Free Windows 10???

Like your friendly neighborhood drug dealer, they aim to get you hooked, then jack up the price.

I'm staying clean.

1988RedT2 wrote: Like your friendly neighborhood drug dealer, they aim to get you hooked, then jack up the price. I'm staying clean.

Yup. Figured they had great luck with the moronic gamers that willingly pay through the nose every month to play a $60-80 game that they would try it with the PC folks.

Personally, I'll continue pushing friends and family as far away from Micro$haft as possible thanks to the wonderful alternatives that are available these days.

Honestly, most larger corps have an EA agreement with Microsoft and you can get office for $10. Its a pretty common offer but a lot of the companies don't advertise it as a benefit.

I am not a computer or software guru and didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night...

It has been widely reported that Microlimp has indicated the following:

1. They want to get 1 billion computers on Windows 10 by 2018.

2. Upgrade from Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 to Windows 10 will be free for 365 days.

3. They want to get to a position where they are only supporting one version of their OS.

One of the recent Windows updates is a nagging reminder to reserve your free upgrade to Windows 10. Additionally, there is a lot of speculation that Microlimp will switch to a subscription model for Windows in 2018 or shortly afterwards and stop supporting all previous versions to include the free Windows 10. So, avoiding the free upgrade may not have any point.

I don't know what I'm going to do yet, but I do have a year to decide...

the 10 upgrade will remove Windows Media Center, and will not support any DVD/Blu ray playback in Windows included softwares.

if that matters to you.

I'll wait and see. I have a Win 7 laptop I rarely use anymore(almost exclusively for iTunes, and only once every other month at that). My everyday computer is a Chromebook and I fully intend to never give MS another penny of my business again.

we have one of our crash boxes here getting prepped to have 10 installed. system requirements are amazingly low since they want it to run on tablets as well. It will actually bring new life to some of those old netbooks.

The 'get Windows 10' icon showed up on my screen the last Windows update. I came from XP to Win7 and purposely avoided Win8.

I'm actually pleased w/ Win7. So, what's 10 gonna do for me?

The craziest part? the rumor I've heard is they don't care if your 7/8.x license is legit or not.

madmallard wrote: the 10 upgrade will remove Windows Media Center, and will not support any DVD/Blu ray playback in Windows included softwares. if that matters to you.

Media center hasn't been included with Windows for years. VLM and others take of the job just fine.

Man, even if Microsoft gives stuff away there's hate. Tough crowd.

Keith Tanner wrote: Man, even if Microsoft gives stuff away there's hate. Tough crowd.

and rightfully so. Having to deal with their broken joke of a software on a daily basis has completely turned me off of their shenanigans.

I'd like to get off of MS software entirely. Just 1 computer to go now, and with Linux gaming picking up Steam (pun intended), Win7 might finally be the last version of Windows I use at all.

Keith Tanner wrote: Man, even if Microsoft gives stuff away there's hate. Tough crowd.

Hahahahah, that's what it's been like to be a Mac user since, ohhhh, forever. Haters gonna hate.

Duke wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: Man, even if Microsoft gives stuff away there's hate. Tough crowd.

Hahahahah, that's what it's been like to be a Mac user since, ohhhh, forever. Haters gonna hate.

I used to work in a shop that was mixed PC (programming) and Mac (graphics). Let's just say that the older Apple stuff wasn't as magical as the Mac addicts claimed it was. These days, I don't find either OSX or Win 7 to be particularly onerous. I use both every day, they're tools.

GameboyRMH wrote: Damn, I was hoping there would be free install discs. Ah well, if I can't get a free clean install then I'll do the usual thing...hang on to my current install for as long as possible.

