Microsoft offers Windows XP users $100 off new Windows 8 PCs | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft offers Windows XP users $100 off new Windows 8 PCs

thenextweb.com

32 pointstweakz40 comments

Interesting switch tactic, possibly could be expanded into MS Store discounts for showing Android, iOS, and Mac OS.

Apple stores will transfer your PC docs to a Mac, I think for free via Personal Setup. Will MS stores do this too?

Is there really not corresponding service that PC stores provide?

Perhaps that's a pain point that MS really needs to step up - i.e., help vendors selling Windows PCs to provide this service with some first-party cert or standards that a customer can use to feel more comfort around?

I still have some of the XP CD and the Windows XP certificate. Do they count as proof of XP owner?

I think they would be better off offering Win7 at discounted price. My wife asked me to install Ubuntu on her new laptop after short experiment with Win8 and now she is also trying to convince her very untechnical parents to switch from Win XP to Ubuntu.

I understand Microsoft's concern but stuff like this will not help. Take my neighbor for example, I'm quite sure he will still be using his old computer until it breaks, happily running Windows XP with no idea that the support or updates (that he never have installed anyway) has ended, people like him doesn't understand what it's all about and therefore doesn't care. All I can do is to tell him that it's time for an upgrade but he will insist to keep on using it (at least I managed to install Firefox and Avast on his computer a couple of years ago).

It would be fine to use antique computers, if they just weren't networked. Like the old 486sx running DOS in the labs at my alma mater.

Although the air gap was a pain in the butt. Who ever thought I would be buying floppies in 2011.

Only available in US and Canada, though.

And the Apple store near me was full as I went past today (Birmingham UK). Nice to know Microsoft are not really interested in us.

It's likely legal stuff, when stuff isn't available in the UK or another foreign market, it's not that they 'don't care' it's that they simply haven't worked out all the details, or simply can't.

The EU has a completely different set of laws than the US does, so promotions need to be rolled out separately.

Looking at the store - it's frustrating how it seems like HP is the only company that makes the kind of machines I want to buy, and I loathe HP hardware.

Does HP actually make anything in their products other than the case?

Laptop motherboards are usually custom designed for the OEM's design, although sometimes that's contract work.

Might need to scrounge around for my old XP license...

Were you already going to purchase a new windows PC? Is your time worth so little that you would look for an XP license and install it to something and drag it into a b&m store to save $100 on a windows PC from the microsoft store?

Most geeks have one tech-toy they're contemplating buying at any given moment. If a $100 discount is enough to push them over? It's absolutely worth 20 minutes to rummage through your bin and find that old box you kept for spare parts. My time ain't free, but it's sure worth $100 for 20 minutes of rummaging.

scoff Your time is worth a pitiful $500/hour to you? ;)

pitful? What job pays that? If you manage to find a job that pays that amount you have $960,000 yearly salary.

I'm just poking fun at some of the people who swagger about on here, boasting their hourly rates.

$300 ;), (60/20) * 100

Or about 0.5267BTC wait 0.612BTC no wait 0.5267 again :D

Why did I think an hour had 100 minutes? It wasn't even that early in the morning.

yes

Heck I've got two old laptops with practically dead batteries. I don't use them at all. Both have XP licenses; though I ran them with Linux, I since reinstalled Windows on one so it could serve as my "sacrificial Windows machine." I doubt I could even get $100 for them on Ebay. If I wanted a new computer anyway, then absolutely I would take them to the MS store and get the $100 if they had some decent machines in the deal.

I don't think there is a physical Microsoft store anywhere near me. There are 3 Apple Stores within an hour though.

Too bad selected machines cost at least 599$, I'd get an Asus T100 for my mother asap otherwise.

This is a bad deal. Don't buy windows 8 even if its free. Its such a big step backwards.

Windows 8 is a big step backwards from Windows XP?

For some use cases, it certainly is.

I'm extremely regretful of having installed it at the family law firm... I had to customize it a lot for it not to interfere with the normal business workflow, and it still manages to botch things. Many business users don't want anything to do with a touch screen interface, I still can't understand why it wasn't "opt-out".

This is kind of like getting the "Windows tax" refund. Neat.

Glad I kept that ThinkPad T43!

No wait... No Microsoft stores in the UK.

Microsoft has stores? I honestly didn't know that. Did know of Apple stores, but they also sell hardware instead of just Microchip Software.

Microsoft sells the Surface family, and a large collection of peripherals.

I once passed a microsoft store. It is a place of silent contemplation, where every once in a while a lone shopper will be stranded and forced to lay hands on a thousand surfaces before finding their way back from where they came.

They also have an altar to the spirit of Kinect, with a mat upon which it is suggested to dance out your prayers. They are good for morning tai-chi.

Its a sad sad place. They are also strategically placed near apple stores which makes it even sadder. The apple stores are full and brimming with activity. The ms stores are almost always empty.

I live right near an Apple store in Surrey, UK. I rarely see anyone buying anything - it's people playing with things.

It doesn't seem like they move a lot of product, but Apple stores actually have some of the highest sales-per-square-foot in the entire retail industry.

I live down the street from the first MS store. I agree it is very sad; the employees look like Apple Store rejects and when it gets full, it is all kids and old people. It just doesn't attract the same crowd that the Apple store does. MS should just close them all, it is just an over glorified Best Buy.

You know, I've only ever seen one Apple store, and it was tiny and sad and empty (that was probably bad timing). I thought it was strange since it was in the same town Jobs lived in.

There are a few Microsoft stores, main one I know of in the Bay Area is in the Stanford Mall.

Let me buy a damned non-OEM, non-third-party-warehoused Windows 7 (Pro) license for my mother, who is NOT comfortable and not likely to become comfortable with Windows 8.

Killing Windows 7 license sales scant months before XP EOL is yet another clusterf-ck on MS's part.

P.S. "The customer is always right." Now that you have more effective competition, MS, it may be time to heed this.

P.P.S. If anyone has a valid, reliable source for these (I mean, for purchase -- I'm not asking for anything dodge-y), I'd appreciate a pointer.

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