
Windows 8 Pro upgrade to jump from $40 to $200 on Feb. 1 - christopherorr
http://venturebeat.com/2013/01/18/windows-8-pro-upgrade-pricing/
======
diminoten
Damn; to be fully honest, this may motivate me into upgrading, which I find to
be an interesting reaction, given how I had, previously, no plans to upgrade.

Obviously this is intentional, but I am just surprised by how effective it is
on me.

~~~
ghshephard
Quick question, without searching - what's the driving "Must Have" feature in
Windows 8 for you?

My OS X Lion System finally (finally!) stabilized around 10.7.5, stopped
kernel panicking, beach balling, and just outright hanging. I'm going to wait
at least a year from now on before upgrading my OS, and then, only if there is
some "Must Have" feature in the new platform.

I've got a Windows XP Desktop to the left of me, on a January 2004 Precision
650 - it runs pretty much flawlessly; no blue screens/hangs or other problems
in two+ years. I use it mostly for outlook+lookout, Microsoft Visio, VMware
Workstation - Zero need to upgrade - So I've been able to skip Vista, Windows
7 and now, apparently, Windows 8. About the only thing I've done is go through
two monitor upgrades (Started with a 45 Pound 21" CRT, went to a (considered
extravagant back then) 21" LCD - it's now sporting a Dell 30".

I'm honestly interested in knowing how long I'll be able to keep this desktop
running. (Clearly, the $40 to $200 jump is having no impact on me)

~~~
mrng
> My OS X Lion System finally (finally!) stabilized > around 10.7.5, stopped
> kernel panicking, beach balling, > and just outright hanging.

May I ask what you've been doing? Old Unix/NT guy here (Unix from 1988, NT
from 1994), using OS X since 2008. Never had such a problem with my 17" MB Pro
(early 2008)

~~~
Osmium
Just wanted to second this. Regular kernel panics = something seriously wrong.
Either a hardware fault, or a bad kext or something. If anyone reading this
has problems with OS X and stability, try running this:

<http://khiltd.com/software/consultants_canary>

It'll give you a list of every "non-standard" thing you have installed (e.g.
kernel extensions), and between that and log files, it might help pinpointing
the issue.

Apologies for being off-topic, it just seemed to be perverse to me to avoid
upgrading because for stability reasons, when the new version should generally
be _more stable_ not less.

~~~
ghshephard
I think we can all agree that 10.6.8 was delightfully stable, and the first
few versions of 10.7 were a bit of a clusterf*ck. My pain just went on a bit
longer than most people. Lesson learned.

------
desireco42
I really don't know where they clone you guys, but aside from a bunch of macs
and some linux, I do have windows machine, on which I spent many happy hours
(playing and working).

I upgraded to win8 when it came out, I can't imagine anyone visiting
HackerNews being confused by Win8 interface, even businessy lean startup
types. Everything so far was good and while I switch to desktop mostly, Metro
interface is fine and makes me want to get a tablet (since I have quite a few
already, this will not happen soon, again ipads).

My Win machine is at least 3 years old, it feels with W8 way more snappy then
my iMac 27" that I got last year. In fact, I am using it now because StarCraft
II on iMac got iffy and screen ... well it crashed pretty much.

Again, I don't know why you have such hard time with Win, it works really
well. Feel free to ask me any questions. I do spend most of my time on linux
and osx, but still...

[edit] Reason why I like win8 so much is that it is modern interface and how
future interfaces will be. That is why so many of you feel resistance to it,
because it is new.

~~~
gnud
I'm sure I could get used to win8 quite quickly. I'll probably install it next
time I upgrade my windows PC. But admit it - you had no idea how to shut down
your computer in win8 until someone told you.