Did you say free install discs?

secretariata wrote: I am not a computer or software guru and didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night... It has been widely reported that Microlimp has indicated the following: 1. They want to get 1 billion computers on Windows 10 by 2018. 2. Upgrade from Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 to Windows 10 will be free for 365 days. 3. They want to get to a position where they are only supporting one version of their OS. One of the recent Windows updates is a nagging reminder to reserve your free upgrade to Windows 10. Additionally, there is a lot of speculation that Microlimp will switch to a subscription model for Windows in 2018 or shortly afterwards and stop supporting all previous versions to include the free Windows 10. So, avoiding the free upgrade may not have any point. I don't know what I'm going to do yet, but I do have a year to decide...

The nice thing is if you do the free upgrade or even just sign on to do it you will get your Windows 10 product key to complete installs. I know a couple guys that created dummy email accounts to stack up 10 or so key reservations.

If they go subscription on the OS that will just push more people to keep hold of their old OS or move to Linux or Mac. A subscription OS would be death for any company.

Had a funny looking icon appear in the lower right side tray last night. Hovering over it highlighted that it is the upgrade to Windows 10. Though it wasn't coming out till later this month. Haven't clicked it yet as didn't have the time to let it upgrade and haven't decided if I want it right now. Windows 7 machine that's about 3-4 years old. Haven't checked SWMBO's computer yet.

rebelgtp wrote: ...If they go subscription on the OS that will just push more people to keep hold of their old OS or move to Linux or Mac. A subscription OS would be death for any company.

If they don't support the old OS in any way, shape, or form it may not be long before it becomes useless as other software becomes incompatible or the OS becomes increasingly vulnerable to attacks/hacks with no security updates. If they get a billion computers hooked onto a "freebee" and then start charging with no easy way to back out they got a lot of people by the short hairs...

Everything isn't necessarily a conspiracy, but lots of commercial software is going subscription model. Photoshop, most Bentley CAAD and design software (MicroStation, GeoPak, all the add on programs that run in MicroStation, STAADPro, LEAP, etc), just to name a couple that I can pull out of my arse...

Update: Figured I'd post some links with Win10 upgrade info I've collected for work here as well.

Microsoft is offering ISOs for Win10 install discs/drives:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Clean installs using old product keys are allowed for OEM-installed versions of Win7/8, after an initial in-place upgrade is completed (no word on retail licenses):

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/4794/more-windows-10-answers-how-activation-will-work-on-an-upgrade

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/wiki/insider_wintp-insider_install/how-to-upgrade-from-previous-versions-of-windows/31722b30-1da9-42bb-b331-0edc4649bf43

Here’s an article on the new licensing and Linux-like versioning system that are being rolled out with Win10:

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/07/what-windows-as-a-service-and-a-free-upgrade-mean-at-home-and-at-work/

This is surprisingly good news, I think I'll go through with the upgrade (via clean install) on my gaming PC if retail licenses are handled the same way as OEM licenses. Microsoft's generosity came too late for all my other devices

FWIW: If you are on a domain you won't get this.

unless. you remove yourself from the domain and run windows update manually.

Tested and confirmed by a coworker today.

Interesting little article on a security concern regarding the default settings of Windows 10.

http://consumerist.com/2015/07/29/the-pros-cons-of-windows-10-sharing-your-wifi-passwords-with-your-contacts/

foxtrapper wrote: Interesting little article on a security concern regarding the default settings of Windows 10. http://consumerist.com/2015/07/29/the-pros-cons-of-windows-10-sharing-your-wifi-passwords-with-your-contacts/

hm. Good thing I don't skype, nor book of faces, or use outlook at home.

Odd policy.

Seems similar to the one where Comcast wanted to use your home wi-fi for hot spots for them.

I've got no love for Microsoft at all. Unfortunately much of my work related software was designed on windowsXP, and struggles to run on my win8 laptop. It recently took our IT guy almost a whole day to get one program to work. When I got to the job site it only took 5 minutes to run the program on the machine that needed it, and solve it's problem.....A model of efficiency, not! (I admit the fault wasn't all Microsoft's, but the faults in their system didn't help anything)

I'd really like to get my last Windows computer running Linux, but Wine still isn't cutting it for gaming. Or a lot of things, for that matter.