9 ms·

Windows 10 upgrade to be 'free' for one year

146 points by secfirstmd 12y ago

jedberg 12y ago
It's not the price of Windows that was keeping people from adopting Windows 8. It's the irrelevancy and the fact that corporations don't see the ROI. The time it would take to upgrade their company isn't worth the gains, which are minimal. Unless Windows 10 proves to be a massive improvement in performance or usability, I suspect it's uptake will be just as anemic, free or not.
- iza 12y ago
  What prevented companies from updating was the bastardized UI requiring retraining and extra IT support. I don't think Windows 10 necessarily needs a huge improvement. Companies will either update when they upgrade the physical computers and the new ones happen to come with Windows 10, or when some crucial piece of software drops support for 7. They won't actively avoid 10 or downgrade like some did for 8.
  - colechristensen 12y ago
    All Windows 10 needs is the option to make the UI look and behave the same as Windows 95 to 7. Do that, and the enterprise world will adopt it.
- epochwolf 12y ago
  I would have upgraded several of my machines to Windows 8 if it wasn't for the price. I already have a bunch of Windows 7 licenses.
  - abandonliberty 12y ago
    I got an 8 upgrade when offered it for 20$. It was worth the price.
- cwyers 12y ago
  Microsoft has always had seperate enterprise and consumer pricing for Windows. This is an announcement about consumer pricing. So... consumer pricing won't affect enterprise adoption. We already knew that, though.
- bad_user 12y ago
  Users in general don't upgrade unless forced, because non-technical folks are conservative. All of Microsoft's competition have encouraged (free) updates in one way or another, with much less regard towards backwards compatibility. This also creates expectations for developers, assuming that a majority will upgrade in a timely manner, therefore users feel compelled to upgrade otherwise their favorite apps may stop being supported for their current OS. Microsoft's biggest enemy is the old Microsoft that took years to update Windows XP and IExplorer 6. And then Vista happened, which brought no improvements, except a flawed and annoying security model, bloat and instability. And do I even need to rant on 8.0? So it's no wonder that users lost their appetite for updates. However, I believe there is serious room for improvement in how we use our computers, especially our PCs. However that line on a single OS for all devices doesn't sound good to me, because there are fundamental differences between the devices in question and I hope that Microsoft will do more than marketing gimmicks and interfaces meant for tablets being shown on large screens that have keyboards.
  - yuhong 12y ago
    Vista bought no improvements? BTW, I think always notify for UAC is a better idea anyway.
    - talmand 12y ago
      If the negatives outweigh the positives, would there be improvements?
- moskie 12y ago
  Even if price wasn't the main problem that prevented adoption, it's the problem with the easiest and most obvious solution: make it free. So it's a good thing they addressed it.
- fit2rule 12y ago
  I haven't used Windows in 10+ years, so I've got some questions for those who are smarter than me on the subject of Windows: Does it come with package management yet? Can I easily avoid DLL hell these days? Can I add my own local repository and use it to maintain a fleet of workstations, making sure they always have the same configuration no matter what? Is it easily possible to connect to a Windows machine and administer it from a command line/scripting environment? Can I disable the GUI and use Windows without tying up resources for unneeded functionality - i.e. no graphics card required? Is all of this onboard, or does some/most of it require the involvement of a 3rd-party add-on? If its not onboard, can I validate that 3rd-party with signed keys? Is there an onboard key agent that will make this possible? Is there an easy way to get a compiler onboard without requiring registration and so on, or does it ship with development tools already set up and configured? Are these tools usable without requiring GUI involvement - i.e. remotely? These are earnest questions, I honestly don't know. If the majority of the answers are in the affirmative, then I'll give Windows 10 a try - it would make a nice change from what I've gotten used to with my Linux machine.
  - mavhc 12y ago
    > Does it come with package management yet? Not really > Can I easily avoid DLL hell these days? Yes, it just stores every version on the drive, seems to work > Can I add my own local repository and use it to maintain a fleet of workstations, making sure they always have the same configuration no matter what? For free? not easily. > Is it easily possible to connect to a Windows machine and administer it from a command line/scripting environment? Powershell does a lot more on this front > Can I disable the GUI and use Windows without tying up resources for unneeded functionality - i.e. no graphics card required? Considering Windows Server Core still has a GUI? no. > does it ship with development tools already set up and configured? No
    - fit2rule 12y ago
      Thanks - so it seems Windows is not competitive with my 15+ years of experience with Linux. I would have thought that would have changed by now, but I guess its just different.
- Someone1234 12y ago
