Starting today, and lasting an undetermined amount of time, Windows 7 is available for pre-order; for a few of the varieties, pre-ordering will get you a pretty descent discount. I would act fast, because this deal is limited to an amount of licenses sold, not a set amount of time. Trust me, you want Windows 7, and you want to save money.

Here are the specifics: if you wait until Windows 7 releases on October 22nd, it will cost you $119 for Home Premium, $199 for Professional, and $219 for Ultimate. Starting tomorrow, when you order directly from Microsoft or from "major retailers" you can snag Home Premium for a cool $49.99 and Professional for a mere $99.99. Unfortunately, Windows 7 Ultimate will not be discounted... yet. $50 dollars for what is undeniably a fabulous operating system is a pretty good deal, but it was obvious that they would have to price competitively because Apple's OS X Snow Leopard will ony cost $29 an many great Linux distributions are free.

There is no official list of "major retailers" yet, but my money is on Best Buy, Wal Mart, and Amazon at the least. Let me know how the pre-ordering goes; I am interested to know how many pre-order licenses there actually are.

Microsoft Windows 7 Pre-Order Page