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Comment by josteink | Hacker News Reader

I've been a MSDN/Technet junkie for most of my professional life, so maybe I got this wrong and just haven't noticed before...

But is this the first time Microsoft actually put up a download page for their OS. A simple page where people can just go, buy and download stuff, without the need for any special MSDN/Technet account?

If so, that's both cool and about time.

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Windows 7 is available through direct download, but the presentation / ease-to-buy wasn't as slick as this.

Another cool thing it had was that you could upgrade the OS (e.g. from Pro to Ultimate) or activate a pirated version from the OS itself, over the air.

Actually, I bought Windows 7 and Office 2010 directly from the Microsoft Store online, and downloaded it directly back when it first came out.

Thank Apple for making them offer what their competition offers for half the price.

I'm a Mac and PC person ... I'd download this if it was similarly priced to the OS X downloads.

It's $40...that isn't bad at all.

All i saw when I loaded the page was $69.99, which i quickly hit the back button and went to read the comments here.

Whose at fault .. their UI and messaging I say.

For a man who thinks $40 is too expensive for a good OS, you'll love Linux.

The $20 you save on OS/X over Windows is more than made up by the more expensive hardware.

Windows isn't released as often. So in the end, it's cheaper.

(And Apple doesn't need to make money from their OS, Microsoft does)

Not to mention that this is a major update unlike the minor addons that Apple use to justify an upgrade. I would live very happy with snow leopard, the only reason I upgrade is because Apple force us in order to keep developing on latest iOS devices.

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