New Zealanders to miss out on big Windows 7 discounts

Perhaps Ben Green could explain for us the disparity v-a-v US/NZ prices. It costs no more to distribute the product here than in the US - if the Yanks can have it for an introductory half price, why not NZers? C'mon Ben, is it just because you can?

Moore's Law has nothing to do with software, and thus nothing to do with the price of Windows 7 or any other Microsoft software.

It's easy... dont buy it unless the price is right - the current versions (XP and Vista) do the job and there is nothing compelling in 7 although it does seem to run quicker which is nice. If nobody buys then supply and demand kicks in... they need to sell it so they must promote it to us... if you are thinking of upgrading... then wait

YEAH, the ANZACS get shafted by MS again. We cover their ass in the wars and the yanks shaft us over and over, no surprise there.

M$ did the same thing with Vista. they gave a massively discounted upgrade to home users but only in North America,

I'm disgusted and I've spent a fortune in the last month switching to Mac - a beautiful macBook and a 2nd hand G5. Although Apple are up to the same tricks, Special North American deal of $9.95 for Snow Leopard.

But the full price of Snow Leopard is only US$29, so I'll get over it.

As soon as somebody writes a Linux version of Evernote I'll be dumping Macs too.

Ubuntu rocks!

I agree with Jake. If you dont need to run games, there is no reason for you to not give Ubuntu a go. The name may sound strange, and the thought of running Linux may be scary, but the Ubuntu team have done a tremendous job of making their operating system as user friendly and as smooth an experience as they possibly can. All the confusing, high level configuration is now automated for you - all you need to do is click go in most cases.

I would even dare to say that its even easier and more hassle free than anything Microsoft has ever released. It is also FAR more secure and bug-free, and if problems do occur, updates are released by the community within a few days, rather than the months that often occur with Microsoft products.

And if thats not good enough, you can even install Ubuntu inside Windows, just like a regular application - so you dont even need to get rid of Windows to test it out.

I highly, highly recommend it! Go to http://www.ubuntu.com/ to download the CD image, burn it to a blank CD, then follow the instructions on the CD to install under Windows. Couldnt be easier.

In fact, the only downside to Ubuntu is that applications designed for Windows dont run under it - but that said, there are usually identical clones that work just as well, if not better. However, major commercial games are not often developed for Linux, which is the major factor limiting uptake of the operating system. If you are not a gamer, however, it is a suprisingly wonderful experience - and free to use, forever.

It would be helpful to readers if you were specific about your gripe. In the last year or two Linux distros have made huge advances in usability.

I've installed it on 2 of my grandchildren's PCs and they love it. If games aren't a big deal to you and you're not tied to M$ Office or Adobe's CS4 products, then Linux, particularly the Ubuntu 9.04 distro, is an excellent and trouble free OS.

If you think you need Win 7 then Use RC1 until that runs out.
It gives you almost a year for MS to soften the pricing

I play games as well as develop for the Microsoft platform, so having windows is a must for me.

I'm running the RC at the moment, hopefully the prices will come down ($80 would have been awesome).

But what ever happens i'll need to get it anyway, I wouldn't want to go back to Vista after using Windows 7 for so long.