Same here, I just simply can not find that altar anywhere!

MS-DOS 6.x on a quad core though? Why not try to slam it on an octo core Mac Pro? I mean...if you're going to go for silly...GO FOR SILLY! :-)

You could just pick up the OEM version for $99 at newegg.com or microcenter.

@CubeRat: Just call Newegg, they'll probably help you out. I ordered a TV and speaker on a card that I didn't know had a daily limit, had my order cancelled, the TV price increased, and I called them and they gave me the original TV price from my first order.

@Powerlurker: I haven't checked at school yet, but that is generally the price of Microsoft products at my school.

@Con Seannery: Me tooooo...I've had the 64-bit version since it was available on MSDN, around late August.

Yes, MSDNAA rocks! I've had Win 7 since just after it was RTM thanks to it. Some people don't realize, however, MSDNAA is just for departments of engineering, CS, IT, etc at universities (so not all college students are eligible). It's basically MSFT's way of getting you used to using their products so you can advocate for them once you enter the workforce (particularly true for software developers--they want you to love Visual Studio so that you can convince your company-to-be to license it).

Oh and...RIT represent!

I don't know much about upgrading OS's but I purchased a lap top that will come with the free upgrade. Anyone know how that will work when it arrives? Will it have to be used on the laptop? can I use it on my desktop instead? Can it be used on both or can these things only be installed on one computer and is it even worth the hastle? Any info would be appreciated from those in the know.

@Joe_Bloe: As a researcher that deals with P2P each and every day (researching P2P is my job!) 99% of the mainstream reports you hear about it are untrue. The 'community' is generally very proactive about dealing with such fakes. Don't have to take my word for it, though, MediaDefender's email leak 2 years ago showed they had problems getting fake torrents onto some of the biggest torrent sites, with them being completely shut out from one of them.

The Canadian show '22 minutes' even had a sketch about p2P last night, you can find it here

@Omir The Storyteller:

I managed to run a copy of the original Lotus 1-2-3 on a quad processor megasystem last year. That baby rocked!

Of course, the entire program was only like 120K in size.

Hence, 7.

Some stuff I can fix myself, this is not one of those problems.

Hence, yet again, 7.

Plus, 7 actually looks pretty decent.

My copy ships next Monday from Amazon. I did the pre-order and for $99.00 I get the Pro version. Amazon is also shipping it for free.

Making a decision to upgrade to 1 of 6 different versions is an issue that many Windows users face, that is a legitimate comment.

sammy_b apparently heard it's difficult upgrading to Windows 7. That's also what I heard, straight from the horse's (Microsoft) mouth actually. That if you're upgrading from Windows XP which many people seem to still be running, then you will experience growing pains similar to XP users upgrading to Vista. Also valid comments.

For the record, I have always used PC's and just got my Macbook and love it. Does that mean I'm an Apple fanboy? No. It just means I love my Macbook Pro. I still use a PC at work because yes, it is what most companies and people continue to use.

So unless you have a constructive comment like rickhamilton620, don't bother being a troll trying to cause issues.

@rickhamilton620: I have the RC? installed on my desktop dual boot with Windows Vista. I definitely think they did a good job with the "new OS" and I definitely feel it is what Vista should have been. It's more responsive, starts up and shuts down faster and doesn't use as much system resources which makes playing games a lot more fun and stable.

I agree with you, fresh installs are probably best for any system. Although when OS X Snow Leopard came out I just did an "Upgrade" because I was bed ridden in the hospital which made me not wanting to mess with it.

Some of my friends will do a fresh install of their OS every 3-6 months just to keep everything healthy. It does force you to back up your data and is probably worth doing it to get that best experience.

I don't really remember Windows 7's install process but I don't think it was terribly bad. I just have such an issue with all the different versions.

You mean $400 to start subscribing, and $300 every year to renew ... your prices are a bit off ...

Check the link you posted ;)

@Kimaroo - No Stars Upon Thars: Call your school's alumni office and see if they can set it up for you. I'm so old there was no email back then (although I did play Dungeons & Dragons on the Univac 1106). But I now have an .edu address as an alumnus. And the school lets us forward any mail to another account.

$15 at my university for Windows 7 Ultimate Epgrade Edition.

@phildogger: If your not coming from XP, Upgrading is pop in the disc simple. Like OS X's "archive and install" you can literally pop in the disc, answer a few simple questions (are you upgrading, etc.) and walk away. When you come back, your user accounts, documents, and apps will be right in Windows 7 for you.

