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Microsoft confirms new Windows 7 monthly charge for updates
- chris_wot 8y agoTime to switch Linux?
- anaganisk 8y agoGo ask Ubuntu, updates for LTS12 for free, you will undertand a good deal about this article.
- fulafel 8y agoThe contemporary Ubuntu LTS release at Windows 7 GA (2009) was 8.04.
- anticensor 8y agoNew Ubuntu releases are also free of charge. There is less cost to upgrade.
- adrianN 8y agoFor big companies the real cost of an upgrade is not the new license.
- coatmatter 8y agoUbuntu LTS isn't really the appropriate distro if we're trying to cut down the frequency of major upgrades. RHEL/CentOS is what we should be talking about if we're going like-for-like.
- noobermin 8y agoPerhaps in 2018 it's a good reminder how having a monopoly is often not great for consumers.
- pkaye 8y agoHow long ago was Windows 7 released? How long should they continue supporting it at no extra cost?
- thedragonline 8y agoI’m sure blackhats will be rubbing their hands in glee when this day comes.
- asdfasgasdgasdg 8y agoI was going to make some snide comment about black hats being excited to pwn 1% of computers or whatever W7's current market share is. Then I went and looked it up. netmarketshare.com thinks it's still above 40%, with minimal movement over the last two years. Shows what I know.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- thedragonline 8y agoFWIW I've done some limited consulting work with senior citizens. Two observations: A) they like their systems the way they are, so changes of any kind (especially to the UI) are upsetting/unpleasant experiences, B) they are on fixed incomes so hardware/software upgrades that cost more than some de minimis amount are put off / ignored. My prediction - this cohort is going to get slammed at that EOL date.
- pkaye 8y agoThe people who don't replace their Windows 7 probably don't care about security. Furthermore I don't don't know any Linux distributions to guarantee support for more than 10 years without cost. And Apple/Google seem to take an even worse stance.
- creatornator 8y agoMaybe this means we can finally avoid the automatic updates at bad times by simply not authorizing payments?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- kungtotte 8y agoA friend of mine found a helpful workaround for this. Apparently if you go into your network settings and toggle the flag that says your internet connection is a metered connection then Windows won't auto-download any updates at all. That's for Windows 10, I don't know if the same is true for Windows 7.
- madiathomas 8y ago...or simply stop "Windows Updates" service. Problem with your solution is that whenever you connect to a new WiFi connection, you need to mark it as a metered connection. Otherwise it won't be treated as a metered connection.
- Pica_soO 8y agoNope, windows will ignore that too. All those options are just there for the illusion of control.
- tomjen3 8y agoIt might still choose that it is important enough that it overrides you. A better solution would be to block the update servers in your router.
- solomatov 8y agoI want to highlight that it's not for the current Windows version but for the old Windows 7 which is closing its end of life.
- rustcharm 8y agoIt's right in the title. Agreed; it's two versions old. Does Apple still support OS8?
- intern4tional 8y agoMore importantly, the charge only happens after Windows 7 has reached end of life. They did the same thing with XP, and any enterprise software company does this for end of life software. If you want support on an EOL product, it's not free. The article jumps to conclusions -> saying this will cause problems with Windows 10, which is not yet EOL. This article is more or less flamebait.
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y agoCorrect me if I'm wrong, from my limited experience in the enterprise software space, if you want support for current / still under active development version, that also isn't free. Updates can also come at a cost.
- addicted 8y agoWindows 10 updates are free. And security updates for Windows 7 are also free until it’s EOL.
- EamonnMR 8y agoImagine that XP and Win7 where spun off to different companies and allowed to compete with Win10.
- walterbell 8y agoWould customers pay to install Windows 7 on new hardware? It is still available from some OEMs via downgrade rights for Windows 10.
- cptskippy 8y agoA fragmented market where those companies start making user requested enhancements that for the Win32 API and make development a nightmare?
- CoolGuySteve 8y agoWhatever happened to ReactOS? We don't hear much about it these days. But it seems like Linux + Wine/ReactOS is becoming more and more efficient in the enterprise in terms of admin headaches.
- grandpoobah 8y agoA very misleading headline indeed.
- ehsankia 8y agoSo I'm confused, the rumors of Microsoft considering Windows 10 monthly fees were false, or was that something else? This seems to be extended support fee (past 2020 for Windows 7), which seems reasonable.
