Windows 10 Upgrade to be Free as in Beer (if you don't have an MS account, come in here and @blakeyrat will give you $50)



  • According to a statement from Microsoft today, Windows 10 will be available as a free upgrade to Windows 7 and 8 users for up to one year after it is released.


  • kills Dumbledore

    Good news.

    But with VS community edition and free OS updates, Microsoft seem to be giving up a lot of their revenue streams. I guess the majority of their income is from the enterprise market



  • I can't wait to see how Slashdot tries to spin this into a bad thing.

    EDIT: oh they beat us to it, already 300+ comments: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/01/21/1749255/microsoft-reveals-windows-10-will-be-a-free-upgrade

    Their strategy in spinning this news as a bad thing consists primarily of publishing a blatant lie saying that Windows 10 will require a paid subscription. FYI. I guess "blatant lying" is really the only way to put a negative spin on this news...



  • @Jaloopa said:

    But with VS community edition and free OS updates, Microsoft seem to be giving up a lot of their revenue streams. I guess the majority of their income is from the enterprise market

    Only free upgrades for the first year, so only a temporary cut in revenue. Also, I'm pretty sure you're right that they get most of their money from the enterprise market.



  • But, my DreamSpark :(

    What good is getting stuff for free if everyone else also does?



  • @blakeyrat said:

    I can't wait to see how Slashdot tries to spin this into a bad thing.

    EDIT: oh they beat us to it, already 300+ comments:

    I made it 10 comments in. 9 of them were saying how the /. article is wrong lying. The 10th was just like "What's it going to cost me after the first year?!?"



  • They did this program with Windows 8 too, but it was like $30 per household or something cheap. I don't remember exactly, but it was a good deal and it lasted the year after Win 8 came out. (Then 8.1 was free.)

    Anyway it's probably mostly a defensive move against Apple.


  • kills Dumbledore

    @blakeyrat said:

    blatant lying

    The most charitable interpretation is "reading comprehension of a 5 year old"



  • @Jaloopa said:

    The most charitable interpretation is "reading comprehension of a 5 year old"

    That's rather charitable, given that they are inserting information that was stated absolutely nowhere.


  • kills Dumbledore

    Upgrade free for a year -> OS free for a year

    Makes a twisted sort of sense, especially if you're always looking for an excuse to bash MS



  • This is the site that producted this legendary gem:

    To summarize, someone got a pre-release copy of Windows 7, installed Photoshop, then installed a crack, and Photoshop crashed. Then he somehow drew the conclusion that Microsoft installed some kind of magical DRM software that could check the integrity of other companys' code. Using magic. I guess.



  • I just read that "article" and it reads like word vomit. My brain cannot parse it. It's not quite Markov bad, but it doesn't make sense either.



  • @mott555 said:

    I just read that "article" and it reads like word vomit.

    A /. article doesn't make sense. Why do you feel the need to point this out to us, as if it were somehow unexpected?



  • I don't read Slashdot, so I'm unaware that they're not supposed to make sense.



  • @mott555 said:

    I don't read Slashdot

    I don't either, but they have a certain reputation around here.


  • FoxDev

    @mott555 said:

    I don't read Slashdot

    I used to read Slashdot, though more for the comments than the articles. Then the beta fuckball happened, and I gave up after that. Now, if I want tech news, I read Ars Technica. Or stare at a wall; both are preferable to Slashdot.



  • I still get emails from that clone site that the #fuckbeta splitters set up on the 90s-era Perl /. codebase... (solylentnews?)



  • @abarker said:

    Windows 10 Upgrade to be Free as in Beer

    Well, it's a good thing I'm 20, because if Windows 10 came out a year ago, I wouldn't be legally able to drink it.


  • FoxDev

    You are welcome for that edit.

    :-)


  • Garbage Person

    Well, that's one way to get the fucking luddite idiots who are otherwise going to be forever stuck on Win7 (because it's "good enough", like XP was) to consider migrating.



  • With 'consider' being the operative word?

    Filed under: if you want a free OS it's not like you aren't spoiled for choice...



