Free Windows 10

jd50ae

Have any of you guys signed up for the free upgrade?

It is supposedly the last operating system MS is going to put out. Wonder what is coming.

jgibv

nope. 

but i did see an article that said the free upgrade will be available for windows 7 & 8.1 users for 1 year .....
so unless you want to be an early adopter i'd probably wait a bit for them to "work out the kinks."   you know how initial software/hardware releases are, with all sorts of bugs & issues, constant patches/fixes for the first month or two.  just to resolve all the things that were missed or not discovered during the development process.



and as of now i have no plans to upgrade to windows 10, ever.
because there's no windows media center application and that's a deal breaker for me.  if it changes, i'll consider switching, otherwise i'll stick with windows 7 as long as i can.

ExpendableYouth

I signed up. I have the windows 8 install disc so if I don't like it I will just downgrade.

jd50ae

jgibv said:

nope. 

but i did see an article that said the free upgrade will be available for windows 7 & 8.1 users for 1 year .....
so unless you want to be an early adopter i'd probably wait a bit for them to "work out the kinks."   you know how initial software/hardware releases are, with all sorts of bugs & issues, constant patches/fixes for the first month or two.  just to resolve all the things that were missed or not discovered during the development process.



and as of now i have no plans to upgrade to windows 10, ever.
because there's no windows media center application and that's a deal breaker for me.  if it changes, i'll consider switching, otherwise i'll stick with windows 7 as long as i can.

The part that bothers me the most is that it will be the last operating system MS will produce.

avengethis

My gripe is that it is free for the first year but after that you will be stuck paying a yearly subscription just like they have gone to for office 365.

I signed up for it.  I'm on 8.1 and the changes that 10 brings I will like.  The no media center for me is no big deal since I dont use any of my computers for that anymore.  Router with attached usb hard drive and an xbox one does wonders.

jgibv

jd50ae said:

The part that bothers me the most is that it will be the last operating system MS will produce.

I hadn't heard that. 
I doubt Microsoft is getting out of the "operating system" market....that's their "bread and butter" so to speak. 

I think that Microsoft is going the route that @avengethis mentioned.  It's going to be a subscription-based, cloud-type operating system now. 
Instead of buying a single copy of the OS, installing it on your machine, and using it for years on end like it has been in the past.....
With Windows 10 and onwards, you'll now have pay a yearly subscription fee to run the OS. 

avengethis said:

I signed up for it.  I'm on 8.1 and the changes that 10 brings I will like.  The no media center for me is no big deal since I dont use any of my computers for that anymore.  Router with attached usb hard drive and an xbox one does wonders.

Yeah, I'd ditch WMC if I could.....but unfortunately it's about the only option for the "protected" Cablecard channels.....  boo!!!!!

avengethis

From what I heard I think they are following the iOS model of hey this is iOS X Leopard.  Oh look our new iOS X Snowbird is now available.

ExpendableYouth

That was the impression I got as well, that it wasn't a yearly subscription but they were trying to capture the micro transaction market with app purchases.

raisindot

I see that little upgrade icon now on all my PCs but I'm very hesitant. I hate WIndows 8.1., and I use OSs simply for my computer. I'm don't have smartphone or tablet and don't intend to get one anytime soon. I don't use app either,  so all the MS hype about integrating everything falls on deaf ears. All I know is that WIn 8.1. makes the simplest things difficult. If Win 10 did away with the apps screen and restored the logical desktop and start-button structure of Win 7 and XP, I'd be more inclined to use it. 

But I don't want to sign up for any OS that I have to pay for every year. Or one that depends on me being connected to the Cloud or the Internet all the time. 

jlmarta

Is it possible to download it, try it for a while, and go back to your previous OS if you're not impressed with it?  One wouldn't have to delete their previous OS in order to try Win 10, right?

raisindot

That's the $64,000 question, isn't it. 

jlmarta

Yeah. See, I did that when I upgraded from XP to Win7 because I'd heard how bad Win7 was and I didn't think I'd like it. Turns out it wasn't as bad as everyone said and I'm still using it. But I didn't get rid of XP until I was sure I'd continue with Win7. My guess is that you could do the same....

avengethis

The start menu is coming back to windows 10 so that is probably the biggest plus for me.  I get the live tiles for a tablet but on a laptop or PC it was just stupid.

ExpendableYouth

If you don't like it you will have to reformat your hard drive and do a clean install of your previous operating system. They are recommending you create a backup prior to doing the upgrade.

avengethis

Here is some info I have found...

http://www.itpro.co.uk/desktop-software/23216/windows-10-vs-windows-81-what-s-new

webmost

I got Bearswatter a Win 8.1 laptop... far and away hands down the worst OS we have ever tried. She gets nearly no use out of the machine, and I can't stand it either. Might go to 10 just on the grounds how can it be any worse than useless. 

Meanwhile Linux just gets easier and better.

Example: After too many hours of wrassling, and dozens of failed attempts, we have never been able to get her wireless printer to work with Win 8.1. Debian Linux, plugged it in, went to look, it had installed itself just like that.

