5 ms·

Windows 10 is not free. The "free upgrade" period is over. MSRP for Windows 10 Home is $119.

by city41 10y ago

userbinator 10y ago
That's why the parent put "free" in quotes. Unlike all the previous versions of Windows, MSFT decided to make this upgrade "free" for a while, but AFAIK it's still ridiculously easy to pirate Win10, and the "accessibility technologies" free upgrade loophole, which was said to be closing "very soon" many months ago, is still open. In other words, if you really don't want to pay, Microsoft still seems desperate to get you to "upgrade" to Win10... precisely so they can monetise you with ads (and might make more from you eventually even if you never paid for their OS). As a mass-exodus to Linux and macOS curretly seems unlikely, their strategy appears to be winning so far.
- TAForObvReasons 10y ago
  > As a mass-exodus to Linux and macOS curretly seems unlikely, their strategy appears to be winning so far. ... or people just install windows 7 / avoid upgrading to 10. Hard to call that a "win" Take everything with a grain of salt, but metrics still point to Windows 7 dominance: http://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/windows/desktop/worldwide http://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/windows/de... https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0 https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share...
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - criddell 10y ago
    Isn't Microsoft starting to block updates to Windows 7 on new hardware?
    - clouddrover 10y ago
      Yes: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4012982/discusses-an-issue-in-which-you-receive-a-your-pc-uses-a-processor-tha https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4012982/discusses-a...
      - Mithaldu 10y ago
        They're not "blocking" updates, they've stopped writing and compiling them with the backwards compatibility shims that made them work on older hardware. They probably do this because it drives updates AND because it's cheaper, but please try to describe it accurately.
        clouddrover 10y ago
        > they've stopped writing and compiling them with the backwards compatibility shims that made them work on older hardware That claim doesn't stack up. Windows 10, for example, works fine on older hardware. As Microsoft said, they're blocking updates to Windows 7 and 8 if you try to run those OSes on newer hardware.
  - Pica_soO 10y ago
    How hard would it be to replace the ads with instructions to do a parallel Ubuntu install?
    - sova 10y ago
      I like the way you open source.
    - H4CK3RM4N 10y ago
      Assuming they're on a network you control, probably around as hard as upside-down ternet. Wait, what if you were to redirect the download links for the automatic updates to a Linux installer? Assuming Microsoft's security is still as lax as it was during the XP era, you could get this to work without much difficulty.
      - dTal 10y ago
        Alas, the narrow window of time in which a novice could reasonably be expected to install Linux without undue hassle came to an end with UEFI and SecureBoot.
        vetinari 10y ago
        Linux distributions work fine with UEFI a Secure Boot[1]. Maybe even better than with BIOS and MBR, because now, there is no excuse to just overwrite the MBR. OS Installers are supposed to just add an entry into UEFI boot manager. [1] Secure Boot comes into play only when 1) you use distribution in SecureBoot enforcing mode (RHEL, CentOS, Fedora) and 2) want to build your own kernel modules. Then, you have to enroll your Machine Owner Key into UEFI and sign your modules with it. However, building kernel modules is not something that grandma is going to do. For normal use, all the mainstream distributions come with a signed bootloader (shim.efi).
  - khedoros1 10y ago
    I did that recently on a laptop. It involved finding some relatively-obscure drivers from the actual hardware manufacturers and inserting them into my Windows 7 install media (NVME and USB, I think). It took me a few hours of research (having never had to add drivers to get a machine to boot into a Windows installer before). I imagine that a lot of other people wouldn't have had any idea where to start. And even after getting everything working smoothly, the touchscreen doesn't work (no drivers available, and the hardware isn't detected at all; good riddance), and there are some bits of power-management hardware that still show up as question-marks in the device manager. New hardware will be increasingly difficult to run a reasonable Windows OS on. At least in my case, there were drivers for everything that matters to me.
calvano915 10y ago
Installing Windows 10 on activated Windows 7/8 installs still upgrade to digitally entitled license. Just did it the other day. I didn't believe it 'til I tried it, but it worked.
jay-anderson 10y ago
I'd argue that even the 'free' upgrade is not free. For example a windows 8 install which used the free windows 10 upgrade will require purchasing a full license to make any significant hardware changes. I'm liking lots of things microsoft is doing as of late, but I still don't like a lot of their business practices and they are ruining their operating systems infesting it with ads.