~~~
yuhong
I still remember the controversy when Vista changed the power button on the
start menu to sleep by default.

~~~
progrock
This still gets me every time.

------
progrock
Don't MS make it agonising. To the point that I almost can't be bothered. Have
you read all the twisted workarounds that people are doing to get legitimate
upgrades?

I have Vista 32 on my laptop (that is doing nothing at the moment), I want a
64bit version of windows. I'd like to go from Vista 32 to Windows 8 with an
upgrade. But that isn't really supported. I can go from Vista 32 to Vista 64
-> Windows 8, but it's a hassle. Lenovo have pulled their images, I have no
disk images of Vista, it goes on. I've read loads of people going through
similar install/reinstalls.

Windows should just provide different arch versions of the ISO, that they
update regularly. That you can download any old place, and place it on USB/DVD
whatever. Then just use your paid for product key. Simple?

I'm trialing the evaluation version. I've already broken the Desktop Internet
Explorer. And I've crashed the OS twice. It feels like a poor man's Unity!
I've windows that I can't view in their entirety on the screen, and there's no
way I can move them to get to the controls. I can't easily get an overview of
what's installed (no simple menu). And there doesn't seem like any intuitive
way to get to the control panel. Plus it's hard to know what's clickable and
what isn't.

There are a few nice touches, but I'd personally like to turn Metro off. I've
got no want for it. I was hoping it would be a little more polished than this.
But it feels odd.

I'm trying to justify the hassle of the £25 upgrade. Price it over £100, no
thanks, I'll be at the mercy of Ubuntu for another decade. This was a chance
for MS to woo someone that hasn't really touched their OSs for thirteen years.
I've tried to meet them in the middle.

It shouldn't be this hard.

------
vividmind
That's an interesting move for a failed product. I have no plans of moving to
Windows 8 at all after watching a number of reviews on youtube.

~~~
dennmart
While it's fine to not upgrade, especially if you already have a stable setup,
not giving Windows 8 a chance based on YouTube reviews seems to be a bit
unfair. Most conversations I've had with Windows users who I've spoken to that
haven't moved to Windows 8 can be summed up like this:

    
    
      Me: Do you plan to upgrade to Windows 8?
      Them: No way. Windows 8 is horrible!
      Me: Oh, so when did you use it?
      Them: Not yet... I read a lot of people bitching about it online, though.

~~~
orionblastar
I did a Windows 8 Beta Test and Windows 8 Developer test and had Windows 8
Enterprise RTM for a 90 day demo. It didn't seem to want to run half the
software that worked with Windows 7, and the Windows Store didn't seem to have
a lot of apps worth the purchase price. I've tried Windows 8 and I have family
and friends who bought a Windows 8 Machine and now regret it.

I think the youtube videos are based on that.

Windows 8 is the New Coke of Windows operating systems, worse than Windows
Vista and Windows ME combined.

~~~
jwoah12
Anyone else had problems running Windows 7 apps on Windows 8? I thought it was
supposed to be almost completely backwards compatible?

~~~
leviathant
I upgraded to Windows 8 pro about a month ago, despite my concerns that some
of my more eclectic software & hardware might not make the jump (given prior
experience with major Windows revisions).

Specifically, I'm running an M-Audio ProjectMix I/O multichannel
soundcard/mixing desk through a PCI-e Firewire card, for which I record
multitrack audio and produce video. I'm running two monitors and a 1080p HDTV
off a single ATI Eyefinity card. I've also got a pile of more common software
- an old version of Photoshop, some webdev crap I test with for building out
my hobby sites.

The installation couldn't possibly have gone smoother. I downloaded the
upgrade, which ran and had me on Win8 Pro in about a half hour, probably less.
I remember it going very quickly. I was upgrading from Win7 home.

------
porter
I set up Windows 8 for our grandma's new computer 2 nights ago. I run Ubuntu
and OSX but also use Windows 7 on occasion. I've read all the bad reviews, but
I was interested in actually trying it out for myself. The new UI is horrible.
Some problems I encountered:

\- IE hides the URL bar by default and makes you right click near the bottom
of the browser to show it (this took me 5 min to figure out).

\- We backed up all the email on Outlook Express from the old machine only to
find that Windows 8 Mail couldn't import it.

\- Windows would occasionally (not by my doing) switch back to the old style
desktop mode. The old desktop mode was great at first, until I realized there
wasn't a start button and I had to use both the new UI and the old desktop to
get stuff done.

This is just a small sampling. To be fair I upgraded to the new Ubuntu layout
a few months ago and found it to be almost as frustrating (almost). But then I
switched to the old style desktop and everything was back to normal again.
Bottom line? Grandma hates it and wants her old computer back.