Redmund can kiss me where the sun don't shine.

raisindot

webmost said:

Meanwhile Linux just gets easier and better.

Example: After too many hours of wrassling, and dozens of failed attempts, we have never been able to get her wireless printer to work with Win 8.1. Debian Linux, plugged it in, went to look, it had installed itself just like that.

Redmund can kiss me where the sun don't shine.

I've always liked the idea of moving to Linux but have been hesitant about installing it out of uncertainty over whether my rather ancient versions of MS Office and many other Windows-based programs and drivers would work under it. Does your Windows program work with it or do you have to get Linux-based word procesors, etc.?  

jd50ae

Well, from what I have read I am going to bite the bullet and get 10 when it is out.

Am I correct in that 10 will allow a 7 type desktop? Clean with icons of my choosing? A choice between touch and mouse driven? All my software and peripherals will still work?

I hope that making a repair disk and backups will be the same. And what the devil is Silver Light.

jlmarta

Aaaahh, Silver Light. One of the great mysteries of the ages. All I've ever been allowed to know is that it had to be installed in order for me to download and use Open Office... beyond that, who the hell knows??

jd50ae

jlmarta said:

Aaaahh, Silver Light. One of the great mysteries of the ages. All I've ever been allowed to know is that it had to be installed in order for me to download and use Open Office... beyond that, who the hell knows??

I have seen it pop up on NetFlix asking permission to run. It does not, as far as I can tell, add anything. I once deleted it from my system and nothing happened, or changed.

avengethis

1. Microsoft Silverlight is a deprecated application framework for writing and running rich Internet applications, similar to Adobe Flash. A plugin for Silverlight is available for some browsers, but not for Chrome due toSilverlight's use of the NPAPI framework.

jlmarta

Gawrsh, I was just about to say that..... LOL

raisindot

Instead of giving the Windows releases numbers, Microsoft should give them alphabetically ordered first names like hurricanes, since each release is disruptive, extracts huge amounts of time, labor and expenses, and requires you to re-build everything from scratch. 

In this context, Windows 8 would be the Katrina of the lineup. 

SecretSquirrel

blah.. came into this convo way too late... I was actually concerned with if they were going to have prescription fees, but they say that they aren't. they also say it will be the last OS they make because they will continuously update it, and instead of slapping a new name on it, it will just be versions. honestly, windows 7 is next up on the chopping block for discontinued support, and windows 8.1 probably wont be far behind it. as far as waiting for a little bit before upgrading, I couldn't agree more, for reasons already stated. in the grand scheme of things, its a good move by Microsoft imo. it will allow everyone to be on the same version of windows, which greatly reduces the workload for programmers because they wont have to support so many different platforms. Microsoft also explained that their OS will be able to be dumbed down all the way to cellphone level, and all the way up to custom pc's, which covers quite a bit of ground.

SecretSquirrel

Microsoft: "We aim to be the leading internet service."

what this means exactly, is still to come.

webmost

raisindot said:

webmost said:

Meanwhile Linux just gets easier and better.

Example: After too many hours of wrassling, and dozens of failed attempts, we have never been able to get her wireless printer to work with Win 8.1. Debian Linux, plugged it in, went to look, it had installed itself just like that.

Redmund can kiss me where the sun don't shine.

I've always liked the idea of moving to Linux but have been hesitant about installing it out of uncertainty over whether my rather ancient versions of MS Office and many other Windows-based programs and drivers would work under it. Does your Windows program work with it or do you have to get Linux-based word procesors, etc.?  

I don't use Office. I use OpenOffice. Comes with Debian Linux, and will gobble up or spit out any Office documents, spreadsheets, etc. seamlessly. ... Although, if you insist, you can run a windows emulator and work Word under that.

It is a non-issue, believe me. 

One of the more popular new Linux distro (most all these new distros are re-packaged Debian, BTW) is called Mint. Looks just like Win XP.

Linux is very derelict friendly ... so go pull out that old derelict puter you set aside as too slow and install Ubuntu or Mint on it. Easy way to try it out.

avengethis

Anybody upgrade yet?  I'm in the process now. 

ExpendableYouth

I did last night and like it. It takes a lot of what I liked about windows 7 and fixed a lot of what I didn't like about windows 8. I've only messed around with it for a couple hours, but it seems really stable and intuitive.

Andrew_Dzikoski

I've been using the pre-release beta for the past 4 months and I really like it a lot. Best OS since XP came out.

avengethis

Yeah so far this is a huge improvement over Windows 8 and I think it is even better than Windows 7.  Having the start menu back is a huge plus but the new Edge browser is actually pretty darn nice so far, I like the notifications and the other huge plus is Word, Excel and Powerpoint are all free apps now as well!

avengethis

1 issue I am having right now though that I cannot seem to figure out is...


My business email is actually hosted through gmail and I use IMAP with it.  I have multiple folders in my inbox.  When I setup windows mail it pulls in the folders but does not pull in the emails that have been filed into them previously.  (I have outlook installed on this machine that works properly, its not a legal copy of outlook though so I am hoping to make the switch to all legal with word, excel and powerpoint free now).