Win 8 "pro" free upgrade

[sm625]

As you may have seen there are lots of notebooks that currently have this free or $15 Win 8 Pro upgrade with the purchase of a new laptop. Because it is pro it opens up some interesting possibilities. One possibility is to purchase these $300 notebooks and use them in a corporate setting. With the Win 8 pro version they should be able to log onto a domain.

Am I missing something? I dont want to order these then find out I cant really use win 8 pro unless I'm upgrading from win 7 pro, or something stupid liek that.

 

[Dahak]

from the wording here when you will get win8 pro for the $15, and all that goes with it, and it says it will upgrade Windows 7 Home Basic; Windows 7 Home Premium; Windows 7 Professional; or Windows 7 Ultimate.

For the Free upgrade, i believe that one is dependent on the vendor, sort of like when win7 was about to ship you could a free upgrade from the vendor for win7,
so for win8 that may be limited to which version of 7 you have so if home/home premium = windows 8 ; pro/ultimate = windows 8 pro

 

[gmaster456]

Deploying $300 laptops in a corporate setting isn't a great idea. Although, in theory, you COULD.

 

[sm625]

Well not literally $300. But take some of the cheaper thinkpads with win 7 home... they have been known to go for under $400. But when you go to put win 7 pro on it all the sudden its not such a good deal. This win 8 pro deal seems like a nice loophole. Of course now I cannot find a steal of a deal on a thinkpad lol.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Uhm, they changed the models on Win8. Win8 "Pro" is actually the lowest-tier SKU (unless they also come out with a "Starter"). It's equivalent to Win7 Home, minus Media Center and the ability to play DVDs.

If you want domain join abilities, you have to shell out for Win8 "Business". Which will likely cost significantly more.

 

[Dominato3r]

Uhm, they changed the models on Win8. Win8 "Pro" is actually the lowest-tier SKU (unless they also come out with a "Starter"). It's equivalent to Win7 Home, minus Media Center and the ability to play DVDs.

If you want domain join abilities, you have to shell out for Win8 "Business". Which will likely cost significantly more.

There's only two SKU's availible to the public, Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_8_editions