Windows 10 is not free. The "free upgrade" period is over. MSRP for Windows 10 Home is $119.

by city41 10y ago

Windows 10 is not free. The "free upgrade" period is over. MSRP for Windows 10 Home is $119.

That's why the parent put "free" in quotes. Unlike all the previous versions of Windows, MSFT decided to make this upgrade "free" for a while, but AFAIK it's still ridiculously easy to pirate Win10, and the "accessibility technologies" free upgrade loophole, which was said to be closing "very soon" many months ago, is still open. In other words, if you really don't want to pay, Microsoft still seems desperate to get you to "upgrade" to Win10... precisely so they can monetise you with ads (and might make more from you eventually even if you never paid for their OS). As a mass-exodus to Linux and macOS curretly seems unlikely, their strategy appears to be winning so far.

TAForObvReasons 10y ago
> As a mass-exodus to Linux and macOS curretly seems unlikely, their strategy appears to be winning so far. ... or people just install windows 7 / avoid upgrading to 10. Hard to call that a "win" Take everything with a grain of salt, but metrics still point to Windows 7 dominance: http://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/windows/desktop/worldwide http://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/windows/de... https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0 https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share...
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- criddell 10y ago
  Isn't Microsoft starting to block updates to Windows 7 on new hardware?
  - clouddrover 10y ago
    Yes: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4012982/discusses-an-issue-in-which-you-receive-a-your-pc-uses-a-processor-tha https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4012982/discusses-a...
    - Mithaldu 10y ago
      They're not "blocking" updates, they've stopped writing and compiling them with the backwards compatibility shims that made them work on older hardware. They probably do this because it drives updates AND because it's cheaper, but please try to describe it accurately.
      - clouddrover 10y ago
        > they've stopped writing and compiling them with the backwards compatibility shims that made them work on older hardware That claim doesn't stack up. Windows 10, for example, works fine on older hardware. As Microsoft said, they're blocking updates to Windows 7 and 8 if you try to run those OSes on newer hardware.
- Pica_soO 10y ago
  How hard would it be to replace the ads with instructions to do a parallel Ubuntu install?
  - sova 10y ago
    I like the way you open source.
  - H4CK3RM4N 10y ago
    Assuming they're on a network you control, probably around as hard as upside-down ternet. Wait, what if you were to redirect the download links for the automatic updates to a Linux installer? Assuming Microsoft's security is still as lax as it was during the XP era, you could get this to work without much difficulty.
    - dTal 10y ago
      Alas, the narrow window of time in which a novice could reasonably be expected to install Linux without undue hassle came to an end with UEFI and SecureBoot.
      - vetinari 10y ago
        Linux distributions work fine with UEFI a Secure Boot[1]. Maybe even better than with BIOS and MBR, because now, there is no excuse to just overwrite the MBR. OS Installers are supposed to just add an entry into UEFI boot manager. [1] Secure Boot comes into play only when 1) you use distribution in SecureBoot enforcing mode (RHEL, CentOS, Fedora) and 2) want to build your own kernel modules. Then, you have to enroll your Machine Owner Key into UEFI and sign your modules with it. However, building kernel modules is not something that grandma is going to do. For normal use, all the mainstream distributions come with a signed bootloader (shim.efi).
- khedoros1 10y ago
  I did that recently on a laptop. It involved finding some relatively-obscure drivers from the actual hardware manufacturers and inserting them into my Windows 7 install media (NVME and USB, I think). It took me a few hours of research (having never had to add drivers to get a machine to boot into a Windows installer before). I imagine that a lot of other people wouldn't have had any idea where to start. And even after getting everything working smoothly, the touchscreen doesn't work (no drivers available, and the hardware isn't detected at all; good riddance), and there are some bits of power-management hardware that still show up as question-marks in the device manager. New hardware will be increasingly difficult to run a reasonable Windows OS on. At least in my case, there were drivers for everything that matters to me.

calvano915 10y ago

Installing Windows 10 on activated Windows 7/8 installs still upgrade to digitally entitled license. Just did it the other day. I didn't believe it 'til I tried it, but it worked.

jay-anderson 10y ago

I'd argue that even the 'free' upgrade is not free. For example a windows 8 install which used the free windows 10 upgrade will require purchasing a full license to make any significant hardware changes. I'm liking lots of things microsoft is doing as of late, but I still don't like a lot of their business practices and they are ruining their operating systems infesting it with ads.