Microsoft will give away Windows 10 FREE - for ONE year Microsoft is planning a big push for Windows 10 and will be giving away the new operating system to Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8 users in the first year of release. "With Windows 10, we think of the operating system as 'Windows as a service'," said Terry Myerson, Microsoft's VP of operating systems. "In next few …
Interesting that they didn't include WinXP in the list of starter platforms. Seems to me that, if they really, really wanted to do away with XP once and for all, they'd be targeting it with this offer from the outset.
But then, my daddy didn't raise me to be a marketdroid, so ....
Since Win8, the kernel has required CPU features that didn't exist when XP came out and which weren't universally available until the middle of the last decade. I imagine that offering a free upgrade to a load of consumers with XP-era hardware would have been a support nightmare. Yes, you would rig the upgrade process to check before changing anything, but you'd have to tell the ineligible users that they weren't in fact eligible, contrary to what they'd read in your adverts. Good luck with trying to explain instruction set extensions to Joe Public.
Also, they probably figure that anyone still using XP after last years doom-mongering is unlikely to have done so purely on grounds of price, and Win10 won't actually run all those IE6 intranet apps.
XP isn't getting a free upgrade because of hardware specs and there's still real money to be made with updates and support contracts.
What about people with Vista though? It's practically Windows 7 once the Platform Update has been installed, the install base isn't that high, yet MS still can't resist giving them another poke in the eye.
""With Windows 10, we think of the operating system as 'Windows as a service'," said Terry Myerson, Microsoft's VP of operating systems."
So is he saying you can't buy Windows 10, you have to pay protection money forever and ever? (Subscription only?) If so, then in my organization, Windows 10 is DOA.
>in my organization, Windows 10 is DOA<
Are you speaking as the CFO? Many organisations are heartily sick of IT needing big lumps of capital for point-in-time "upgrades" which create an asset of dubious value. The predictable, tax-deductible payment for 'Windows as a Service' which can be ramped up or down to match headcount may be preferred.
>"upgrades" which create an asset of dubious value.
So then you depreciate the asset, which gives you your tax deduction?
Rental might be easier, but I know banks who were still running XP last year. I would hope a CFO might take a 13-year sweating of assets over paying four times that, just to get an easier tax deduction.
>in my organization, Windows 10 is DOA<
>Are you speaking as the CFO? Many organisations are heartily sick of IT needing big lumps of capital for point-in-time "upgrades" which create an asset of dubious value. The predictable, tax-deductible payment for 'Windows as a Service' which can be ramped up or down to match headcount may be preferred.
I completely agree, we've moved to yearly payment via an Enterprise Agreement. It's great for us in IT as we have a constantly shifting workforce, but we have to keep explaining what it is to the Finance Dept. Collective memory like a goldfish comes to mind.
No, that is *not necessarily* what they are saying. At this point do not draw conclusions. He could be intending that the approach to Windows will not be version by version (e.g. XP to Vista) for the next while, rather like a web service i.e. you get "Windows" once, and new versioning just gets rolled out as updates, no need to buy 'upgrades'.
But at this point don't jump to conclusions.
I think that this paragraph points to Windows 10 not being subscription:
"The upgrade will only be free in the first 12 months after release and will last for the "supported lifetime of the device." Microsoft said the new OS will run on PCs, tablets, phones, and a new device to be announced later today."
And honestly, don't most organisations already pay a type of subscription fee? It's called "Software Assurance."
"2:24PM
Q: Subscriptions?
A. Nadella: There is no fundamental shift to our business model....We want to be able to service our customers more like an Internet service. (So, emphatically NOT subscription Windows.)"
[Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/windows-10-live-blog-2015-1#ixzz3PUnIswAv]
Re: I'm free! No, you're an idiot: Re: Subscription
"2:24PM
Q: Subscriptions?
A. Nadella: There is no fundamental shift to our business model....We want to be able to service our customers more like an Internet service. (So, emphatically NOT subscription Windows.)"
[Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/windows-10-live-blog-2015-1#ixzz3PUnIswAv]
...
So they want to service you like Comcast or your ISP?
Good thing I don't have a dirty mind..
""Once a device is upgraded to Windows 10, we'll be keeping it current for the supported lifetime for the device.""
So... does that mean that windows is locked to my hardware profile? and every time I upgrade a component after 12 months I will have to re-purchase it? Or the serial number I used to procure the Win10 update is consumed and locked to that device unable to use it again?
"So... does that mean that windows is locked to my hardware profile?"
Basically they are saying its the same licence as W7 OEM - which was basically only allowing re-installation during the manufacturer's hardware warranty period. Presumably the OEM builders had an arrangement to do that. In my home experience you can't move, or reinstall, on a new motherboard. Even the W7 Retail seemed to have cloning protection that limited any hardware changes, including a new disk, to one every three months.
If they are treating their free upgrade as an OEM - then that could be debated as fair enough. If that's the only option for W10 then they are cutting out anyone who does their own hardware upgrades.