Now usually, I personally recommend doing a clean install of any OS upgrade-both OS X and Window, as you usually get a smoother experience post upgrade with a fresh start. :)

"Windows 7 ISO Verifier Ensures Your Downloads Are Legit"
[lifehacker.com]

This is good, because I can't really afford the time or money to do this.

[technet.microsoft.com]

@AstroPig7: Yeah, but that's not the point. This system would go all the way to 11! Never mind that you probably couldn't make it see three of the processors, or that any game that used counter-based as opposed to time-based loops would be completely unplayable. That's not the point though. I want to do this because I can, not because it's a particularly good idea.

My sister is in college at the buffalo, NY. I got 3 copies of Windows XP professional for about $45 at the time. Windows Vista Ultimate upgrade- $20. If she remains there for as least another 1/2 year or so I should be able to take advantage of the student pricing one last time before she graduates.

Also adobe acrobat- $7

Adobe photoshop- $12

next year I have about $100 and am going... Shopping! After all since I am "on call technical support" this is the least she can do!

@W10002: Every OS Sucks

@lmarconi: Karmic Koala is out next week!

@Bearded Rapper: I secretly want to get a quad proc motherboard with about 4 GB of RAM and make the world's biggest, baddest DOS 6.3 machine. Boy, would that thing fly playing any game written prior to about 1995.

OK, so it's not such a secret any more.

You forgot "Work for Microsoft."

Same deal as digital river except you can get the retail versions (non-upgrade) if you want for the same $29.99 price. Home & Professional are included. If you want them to mail you the box copy it's only another $4 for shipping rather than the $13 for digital river. Retail Windows 7 Professional shipped in box for $37.43. All you need is a .edu email address. No verification (address, credit card, etc.), just the email address.

Please, no Apple fanboy comments needed. Some of us prefer PC, about 95% of us, actually.

@gStein: Same place I have been getting it, if you are a student try to get access to MSDNAA, my school gave me access just because I was an Electrical & Computer Engineer major, many schools will give you access to MSDNAA if you are in any field related to computers (CS, IT, EE, etc). MSDNAA will give you all versions of windows for free, and you can get a lot of different keys as the x86 and x86_64 versions are considered to be different which means you can have one of each for free.

[mister7.com]

There is a little link at the bottom of the order page (after you've verified the edu address) that says something like "does your school require you to join a domain? If so, click here for Windows 7 Professional"

Everyone who has access to this offer should go ahead and pick up the Professional option.

Yep that's the way I got Windows 7 Professional, legal, licensed and free. Best part is it was available for download about 2 months ago.

That's what I did. Ordered Professional 64-bit about a month ago from Digital River. One warning to people looking at this (though it probably doesn't matter much) is that they do not offer refunds. So once you buy the digital version, it's yours.

I always feel obligated to get the "Ultimate" Windows edition because of that shiny black box, but when I end up getting the Premium I feel like I"m missing.

It's not hard at all. I have Macs and PCs at home and like both for various reasons. The Win 7 install was easy, fast, and runs great on my two-year-old Dell.

I just copied my user folder to an external drive, formatted the hard drive (since I was moving from 32- to 64-bit), did a clean install and then copied my data back over. The Windows install took about 10 minutes; it took longer to copy my data to the external drive and then back again.

Various MS software at [www.dreamspark.com] if you have a valid .edu address.

Also check to see if your school has MSDNAA program. Again lots of free MS software. [www.msdnaa.net]

I was able to obtain Win 7 free at the last one.

I had preordered it from Newegg several months ago. The card I ordered it on has since been deactivated because it was lost. I forgot about that little bit and just received an email that my order was cancelled because they couldn't charge the card.
QQ

Thanks Consumerist!
Just FYI to the students, the offer for $29.99 is only available until Jan 3,2010.

re: #3, can I install that, and once I get my Ultimate Upgrade copy from Lenovo, convert to Ultimate without having to do a reinstall by changing serial or something?

I'll stick to my macbook, thanks.

Now, if only Windows didn't completely suck ...

Looks like the family pack is the best deal for my house.. I don't think I can get into my old .edu email anymore.. I tried about a month ago and it didn't work.

@rbb: I see the upgrade advertised as $99.98 by selecting a university that is part of the program (univ of Cal Berkley). It looks like your pricing will vary (if I make up a school I get the pricing you mentioned but the local high school shows 99.98 also).