- lozf 8y agoWin 10 fees will probably come in the future, after these upcoming Win 7 fees have caused a decent percentage of current users to "upgrade" to 10. </cynic>
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- bmurray7jhu 8y agoThis isn't really news. Microsoft has long offered extended support to enterprises with volume license agreements. For Windows XP, Microsoft called this "custom support".[1] Windows XP custom support was billed annually. It may be news if Microsoft switch to monthly billing for Windows 7, but the blog post[2] linked in the Forbes article does not mention monthly billing. [1] https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/kdean/2014/01/12/windows-xp-end-of-life-support-options/ https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/kdean/2014/01/12/windows... [2] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2018/09/06/helping-customers-shift-to-a-modern-desktop/ https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2018/09/0...
- yuhong 8y agoThis reminds me that Windows Server 2003 custom support at one point tends to be mentioned in every quarterly earnings statement of MS.
- OnlyRepliesToBS 8y ago'really isn't news'
- noja 8y agoI want this for Android. I want to pay every month for updates so I get them quickly, and so I don't have to chuck my phone.
- djaychela 8y agoThe problem with Android is that it doesn't work like Windows does - it's dependent on support from the manufacturer which means that even if your phone was capable of running a later version of Android, if the manufacturer hasn't upgraded their blobs, it wouldn't work anyway. Pity, as I agree with you otherwise (my G5 Plus is still stuck on 7, despite Motorola saying they would provide an upgrade to 8 over a year ago).
- ascii_only 8y agoThis was true before project treble. Nowadays blob are separated form OS version. It makes not only updating but porting different flavors of android much easier. But manufacturer had to implement treble first.
- em3rgent0rdr 8y agouse Lineage OS custom rom, which provides updates all the time.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- d21d3q 8y agoI used to flash CM on my phines since having HTC desire (2010), later on i was choosing popular phones with CM support. Samsung, HTC, nexus, but its been years since i flashed some stable release. Now i am on galaxy s7 edge. Few months i was no longer able to automatically pull nightly update from linage. Wiki said that it was no longer supported. They brought support back, but it showed me that I can't relay on it without compiling by myself... I went back to stock rom and I am happy with that. Everything just works (eg phobe is not rebooting on incomming call while comnected to bt speaker), lots of cool UI stuff (while custom roms were meant to have more of them). If manufacturer will drop support then i will change phone.
- ChrisSD 8y agoReminder: forbes.com/sites/* isn't the same as a forbes.com article. It's essentially a blogging network that just so happens to use the Forbes domain.
- dplgk 8y agoSeems like a terrible branding move
- jwilk 8y agoArchived copy without GDPR nag screen: https://web.archive.org/web/20180909080100/https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2018/09/08/microsoft-windows-7-monthly-charge-windows-10-free-upgrade-cost/ https://web.archive.org/web/20180909080100/https://www.forbe...
- dvfjsdhgfv 8y agoIt's enough to switch off JS. It works for 99% of similar nags BTW.
- jwilk 8y agoIt isn't for me. I get redirected to https://www.forbes.com/consent/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2018/09/08/microsoft-windows-7-monthly-charge-windows-10-free-upgrade-cost/ https://www.forbes.com/consent/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com... , which shows empty. :-/
- dvfjsdhgfv 8y agoYou need to switch it off before redirect, i.e. before clicking the link.
- jwilk 8y agoI have it disabled all the time. It doesn't help. The redirect is done by the server, before it had a chance to learn if the client supports JS or not: $ wget --max-redirect=0 https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2018/09/08/microsoft-windows-7-monthly-charge-windows-10-free-upgrade-cost/ --2018-09-09 19:07:58-- https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2018/09/08/microsoft-windows-7-monthly-charge-windows-10-free-upgrade-cost/ Resolving www.forbes.com (www.forbes.com)... 151.101.114.49 Connecting to www.forbes.com (www.forbes.com)|151.101.114.49|:443... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found Location: https://www.forbes.com/consent/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2018/09/08/microsoft-windows-7-monthly-charge-windows-10-free-upgrade-cost/ [following] 0 redirections exceeded.
- dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago> while Windows 7 users have long been able to laugh at the ongoing problems of Windows 10 users, it now appears it will be those users who upgraded for free who will get the last laugh… This semi-serious statement is based on the assumption that the cost of "ongoing problems" for Windows 10 users is lower than $139.