipated information about Windows 7 upgrade details: Windows Anytime Upgrade and Family Pack Licensing. Here is what he had to say:

Most people buy a PC preinstalled with the edition of Windows that meets their unique needs. However, for some customers their needs may change over time.

With Windows Anytime Upgrade (or WAU), we make it super easy and convenient for the small number of customers who’s PC needs evolve to need a higher edition of Windows 7.

There are a couple of specific situations where we think WAU will prove useful:

A customer may purchase a netbook thinking they would use primarily it for email. Over time, they find they are using that netbook as their primary every-day PC. That person decides they want their netbook to do more. If the netbook is running Windows 7 Starter (or Windows 7 Home Basic in select markets), WAU makes it super easy to upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium. Moving to Windows 7 Home Premium will allow that customer to take advantage of features such as Aero Peek and other enhanced functionality in the Windows Taskbar in Windows 7 such as Taskbar Previews. Desktop themes are also enabled and so is Remote Media Streaming.

With the Windows 7 release, Microsoft is introducing Family Pack licensing which entitles you to install the Home Premium edition on a total of 3 PC's. This is fantastic news for multiple PC homes. As Brandon notes, having multiple PC's on your home network running Windows 7 opens up a lot of rich capabilities, such as the super easy networking through HomeGroups, Media Streaming, efficient sharing of resources and a whole lot more.

Today, most homes have more than one PC in them. When you run Windows 7 on more than one PC on a home network, you can do more with features like HomeGroup. HomeGroup allows people to connect to PCs on their network and share files, music and photos with the whole family – easily. The Windows 7 Family Pack is an easy and affordable way to get all your PCs in your household running Windows 7 through licensing to install Windows 7 Home Premium on up to 3 PCs.

Cost:

The pricing for Windows 7 Anytime upgrades will vary depending on the edition you have installed on your PC, lets take a look:

• Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Home Premium: $79.99
• Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional: $89.99
• Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Ultimate: $139.99

Brandon also notes that Anytime Upgrade under the Windows 7 line up is much cheaper, by at least 12% in the US as compared to Vista pricing. As for he family pack licensing:

• $149.99 for 3 Windows 7 Home Premium licenses, that's a saving of $200 for 3 licenses.

I think its a fantastic deal that will encourage a lot of folks to upgrade and take advantage of all of the powerful capabilities built into Windows 7 that make it fun and easy to use. The performance of Windows 7 is exceptional, I have been running the RC on a AMD Sempron 512 MBs of RAM and I am very impressed by responsive and productive that PC is to use now.

Read the entire article here to learn all the details

Resources

Networking made easy with HomeGroups in Windows 7
Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade – Unlocking more benefits with less effort
Upgrading: Starting the Move to Windows 7 Release Candidate

Related

Dell Windows 7 Option Upgrade Program
More information on Windows 7: Pricing and Availability
Windows 7 Editions – More detailed information
Official: Microsoft Confirms Windows 7 Editions

 

Most people buy a PC preinstalled with the edition of Windows that meets their unique needs. However, for some customers their needs may change over time.

With Windows Anytime Upgrade (or WAU), we make it super easy and convenient for the small number of customers who’s PC needs evolve to need a higher edition of Windows 7.

There are a couple of specific situations where we think WAU will prove useful:

Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Home Premium: $79.99

A customer may purchase a netbook thinking they would use primarily it for email. Over time, they find they are using that netbook as their primary every-day PC. That person decides they want their netbook to do more. If the netbook is running Windows 7 Starter (or Windows 7 Home Basic in select markets), WAU makes it super easy to upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium. Moving to Windows 7 Home Premium will allow that customer to take advantage of features such as Aero Peek and other enhanced functionality in the Windows Taskbar in Windows 7 such as Taskbar Previews. Desktop themes are also enabled and so is Remote Media Streaming.

Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional: $89.99
Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Ultimate: $139.99*

* You’ll note that we’ve reduced the price of moving from Home Premium to Ultimate 12% in the US as compared to Vista pricing

Another case where WAU may come in handy is when a person wants the ability to connect to a business network (a “domain”). Using WAU to move up to Windows 7 Professional enables the customer to take advantage of the ability to join a domain and use Windows XP Mode to run older programs. When using WAU to move to Windows 7 Ultimate, you’ll get everything from the other editions plus BitLocker to keep your USB devices encrypted and secure and the ability to run your PC in any of 35 different languages (via Language Packs).

After Windows 7 is released to market on October 22nd, you will be able to buy a retail package that contains an upgrade key at a store near you for any of the 3 paths I highlighted above.

If you live in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK or the US (13 countries) – you will be able to purchase the upgrade from Microsoft online directly within Windows 7.