  • Some of us like stability.

    That said I'm still going to give 10 a shot, but I don't see an issue with staying with the OS that meets your needs. I transitioned to Win7 because I liked the new features, not because it was new (XP's looming EOL was also a factor, but not one I was overly bothered by)



  • Am I the only one that LIKES windows 8(.1)?
    Tried Windows 10 and it's just got a start menu back. I'll take a free copy and (ab)use the crap out of it.

    So long as they remove that keylogger :)


  • kills Dumbledore

    @realee said:

    Am I the only one that LIKES windows 8(.1)?

    I have it at work and have no problem with it at all.

    I'll probably upgrade my home Win7 machine to 10 once it's out. I was half planning to use the 10 release as an excuse to do a new build, but that would probably mean buying a new license since I have an OEM version of 7, so I'll soldier on with my current hardware

    Unknown error saving post, try again. Error: 0 error



  • I don't believe MS was making any money from selling retail Windows licenses. You either got one with your hardware or you have a corporate one. IDK if this offer also includes corporate licenses but either way is a good move on the side of MS for the battle on the consumer base which at the end is the one that goes to their office and ask "where's the blue Internet?"

    Who might not be too happy about this are hardware manufacturers, since many of their sales were from people upgrading to Windows but don't know how to do it by buying a new one.

    Anyway, from the whole deal yesterday the HoloLens from MS is the thing which caught my attention. They seem pretty cool but also very very far away.


  • FoxDev

    @realee said:

    Am I the only one that LIKES windows 8(.1)?

    By no means are you the only one 😜


  • FoxDev

    @realee said:

    Am I the only one that LIKES windows 8(.1)?

    i thouroughly enjoy it on my Surface and touchscreen laptops.... not liking it as much on the desktop, but still quite functional and the consistency is good.


  • FoxDev

    @accalia said:

    i thouroughly enjoy it on my Surface and touchscreen laptops.... not liking it as much on the desktop, but still quite functional and the consistency is good.

    Yeah, the Metro stuff can be a pain on desktop, but MS did improve it plenty with the 8.1 update. Still a way to go though...



  • @Eldelshell said:

    IDK if this offer also includes corporate licenses

    TFA that was linked up on /. indicates that "Enterprise" editions aren't included. Though a good cross-section of Enterprise edition customers are probably already paying for Software Assurance, so they'll get the upgrade via that channel anyway.



  • Not only do I like W8.1, I hate the fact that our (customer facing, front line) technical support reps completely refuse to try to learn the Metro UI workflow and instead have custom shells installed on their machines.

    What they don't know is that I've won the argument with management to strip their admin access and force them to a supported software list (that won't include that custom shell) 😼


  • FoxDev

    @izzion said:

    What they don't know is that I've won the argument with management to strip their admin access and force them to a supported software list

    oooh.... are you going to tell them before or after they lose the admin access?

    :-D


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @RaceProUK said:

    Yeah, the Metro stuff can be a pain on desktop, but MS did improve it plenty with the 8.1 update. Still a way to go though...

    Classic Start Menu.


  • Banned

    Just to recap, Windows 10 will:

    • be a free upgrade,
    • become rolling release,
    • get improved command prompt (terminal),
    • have an integrated package manager.

    It makes me wonder if the kernel is still NT or will it be Linux.



  • @Gaska said:

    It makes me wonder if the kernel is still NT or will it be Linux.

    That's some impressive blakeybait.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @RaceProUK said:

    I used to read Slashdot, though more for the comments than the articles.

    I keep it in my feed, and look in on it now and then when things get slow. I often see interesting things that I hadn't heard of, because there's only so much time in the day, and I don't bother with many "tech" sites like Ars or whatever is cool these days.

    Plus a few people who write journals on there.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @izzion said:

    What they don't know is that I've won the argument with management to strip their admin access and force them to a supported software list (that won't include that custom shell)

    So you'll be featured in a FP article soon?


  • FoxDev

    @Keith said:

    That's some impressive blakeybait.

    i'll start making the popcorn. ;-)



  • @realee said:

    Am I the only one that LIKES windows 8(.1)?

