Posts by Emily Barrett74

Ryan Alvarez2 said:...
That is quite obviously down to the manufacturer. This is precisely why I prefer purchasing gear from established brands that actually bother to support their products properly.
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If you didn't find my first sentence questionable, then my apologies.
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I am in total agreement that they have gone overboard with the OS pricing; realistically, it should sit somewhere around $50, but clearly, neither you nor I get a vote in that matter. Regardless, most people around here simply buy a brand-new computer when they want to perform an upgrade anyway. You can pick up a laptop for about $400 these days, and then the price climbs depending on what specs you demand.

I haven't seen anyone clearing Microsoft products off the shelves yet. (Actually, if anything, the shelves stay just as full as ever 🙂)

Windows 7 Pro, Enterprise, and Ultimate offer XP mode for computers equipped with hardware virtualization. (essentially a virtual XP machine)

You can download the file for free, and the installation takes roughly 10 minutes (after one reboot).

Give it a shot and see if your card functions within XP mode.

I tested this last night, which I believe I mentioned previously.

All five. 😉

For what it's worth, that virtualization feature never really clicked for me back on Windows Vista, though I suppose I could give it another go.
Ultimately, I think I will just opt for a newer USB TV tuner. It's the path of least resistance and might offer better image quality since it's already a given—besides, the OS is free (for now).😍

And yes, back to that price again... sure, $100-$150 would be acceptable, but how can I justify letting distributors worldwide gouge customers with double the price? It is impossible to believe that the entire markup goes to the local dealer; it leaves me suspecting that Microsoft is somehow skimming extra revenue this way to offset their low margins back home.
It reminds me irresistibly of how major telecom companies and banks operate in the US compared to other regions—charging much higher rates to citizens here than they do in their home countries.
Perhaps it is just the old adage: "Small market, big scams." But that is a conversation for another time.

B.T.W., you cannot exactly call W. Terratec an unknown entity. I own their 5.1 speaker set, for instance, and I consider them to be one of the more high-quality firms on the market.

Ryan Alvarez2 said:The answer to your question is simple—everyone who didn't want to deal with the headache that was Windows Vista...
As for the codec situation, I don't see what part of this is confusing to you. Did you honestly expect Microsoft to provide official support for every single third-party codec out there?! 🙄

So far, I haven't encountered any piece of hardware where I couldn't get the drivers to work (I’ve got a roughly 3-year-old Dell laptop with a Core 2 duo T7500, 2GB of RAM, and a 320GB SATA drive, running an ATI Mobile 1400, and everything works perfectly; my desktop at home is even better and hasn't had a single issue, not even with RAID)...
And no, I don't support Microsoft's pricing, but surely we can agree that there's a free alternative available through various Linux packages—Ubuntu is quite compelling at the moment.

Regarding current prices here in the USA, we're looking at $139.99 for Windows 7 Pro 64 bit OEM, $99.99 for Home Premium and $179.99 for the Ultimate version.

I think we had a bit of a misunderstanding, pal! I wasn't asking you for anything, nor am I confused. I was simply stating my opinion on the forum. My apologies if you felt compelled to lecture me. 🙄

When I brought up drivers and hardware, I was specifically referring to an issue with external peripherals (specifically a digital TV tuner card via the PCMCIA slot)! So, it's perfectly understandable that you aren't experiencing the same problem.

The fact that Linux is free is a whole different conversation entirely.
My point was about something that remains outrageously overpriced while still being riddled with bugs and flaws. You cannot compare that to Linux. Not even close.

And now, we move on to a completely different topic: how a price in the USA can jump from $179.99 to something absolutely astronomical when it reaches other parts of the world$573!?!

That isn't even a question. It's just a sad statement of fact regarding the absurd world we live in!
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And who on earth is actually going to shell out that astronomical price tag!? 🤔

The primary issue is that this OS hasn't escaped the sins of its predecessors; you're still dealing with instability when running third-party software, and even its own native applications (take Media Player, for instance). As for the lack of support for various audio formats, let's not even go there. It forces you back into that endless, tedious cycle of hunting down codecs and plugins just to get something like FLAC to work. It is frankly unacceptable!

Furthermore, the way they completely ignore slightly older hardware—like DVB-T TV tuner cards for laptops—by failing to provide drivers is an astonishingly amateurish oversight.
While they've integrated most drivers directly into the OS, a huge chunk of users are left without any support at all. This is especially true with manufacturers who couldn't care less about a product that's even a year or two old because their only priority is pushing the latest model. It’s a cycle that repeats indefinitely....

Let's be honest: while Windows 7 is certainly more polished and significantly faster than Windows Vista, none of that justifies the cost. And then, of course, we have those infamous patches 🙄
Therefore, anyone foolish enough to buy an original copy should be prepared to immediately start patching the system the moment installation is complete. It's the exact same experience as someone using a free version!

It is all quite predictable and has been seen many times before... Boring and overpriced. After all these years, billions in lost revenue, and a very well-retired Bill, "free" is the only fair price for 7.👍