Yep that's right. Us lucky people in Europe won't be getting windows 7. We're getting Windows 7E!
It will arrive in several different flavours, Home Basic, Home Premium, Starter, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate.
I suspect like me, Home Premium or Basic will do the job for most people. I've got no idea what Starter is, but professional, offers features like file encryption and an XP emulation mode. I assume Enterprise and Ultimate will have the same features. Professional and upwards will also offer backup tools. But there's more than enough backup apps floating around. So I doubt the average user will care.
So, what's the difference between Windows 7, and Windows 7E?
First of all, don't fall for the word "upgrade" it will be used a lot. This isn't what we are used too. It isn't going to be the typical upgrade system we all know and love. Even with the upgrade version, you still need to wipe your hard drive and start over from scratch. Losing all your program's, settings, photos, documents and everything else.
SO IF YOU GET THIS, BACK UP YOUR STUFF FIRST or you'll be in for a world of hurt.
The next huge difference is
NO INTERNET EXPLORER. That's right, Internet Explorer will NOT be included with Windows 7E, the good news is that if you are buying a new laptop with Windows 7E installed, Microsoft believe most vendors will pre-install IE or another web browser for you. But if you're looking to install Windows 7E yourself, download a web browser and shove it one a USB flash drive or something. Because if you hope to you know. access the internet, you're going to be in trouble if you don't.
This is because Microsoft apparently has a horrible monopoly over the web browser market, which is true enough. So regulators have forced Microsoft to drop the browser. But I have to wonder about this move. After all, the internet is an essential part of our daily lives. We’re past the point where anyone can reasonably run a computer without a web browser.
There will also be a Windows 7N that apparently doesn't come with Internet explorer or Windows Media player. But Windows 7E does come with windows media player. So that shouldn't affect us in Europe.
So are there any pluses for us Europeans?
Yes, it is a small one, unlike the rest of the world, everybody in Europe will get to install 7E on more than one machine. Providing you not running on more than one machine at a time. So if you own more than one machine, and like to hop between them, you won't have to purchase multiple licenses.
Some more good news is that anyone buying a new machine with Vista installed after 22th October, will be allowed to get a copy of Windows 7E free of charge. Be warned though. This offer will be run through your PC vendor. You won't be able to phone Microsoft up for a free disc. There's already talk that some vendors are intending to charge you for this. It may be postage and packaging, or they may charge more. There's nothing stopping them from doing it. So if you are looking to buy a Vista Machine after the 22nd October, intending to benefit from a free upgrade. You might want to ask the vendor what their plans are for that.
Prices
£50 -- if you pre-order 7 E Home Premium between 15 July and 14 August (while stocks last).
£100 -- if you pre-order 7 E Professional between 15 July and 14 August (while stocks last).
£80 -- for 7 E Home Premium edition from 14 August until at least 2010.
£190 -- for 7 E Professional edition from 14 August until at least 2010.
£150 -- for 7 E Home Premium edition from 1 January 2010 onwards.
£220 -- for 7 E Professional edition from 1 January 2010 onwards.
So things to bare in mind:
If you have applications installed, have lost the disc, or can't download it for whatever reason. then you will lose these applications.
Windows 7E is based on Vista technology. Much of the drivers will be the same, but not all of them. So it's worth checking with your hardware manufactures first. Just to make sure.
They claim faster shutdown and start up times. But Vista, XP and just about every OS before has claimed the same thing. So I wouldn't pay that too much attention if I where you.
No web browser, so keep one handy if you hope to play on the net.
Many things about windows 7 that they are advertising as new features are not. For instance I saw an advert telling you that with the windows start menu search bar you can find anything you want quickly. This is true, but it's not a windows 7 exclusive feature. Windows Vista introduced that.
All in all. Windows 7E seems in keeping with Microsoft's typical style. Invent a new technology OS, which was vista. Then tart it up, and release it as a new OS. Windows 2000 was ugly, windows XP looked more attractive. But in reality it was only Windows 5.1 while windows 2000 was Windows NT 5. Whilst hey are calling this one Windows 7 or 7E, 7N, I'm not totally convinced there's enough in it to justify a whole 1.0 upgrade. They did the same with Windows 98 and Windows ME. Windows 95 OEM 2 featured 32-bit hard drive support. 98 was basically 95 with extra programs and themes shoved on top of it. ME was the same again. 98, with even more bloat. So don't expect Windows 7 to be an up from the ground rebuild.
I dare say I'll need to get a copy to help troubleshoot peoples problems with the new OS. But if I wasn't doing this job. To be honest I'd stick with Vista. Which runs very well for me. And wait for Windows 8, or whatever they plan to call it.
