I had the opportunity to spend some quality time with my daughter at the local outlet of the nation’s largest retailer (I will not mention the name – but you all know about the little company out of Arkansas). While we were waiting for her prescription to be ready at the pharmacy we decided to walk around – actually Katelyn could not sit still, so we HAD to get up and walk around.
While wandering the electronic area (yes, I’m a geek). I noticed that the display of four laptops. Of the four – two or three were labeled with “Windows 7”. But, something did not look right. I have had Windows 7 on hand since late January. So, I have seen the interface – very much like Vista with a few changes. And what they said was Windows 7 just did not look right. Being the geek that I am, I ran winver (Windows Version) and sure enough it was Windows Vista Home Premium – NOT Windows 7. How can W*****t display a “Windows 7” Laptop that is running Windows Vista? I am sure that someone from corporate sent signage to display and someone locally did what they were told and put the signage on the laptop that was already on the display. But still if you are going to label something – label it correctly.
I also saw a interesting product on the Windows 7 upgrade display. For about $120 you can get a single license upgrade to Windows 7 Home. They also had a “3 User Family Pack Upgrade” – three licenses in a single box for $30 more ($150). This gives the home user an opportunity to upgrade their multiple machines for a low per machine price ($30 each). This is for a limited time, but it is an awesome idea. This is much like the Microsoft Office Home & Student 2007 (which cost $150 – less than half the cost of Microsoft Office 2007 Standard), which is a license to install Office Home & Student on three PCs. Which means a family that has 3 computers at home (like me – I have more at the office) can upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium and install Office Home & Student 2007 on ALL of their machines for $60 each. Fantastic!
Microsoft Office for Home & Students 2007 is a great buy. It includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. OneNote is of interest because it is a great way to get and stay organized. You create notebooks and pages for organizing information. You can print to the notebooks, add web pages, sound files, and graphics (photos and illustrations). I just think it is cool. Lots of templates are available to create special project notebooks.
So, kudos to Microsoft for not being the greedy, money grubbing giant we have come love and hate. And anti-kudos for W****** for displaying Windows Vista machines as Windows 7 machines.
__________________
James W. McKeand
The Microsoft name and its other product names are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries.
