Poll: Which version of Windows 7 do you plan to purchase?

[Tunney]

Yes, but none that cost as much or as complex as Windows.

I'm failing to see how that makes a difference. The complexity is factored into the price already. There's nothing in the complexity of the software that stops licenses being sold in bulk at a discount. That's how it's sold the OEMs and large organisations.

They don't need to. Their retail sale are a miority compared to OEM sales.

Don't you think that offering a family license bundle makes sense though? Does Microsoft really want people using older, less secure versions of Windows to spread viruses and generally giving Microsoft a bad name? A family license would go a long way to resolving this issue.

 

[setter]

Home premium, i wouldnt need the features in ultimate.

 

[HangTime]

Then they won't be losing much money by doing a discounted family-license. It seems like a good way to 'mop up' all the old XP machines kicking around at home. These are machines people wouldn't normally bother shelling out for a new OS for.

Indeed, but that's probably due in part to the fact that:

a) Many people probably don't see the need to change their OS, they just want mail, web, IM, office etc which their current one probably does fine
b) Some of those older machines might not have the necessary grunt to be running a modern OS

My dad runs XP and I can't see him changing from that until he buys a new computer, even if some kind of discounted license was available.
My wife has Vista Business 32bit and again, despite me slowly coverting her into a computer geek, that'll be staying on there forever.