    No.

    I'm annoyed that my new job gave me 7. After getting used to 8.1, 7 feels like a huge step back.



  • @accalia said:

    are you going to tell them before or after they lose the admin access?

    Probably more or less concurrently.

    @boomzilla said:

    So you'll be featured in a FP article soon?

    Honestly, the current setup (which is about 70% my fault) is TRWTF. Changing the admin access is actually fixing the security problem, killing the ability of first-tier tech support to install software on frack up their PCs is a side benefit.


  • Banned

    @izzion said:

    the current setup (which is about 70% my fault) is TRWTF

    Would it be without the remaining 30%?


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @izzion said:

    Changing the admin access is actually fixing the security problem, killing the ability of first-tier tech support to install software on frack up their PCs is a side benefit.

    I'm sure it is. Doesn't mean they'll see it that way. Not that you'll recognize it after the FP-ization process.



  • If I'm being fully honest, the way we handed out local Admin when I originally set this domain up was chosen because that's the (quick and dirty) way I learned how to do it when I started working in the field. But I had learned enough to know better by the time I set up this domain and was too lazy low on the totem pole to push back against pressure from on high to set it up this way.

    But I consider myself to hold the larger share of culpability because I didn't argue the right way at the time.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    I'm annoyed that my new job gave me 7. After getting used to 8.1, 7 feels like a huge step back.

    We've got a couple of Win8.1 machines at work, but the users loathe them and keep bitching about them not having Windows 7 on them (because oh my god pressing the winkey and typing what you want is so gosh darn difficult even my 55 year old mother who always asks if she should double click or single click on things can cope with it quite well.). I have a Win7 box, and would gladly swap with one of them - having used 8 and 8.1 since they've come out, I've gotten used to the way they work.

    They also look nicer, too - I'm glad that the transparent taskbar is going in 10 because it's irritating having it be transparent for good reason, and the no borders on the windows thing is also a plus to me as well.



  • I have 3 1080p monitors at work. The ability to put the task bar on all three of them is one of those "super nice to have" things but not quite in the realm of, "so nice to have I'm willing to install a buggy, crashy third-party app that kind of does it but breaks a ton of other shit".


  • kills Dumbledore

    @Douglasac said:

    my 55 year old mother who always asks if she should double click or single click on things

    My grandma always asks this, about everything, even with right click


  • ♿ (Parody)

    My grandmas are all dead you insensitive clods!

    @blakeyrat said:

    "so nice to have I'm willing to install a buggy, crashy third-party app that kind of does it but breaks a ton of other shit".

    I can still barely believe that Windows finally figured out that people want to do this.



  • We had a site that had to have the users as local administrators because the software they used insisted upon the user being an administrator (this was two years after Win7 came out, so it's not like they'd hadn't had five years to realise "oh wait users shouldn't need to be administrators to use our software how silly of us"). They kept getting viruses, installing stupid toolbars and generally being a nuisance because a number of them were careless - hell, one guy was terminated because it turned out he basically his work PC to torrent copyrighted movies etc. - and left it on his PC.

    Last year, an update is finally released that ends the reliance on the user being an administrator, so they all lost their administrator privileges. Far fewer problems now.


  • kills Dumbledore

    @boomzilla said:

    My grandmas are all dead you insensitive clods!

    How many do you have?


  • FoxDev

    between 1 and "all of them".

    well probably. 0 is technically a possibility as well but that is an extreme degenerate case.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    I have 3 1080p monitors at work. The ability to put the task bar on all three of them is one of those "super nice to have" things but not quite in the realm of, "so nice to have I'm willing to install a buggy, crashy third-party app that kind of does it but breaks a ton of other shit".

    I ended up caving and getting DisplayFusion for my work PC - I was sick of not having a taskbar on each of the displays, and even then it has some weird quirks that I can cope with but are just plain irritating.

    On the upside, it does an excellent job of having a spanned wallpaper across the three monitors. If only the monitors were all the same size.


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