Windows 7.

[dycedon]

normally you have to pay unless you can find a dodgy site somewhere, approx £50/£60 me thinks.

[sannyrut]

Thanks.I've put it on my pressie list

[crazydave]

Loads of places on the net get it for free easy to download then just burn it to a disc and install it as upgrade to vista or xp takes about one hour to complete the install etc.

[Aaitken11]

Can you tell me what web pages you can get it free on? Have looked but cant find any.

[ukchris]

it's not free, you may be able to download it as a pirated copy and it work for a while, but one day after an update etc you might not be able to use your machine. some are leaked volume licences (a company may buy a volume licence, same code to cover 500 machines). Once microsoft know of these licence numbers, they effectivly cancel these licences and write an update forcing you to validate you copy.

I repair and sell pc's, and people always say "can't you just put a copy on" I explain that in the long run, £60 spent now over the life span of say 3 years use is good value at £20 a year. You are then legit, you can do updates and don't have the hassle or worry.

[crazydave]

Uk Chris,got to tell you mate i downloaded office 2007 3yrs back and it works fine,ive now downloaded office 2010 from the same place no probs,also the copy ive downloaded is the same copy there selling at the computer fairs in for uk £25,but ive got to applaud you because your the first guy ive come across who does pcs and does not use any pirated stuff,must be hard competing against all the folks who do in the uk.

[crazydave]

Uk Chris,sorry about going on about offce 2010, but its the same place i got windows 7 from, also i had vista from there 2yrs back,never a problem with updates etc.

[starman™]

I tried windows 7 last year (RC release) but have not gone over. Snow Leopard all the way for me thankyou.

[ukchris]

Microsoft don't seem to bother too much about the office products, it's the Operating System that they seem to target with genuine advantage checks.

At the end of the day, it makes my life so much easier to work out why a machine is doing what it's doing, or not as the case may be if I can service pack it and run all the updates without fear of telling the customer they can't get into windows anymore as it needs activating.

If windows works ok I'm not bothered where it has come from, but I wouldn't want a raft of 30 calls on a monday morning telling me their pc's aren't working, it's just not worth the hassle

[Elsa Padfield]

If anyone's a student, got children of school age etc - oh and live in the UK, then you might like to try www.software4students.co.uk rediculously inexpensive for office and learning based software AND it's legal.