Windows 7 - Family Pack | The Coffeehouse

CKurt
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According to ZDnet's Ed Bott Windows 7 will be offerd in Family Pack (3 licences). http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=1145

ZippyV
Fired Up

Let's just hope they don't make the same mistakes again with this:

US only
Limited time only
Not all SKU's

CKurt
while( ( !succeed=try() ) ) { }

In reply to ZippyV

#Jul 2nd @ 11:14 AM

I think it's Home Premium only.

ZippyV
Fired Up

In reply to CKurt

#Jul 2nd @ 11:28 AM

It's like Microsoft doesn't want to learn.

wkempf

In reply to ZippyV

#Jul 2nd @ 11:30 AM

I'm not sure it makes sense to offer this with any other SKU. It certainly shouldn't be offered with Enterprise, Professional or Starter. Not sure about Ultimate... but then I really don't understand that SKU in the first place.

CKurt
while( ( !succeed=try() ) ) { }

In reply to ZippyV

#Jul 2nd @ 11:30 AM

Well yeah but "Family" screams "Home Premium" , small businesses are prohibited from using the function (I read somewhere) so why would that enable it for "Professional".

Okay, maybe the people at C9 would like to run professional on all there home computers (direct access, ...) I might be wrong. We shall see, hope it's for al SKU to.

LeoDavidson

In reply to CKurt

#Jul 2nd @ 11:38 AM

A lot of home users want remote desktop. (Not a majority, obviously, but enough of them that it's not just a few crazy people.)

If VNC wasn't so awful it wouldn't be a big deal but, since it is, it's a shame that MS don't include some form of RDP hosting in the "home" editions. (Other than Remote Assistance, which is useful for other things but doesn't really do what Remote Desktop does.)

Personally, I use it for doing admin stuff on my HTCP* and for accessing my desktop when I'm about the house on my laptop.

* A use-case that seems to be overlooked in Windows; still a pain that you have to reboot the machine after using it to avoid locking the TV screen, and that logging in to do some admin stuff kicks people off the TV. I guess I could do some of that admin work using just network shares and MMC snap-ins pointed at the remote machine, but that's a PITA compared to using remote desktop.

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

In reply to LeoDavidson

#Jul 2nd @ 5:09 PM

Doesn't Live Mesh give you RDP functionality on Home Premium? Or am I remembering that wrong?

ManipUni
Proving QQ for 5 years!

What about offering one Pro Licence and a handful (2-3) Home Premium Licences. I can't speak for every home but most homes have someone who runs things or uses their computer for work at home.

Either way, nice for them finally offering a Family Pack. You could just buy it and then a Pro licence in addition to, and stick one of the Home Premiums on a laptop.

fknight

In reply to LeoDavidson

#Jul 2nd @ 5:09 PM

So, beautiful -- home users can buy a Windows Home Premium Family Pack and a Windows Home Server from HP and get their home network all nice and set --- and miss out on one of the major features of the Windows Home Server they just bought -- RDP gateway to their Windows desktops because Microsoft is dumb with regard to RDP and the home Windows SKUs.

@Sven Goot

Yeah, if you can get someone to invite you to Mesh.

Bas
It finds lightbulbs.

Sounds good. It would probably still be cheaper to just buy three separate licenses in the US than one family pack in Europe, but hey.

OrigamiCar

In reply to fknight

#Jul 2nd @ 10:30 PM

fkinght - couldn't agree with you more!

That windows HOME server offers functionality that isn't compatible with Windows Vista HOME edition (and still isn't over 12 months after release of WHS) is ridiculus.

I have to run Windows Vista pro on my two home desktops, just so I can access them from outside the home via WHS. Grrrr!