Windows 7 - How soon?

I read today that Microsoft tomorrow unveils to the general public its "special, time-limited offers" for anyone willing to order a Windows 7 upgrade more than three months before the software officially goes on sale.

That prompts my question...how soon will Windows 7 licenses be available through TechSoup?

From what I read, Windows 7 is being released on October 22, 2009.  I wouldn't imagine that Tech Soup would get it any sooner than that date. 

I wouldn't have imagined it either. But then I wouldn't have imagined Microsoft would start pre-selling the operating system...which can already be downloaded and installed on a trial basis. It is working great on one of our machines, BTW.

Hi William,

  We generally don't get much notice about products that are becoming available for donation. As a general rule, products are not available through TechSoup until sometime after products are released in the retail market. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Autumn

I have heard October for the release, but with an RC version available for download I've had it running for several weeks already.

I really like it, hated Vista!  Vista was nothing but problems even getting it installed on my PC because of the RAID controller not being supported out of the box.

Windows 7 installed no problem, and I like it!  Can't wait for the actual release, someone in the office told me (after my wife just purchased a new PC) that from Monday if you purchase a PC you can get a free Windows 7 upgrade license.

I just sent an email to TechSoup support before I found this post posing the same question.

I sort of assumed Win7 would not be available on TechSoup before the public release but I would like some confirmation that it WILL be available.

I did not migrate the organization I support to Vista from XP Pro because it offered no real advantages and a number of problems.

But I have been running Win7 for 3 months now, several versions, and look forward to upgrading the XP boxes to Win7.  Thus far Win7 has been very stable, even as a Beta and Release Candidate.  It offers the bells and whistles of Vista and, big plus here, performance.

Soooo.... can I assume Win7 WILL become available on TechSoup.... ?

I do hope so....

Tony,

  As mentioned in my earlier contribution to this thread, we generally do not know until we know! It is very likely it will be available at some point, and in some form but we will not have any information until Microsoft let's us know what their plans are.

Autumn

Ok...

on another thread, Tech Soup indicates they will have Windows 7 available on November 1, 2009.

Thanks Thomas,

  That is the expected date but it hasn't been confirmed yet. We will definitely let everyone know!

Autumn