Update on Windows 8 Pricing.

In a clear push to get more licenses sold of Windows 8, Microsoft sold initial upgrades of Windows for $40 ($70 on a DVD).  Totally worth it and in-line with some of the major upgrades Apple has released and charged $20-30 for.

But that all ends on January 31st when the price jumps to $120 ($200 for pro).  For anyone that hasn’t yet seen the experience, a lot has changed.  We’ve been trained for the last 17 years to use one interface, only to get this superfluous design.  I’m not totally opposed to it, but it takes some time to learn.  And who has time, nowadays, especially to sit and re-learn what was already working fine.

I do applaud MS for taking some action with design change.  I just don’t know why they insist on forcing the same UI on every device. Why take away the desktop and then give it back but make it more difficult to get to on a full-desktop system?

Anyway, Start button replacements do exist with my favorite being the open-source Classic Shell. (others)  Suddenly, Windows doesn’t suck so much.

But for $120…just buy a new system that comes with it preinstalled.  Unless you still are using Vista…then it might be worth the switch.  😉