Microsoft to offer Windows 7 Family Pack

Posted on Thursday, July 02 2009 @ 19:40 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck

ZD Net spotted Microsoft has plans to release a Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack that allows you to install the operating system on three computers in your household, similar to the family packages offered by Apple.

I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that Microsoft prices the Family Pack at $189, which is $10 less than Apple’s Family Pack (although Apple’s license is good for five Macs in a single household).

By the way, these same terms are also contained in the license agreement for Windows 7 Home Premium E (the one sold in Europe, sans Internet Explorer), as well as the N, K, and KN Home Premium versions, which are also deliberately gutted of one or more features to satisfy antitrust authorities. The Family Pack language is not included in the license agreement for any other Windows 7 edition.

About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.

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Re: Microsoft to offer Windows 7 Family Pack
by Anonymous on Friday, July 03 2009 @ 15:19 CEST

They should match Apple and offer it for 5. Figure 2 adults and 2.5 kids, many of whom all have pc's and you really don't cover it with a 3 license system.

If such a system were to come in an upgrade pack, there might finally be a motivation to move all the PC's in the house up to Win 7. And I'm sure I'm far from alone in this. Many folks have older pc's that have the hardware to run a more modern OS, but for cost or compatibility reasons, they get left running something older. MS might even do itself a favor with this kind of thing by getting more pc's off the old stuff and thus shifting support needs to the newer OS. Hard to be certain of that, but it's certainly a likelihood.

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