Sunday, October 25, 2009

Windows 7 Launch Shafts Some College Students

The very people who are most likely to switch over to a Mac:

College students who took advantage of a "deal too sweet to pass up" have run into a bit of trouble.

The $29 electronic version of Windows 7 Home Edition sold for Microsoft (MSFT) through Digital River (DRIV) doesn't seem to install properly on some 32-bit Vista machines.

link

9 comments:

  1. Scott McCall1:58 PM

    and because you have to restore your entire PC.....it's causing issues cause now college students have locked up their computers during the "upgrade"

    time to convert to MAC!

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  2. Sensationalist story like most of your posts. The problem occurred only when upgrading from a 32 bit version of XP or Vista to a 64 bit version of 7. The installer for the 64 bit version was written as a 64 bit application that would only run in a 64 bit environment. I having upgraded from 32 bit to 32 bit can tell you that the experience was rather simple and without error. Luckily people figured out a work-around the same day for the people effected and supposedly Microsoft and the company they outsourced their distribution to are trying to figure out an alternative solution. The most important detail that seems lost on most people is it doesn't render your computer unusable it simply won't upgrade itself leaving you with whatever you started with.

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  3. Wow, I quote from a techie source without adding commentary of my own, and it's "sensationalist". I think it's your biases, not mine, that are showing, Ronnie.

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  4. C'mon Ronnie, most of the posts here are sensational.
    That's a ridiculous observation.

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  5. It's not entirely your fault that this post and some of your other posts are sensationalistic. A post can only be as good as it's source material allows, and my complaint was more over the fact that our modern news ecosystem is so full of false, misleading, and/or ignorant information. Yet you also hold some responsibility since selective quoting can be just as sensationalistic as biased wording. The article you linked to contains some of the specifics that really explain the issue, yet you chose the 2 paragraphs with the least specific information. I'm sorry if I was harsh but I'm just tired of seeing things get reported on poorly, picked up by blogs, and quickly losing all relevant information in the process.

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  6. I understand your point Ronnie. But on the other hand, how could a major software developer not take into account the possibility that a 32-bit operating system owner might decide to upgrade to the 64-bit? Not taking into account computer manufacturer's XXX model idiosyncrasies is understandable, but not supporting one of your own major software versions is a no-brainer.

    To me, this situation just seems sensationally dumb.

    And for the record, I am a die-hard PC user.

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  7. Anonymous10:31 PM

    What's all this about simply "converting to Mac"? You can't just dump OSX on PC hardware, you have to buy Apple's hardware preloaded with the OS. Why abandon your PC with the hardware still perfectly intact and spend tons of money on a Mac?

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  8. Anonymous1:40 AM

    Wow. Sounds like great fun and true to the spirit of those who profess a love for computer "tinkering" that can't be found on the Mac platform. A Mac installer would overbearingly not let you try to install something that wouldn't work. Of course, there's only one edition of each MacOS upgrade to install to begin with. Can't even tinker with that decision! Sheesh!

    If you're more interested in getting things done than tinkering with a machine, you're already using a Mac.

    And there's never been a better time to switch.

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  9. Ronnie blabs a lot.

    I would never consider a Mac because I despise Apple and their operationg system. It's gaudy and hard to maneuver.

    On top of that, if one owns any Apple hardware, one is forced to install Apple's software on their computer in order to use the product. The software uses disc space and slows my computer down too much to buy anything that is not completely compatible with Windows and PCs.

    I have always used PCs and Windows and never had a problem that I couldn't fix. Blame the user, not the product.

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