~~~
derefr
> The old desktop mode was great at first, until I realized there wasn't a
> start button

There's a start button, it just doesn't look like anything. Throw your cursor
to the bottom-left corner and click. (And the little "show desktop" widget is
still in the bottom-right corner as well.)

~~~
genwin
Make sure it's the one pixel in the very bottom left corner, or it'll just
make the desktop icon that displays go away. And once on the desktop you still
can't do anything; there's no start button or menu or anything. I guess if I
spend a weekend on Google I could figure out the magical secret. Seems to me
it should be a bit more intuitive than that.

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jotto
i used this guy's hack to get Windows 8 for $15, no official license, but hey,
no prev license required either - supposedly lasts until jan 31

[http://everymantech.com/post/40133879737/windows-8-for-15-no...](http://everymantech.com/post/40133879737/windows-8-for-15-no-
previous-license-required)

~~~
nemo1618
I used this too. I'm thinking of wiping my machine and reinstalling everything
in a few months; I guess I should buy another key now while they're cheap and
hold on to it!

------
Skoofoo
It's pretty sad that we have so many talented individuals devote so many man
hours to completely free operating systems, and yet corporations like
Microsoft still get away with dangling carrots in front of us like this.

The free software movement needs to get its act together.

------
sixothree
I am running Windows 8 on my home desktop. I'm really surprised at how
unstable it is. Sometimes after entering my password I am presented with a
black screen, sometimes I am presented with the desktop but with nothing
pinned to taskbar and windows key and corners do nothing. Sometimes I when I
shut down it just sits at desktop.

This is a machine that had no such problems with Windows 7. I've uninstalled
virtually every program that could possibly cause the problems I experience.
The only thing left to uninstall is Windows 8. I will not miss it.

~~~
dangrossman
Sounds like a driver issue. I upgraded in October and haven't had a single
crash, freeze or stutter.

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robomartin
I bought and upgrade and installed it in a VM. At this point I only use it to
check for web development issues with ie10. In that context it works just
fine. No issues whatsoever. I had criticized the UI at the time preview came
out. Now I find that after become aware of a couple of keyboard commands it
really isn't that bad. Again, keep in mind that my use case is very, very
limited in scope.

------
xradionut
I have multiple keys available through my MSDN subscription. Only 2 are being
used for VM test machines. I have no desired to actually use Windows 8 as a
primary OS, (yes, I tried running it for a couple of weeks), Windows 7 and
Ubuntu fill that role.

------
nickpp
Actually the current upgrade price is so low that it is worth to just buy it
and leave the install for a later date... or never?!

~~~
orionblastar
I bought two $40 upgrades of Windows 8 Pro, haven't installed them yet. I
figure my son and I might need them in the future sometime. Mostly for video
games. I switched to Ubuntu 12.10 for myself and my son still uses Windows 7.

My main Laptop runs Ubuntu and my custom built PC runs a dual-boot of Windows
7 and Ubuntu. I need Windows 7 for Turbo Tax and some other software that
won't run under WINE.

BTW I got Windows 7 Ultimate from a Microsoft Developer event for free. No
such deals for developers when Windows 8 came out, or maybe I missed it?

------
yuhong
There should also be a Home version that should be cheaper.

~~~
leviathant
I was running Windows 7 Home edition (I'd bought a new computer in July) and
the upgrade to Windows 8 pro was $15. That's about as cheap as a major
operating system upgrade comes.