Whether you buy a WAU retail package from a store or online directly within Windows 7, the upgrade takes as few as ten minutes. This is because it only requires an upgrade key (no media). Your current programs, files, and settings will remain intact.

For a rundown of the Windows Anytime Upgrade experience, click here.

Now let’s talk about the Windows 7 Family Pack. Last week I confirmed we were doing a family pack for Windows 7 consisting of Windows 7 Home Premium for installation on up to 3 PCs.

Today, most homes have more than one PC in them. When you run Windows 7 on more than one PC on a home network, you can do more with features like HomeGroup. HomeGroup allows people to connect to PCs on their network and share files, music and photos with the whole family – easily. The Windows 7 Family Pack is an easy and affordable way to get all your PCs in your household running Windows 7 through licensing to install Windows 7 Home Premium on up to 3 PCs.

The Windows 7 Family Pack will be available starting on October 22nd until supplies last here in the US and other select markets. In the US, the price for the Windows 7 Family Pack will be $149.99 for 3 Windows 7 Home Premium licenses. That’s a savings of more than $200 for three licenses. This is a great value and we’re excited to be able to offer it to customers.

Favorite Primary Linux Distribution of Choice

Ubuntu (45%)
Honorable Mention
Debian (10%)

The Ubuntu phenomenon, even by Linux standards, is truly paradigm-shifting and it doesn’t appear that it will be tanking any time soon. In the 2008 Readers’ Choice Awards, we dubbed the ubiquitous Ubuntu “the big distro that did” for unexpectedly leaving its myriad rivals as mere dots in the rear-view mirror. In the 2009 tally, Ubuntu deserves an “Energizer Bunny Award” for winning the Favorite Primary Linux Distro category, increasing its popularity and becoming untouchable for the time being. Ubuntu and its related Kubuntu and Edubuntu siblings raised their vote tally from 37% in last year’s awards to 45% this year. At whose expense is Ubuntu gaining? Although Mandriva tumbled most dramatically from 14% to 2%, Fedora and Novell/SUSE hemorrhaged more than a few percentage points. Meanwhile, Red Hat, CentOS and Debian ticked up a few points from last year, the latter enough to warrant Honorable Mention with its 10% share of your vote.



Favorite Desktop Environment

GNOME (53%)
Honorable Mention
KDE (30%)

During the past year, GNOME has reached majority rule status, with 53% of you electing it your favorite desktop environment. This trend is despite the breakneck development of KDE 4 during the past year. Although GNOME garnered only a few more votes than it did in 2008, KDE’s vote count slipped as you’ve warmed to Xfce, Fluxbox and Enlightenment. The long and influential coattails of Ubuntu can only make any presidential candidate green with envy.



Favorite Web Browser

Firefox (87%)

Firefox takes first prize as both your Favorite Web Browser for 2009 and the most extreme “category crusher” of this competition. No other application (besides the competitor-less Apache) racked up a higher share of votes (87%) than Firefox, although OpenOffice.org wasn’t far behind. Who can argue, as Firefox keeps getting faster and accumulates more useful extensions? This year’s surprise gainer was the historically underappreciated Opera browser, which ratcheted up from 5% to 8% on the heels of its impressive 9.5 and 9.6 releases. The worthy Konqueror and the browsers based on the Firefox Gecko engine (for example, Flock and Epiphany) were left behind in the catchall “Other” category. How will this category look next year? Look for an inevitable battle royale if Google can deliver a polished Chrome for Linux in time for you to give it a test drive.



Favorite E-Mail Client

Mozilla Thunderbird (38%)
Honorable Mention
Gmail Web Client (31%)
Evolution (11%)

Congratulations to Mozilla Thunderbird for its third consecutive win in the Favorite EMail Client category with 38% of the vote. The “Holy how did that happen, Batman?” award, as well as Honorable Mention, go to the runner up, Gmail, which got 11% more of your votes than last year, while Thunderbird dropped 7%. Meanwhile, other non-Web based clients, Evolution and KMail, are ever more the favorites of fewer. Is the trend toward Web-based clients inexorable, or can the non-Gmails of the world find a formula to stanch the decline?



Favorite Office Program

OpenOffice.org (85%)

No news here, gang. OpenOffice.org, bolstered no doubt by its recent 3.0 release, retains its crown as your Favorite Office Program with the same share of your vote as last year, 85%. The alternatives, AbiWord and KOffice, each similarly continue to be the favorites of merely 3% of you. As with Firefox, there seems to be some sort of correlation between a program’s cross-platform characteristics (should any exist) and its category-crusher status. Honorable Mention for most definitive response in this category goes to “I hate all office programs”.

Source of Information : Linux Journal Issue 182 June.2009