OK, Windows 7 is out and I would like to ditch Vista entirely - particularly the version that came with my TouchSmart - but I no longer have the connections that relieved me from, you know, actually paying for it. I also don't want an "upgrade" that requires me to find disks that are never available when you need them. I'm after the full, standalone version, not tied to specific hardware and not flaky pirated crap.
Suggestions? Or has Microsoft finally won this game?
Update: Admittedly, the $150 price for the Win 7 "family pack" is not so bad, but this is apparently an "upgrade" rather than a standalone license (though nothing on Amazon's page tells you that), and I'm confused on a few things... like, do you need to find the original install disks for whatever you're upgrading from? What if your hard disk dies and you have no choice but to do a clean install? I wouldn't mind just paying the upgrade price for my 3 computers, but I would hate to get stuck with less than 3 installations in practice, particularly since I don't have the original install disks for the notebook and whether I can find them for my desktop is kind of questionable. Thoughts?
Suggestions? Or has Microsoft finally won this game?
Update: Admittedly, the $150 price for the Win 7 "family pack" is not so bad, but this is apparently an "upgrade" rather than a standalone license (though nothing on Amazon's page tells you that), and I'm confused on a few things... like, do you need to find the original install disks for whatever you're upgrading from? What if your hard disk dies and you have no choice but to do a clean install? I wouldn't mind just paying the upgrade price for my 3 computers, but I would hate to get stuck with less than 3 installations in practice, particularly since I don't have the original install disks for the notebook and whether I can find them for my desktop is kind of questionable. Thoughts?