You can install windows on a new motherboard.
There's a program somewhere (spui maybe) that displays a set of numbers and a freefone number to call. You enter the numbers and it gives you back some more. Enter those in that program earlier and windows is activated again. It's all free, no human interaction, and takes about 5 mins.
Went through this exercise as Christmas time with the son's computer, took his hard drive and video card and built a new computer around them. Because we had the OEM version of Win 7 pro 64 bit, it fired up ok then expected us to re-activate. Had to do this over the phone as we had issues with connecting to the internet service. All good now.
In my home experience you can't move, or reinstall, on a new motherboard. Even the W7 Retail seemed to have cloning protection that limited any hardware changes, including a new disk, to one every three months
In Win XP you can move to new hardware by a nice hack.
Clone the original HD, put new HD back in the original hardware, boot, say a prayer then open Device Manager and delete all system devices and drivers (ouch!). POWER OFF the machine (do not shutdown Windows), then put new HD in new hardware. After a few reboots, you're in new hardware. Works most of the time, if it doesn't, that's why you saved your original HD.
I suspect they want to kill off Windows 8 ASAP, so they can forget it ever was. As for Windows 7, it's shaping up to the be next Windows XP - the thing that refuses to die and devours their product evolution strategy. Windows XP users however will be left to slowly die on the vine.
I've tried the betas of Windows 10 in a VM and used it to test software. While I'm not a fan of Windows in general, I think that you could sit most Windows XP, Vista, and 7 users down in front of it and they wouldn't be any more unhappy than they would with any other change. I remember trying the betas of Windows 8 and thinking what a mess that was. I'm not seeing that with Windows 10.
On the other hand, I don't like the "all your data is belong to us" cloud/data harvest focus in Windows 10. It's an absolute pain in the arse to try to turn that off on installation, and I don't know how to turn it off retroactively, or check if it is off. If I wanted to send all my personal details off to another country to be pawed over by sweaty foreigners, I would type them into Facebook and forgo the illusion of privacy. Somehow the "personal" seems to be going out of the "personal computer" and it's getting turned into the watchtower in a panopticon.
re: "Windows XP users however will be left to slowly die on the vine." I would never claim that XP is perfect, but has Microsoft offered anything since that would justify cost + time + hassle of "upgrading" and migrating all my goodies (some of which would have to be upgraded, unless MS' latest and greatest can really work an elderly version of Photoshop)? My choice to make, and YMMV.
Need an icon with Munch's "The Scream" on it, but facepalm will do for now.
He might not be talking about paid subscriptions, I think he's talking about 'service' i.e. Windows versions will be downplayed. You get on board and new versions are rolled out automatically, no need to go buy an upgrade DVD.
It doesn't make much difference any way. The vast majority of computers will come with Windows pre-installed. The number of people who change the OS during the lifetime of the computer is very low. So the 'upgrade' merry-go-round is sort of out-dated.
What I think he is saying in other words - don't hold me to this - is that you buy a computer with the Windows service pre-installed, and it upgrades automatically, no need to buy the upgrade DVD three years later.
It's early yet and there may be changes.
Are you prepared to pay for it after the first year? Yep. That's the small print. You are moving your operating system from a pay once, keep forever model, to a rent model.
You get Windows 10 for the first year and then you pay for it yearly, like Office365.
Still interested? I thought not.....
> "The question of 'what version are you running' will cease to make sense".
It sounds like their plans for world domination have continued unabated. Switch to a subscription 'perpetual rent' model, make it so you can only buy 'apps' from them in their walled garden (they decide what gets sold, and take a cut on every transaction), etc.
It sounds like they still plan to give short-shrift to the 'traditional desktop' in favor of 'mobile everywhere'.
Still seems like a bad plan for the consumers (in general) and desktop users (in particular) to me...
This is confirmed false and now clearly a case of dodgy reporting.
During the post-event Q&A Terry Myerson said "Upgrading is free if you do it within a year. If you upgrade later than a year after launch there will be a cost associated with doing so.This is not a subscription model. *aside to guy next him* that would be nuts. Nobody would do that".
So, there you go. Business as usual, one year special offer on price (100% reduction), no subscription, some really nasty spin from the journalists present* and the usual paranoid hate and FUD from El Reg's legion of Google employees commentards.
* speaking of which, the video of the event is crazy. Watch what happens when they bring out the hologram stuff. Did you see that? That's right, nothing happens. Show these people a slightly bigger iPhone and they scream and cheer and clap and weep for the genius of Apple. Show them some Tony Stark-level working technology and they go "meh".
I think we have the wrong journalists.
And we can switch it off easily?
To quote Robin Williams, "Fuck NOOOOooo!" They'll build it into Ring 0 just like they did with GDI, so as to "improve performance"...and make it neigh on impossible to be rid of. (After all, it listens to your conversations, doesn't it? Why would Micros~1, or any of its TLA "sponsors", want you to shut the thing off?)
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