  The upgrade isn't "free" for most companies, kinda. If they're a small business and use OEM installed copies of Windows and those OEM copies are Pro or lower then, yes, they get a free upgrade. If it comes with Enterprise OEM they won't get the upgrade, and if they are on a volume licence (which most companies, even medium sized are) then they won't get a free upgrade and will instead need Software Assurance (subscription upgrades). Many companies upgrade because of non-obvious benefits, namely how newer versions of Windows ineract with Active Directory, WDS, WUS, and similar. Every version of Windows comes with new and sometimes impressive enterprise features that consumers just rarely notice. For example, go here[0] and look at the Enterprise column. It is these types of things that are what gets enterprise excited, not how pretty alt-tab looks or if it has Cortana. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_8_editions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_8_editions
- cheshire137 12y ago
  The price is what was keeping me from upgrading my personal PC running Windows 7.
- overgard 12y ago
  I think most companies like to be up to date as long as the move is at least lateral. I think the problem with windows 8 was that it was largely seen as a downgrade. Nobody really liked the new features or wanted them. If Windows 10 isn't worse than Windows 7, I think people will upgrade.
kemayo 12y ago
I wonder if they'll let the (vast number of) pirated versions of Windows 7/8 participate in the free upgrade program. It'd be an interesting change to the dynamic of Windows.
- secfirstmd 12y ago
  Especially in emerging world markets, where it's often impossible to buy a legitimate copy of Win 7/8 even when you want to.
- mmebane 12y ago
  I would be a bit surprised if they did. The $14.99 Win7 -> Win8 upgrade they offered for a while required validation of your old product key. Still, MS has changed quite a bit in the last few years, so it's hard to say.
- ckarmann 12y ago
  I doubt it, but anyway if you pirated your Windows 7, you can pirate your Windows 10 too...
MrGuyUser 12y ago
Windows 10 looks pretty awesome. And if you like me down graded to an android phone from a pretty good old windows 7.8 phone you'll realize that the voice recognition stuff on android hardly works. I use a nexus 4 which is too new to change again, but I hate that I can't reply to texts with the headset. Yeah I know there is probably an app out there and probably a mode. I didn't figure it out. Win 7.8 phone did it automatically and switches off when you turned the headset off. So the Cortana feature looks even more amazing to me. One note that I've realized the voice rec on the latest version of Android works acutally pretty good now. It's been like 4 years. And still doesn't work great with the headset. All apps on android are scary since they want all kinds of access to contacts, messages, phone. Oh boy, I can't install anything because I'm too afraid of what it might do with that access. I only really trust the native stuff. What I wonder is how they plan to monetize free windows 10 as a service. I'm not going to be happy if I find it's another yearly fee like Office 365. I searched forever to find a legit activatable copy of office 2010 to avoid that.
- sliverstorm 12y ago
  Supposedly the big money has never been in Windows licenses. For example, Office is a big money-maker for them. So it is in their interests to have everyone run Windows, even if they don't get license revenue. Hearsay though.
  - kryptiskt 12y ago
    Windows licenses is a big money maker, but nearly all of it comes from OEM installations and enterprise customers. Few people shell out for upgrading their old computer, they tend to run what came installed on it.
  - 7952 12y ago
    They should just merge the consumer versions of windows and office together. Cut the subscription plan and make it reasonably expensive even for OEMs. This would let them differentiate themselves from Chrome OS and retain all their old Office customers.
- dragonwriter 12y ago
Narishma 12y ago
Does it mean that if you do the free upgrade, once the year is over you'll have to pay to continue using it? Or does it mean instead that the upgrade will be free for the first year, and if you want to upgrade after that it'll cost you?
- kyriakos 12y ago
  From what I understood from the video it means you get the chance to upgrade within a year of release. They also said you'll be receiving automated updates for the supported life time of the device (whatever that means)
  - BigChiefSmokem 12y ago
    Sounds more like a year long trial period as you never seem to quite own the "free" copy. Not exactly what loyal Windows 7 and 8 users would have wanted (a real free lifetime copy), but a genuine step in the right direction.
    - nightski 12y ago
      You never "own" software in the first place. But yes the license is perpetual for whichever device(s) you activate it on.
  - Someone1234 12y ago
    They've done a really poor job of communicating that. The free upgrade for one year thing is fairly cut and dry. However what they meant by that "we'll support updates for the lifetime of the device" is completely meaningless and confusing. As opposed to what they've been doing until now..? Also they keep on talking about "Windows as a service" with zero clarification on what that means. Is Windows becoming a paid subscription? Is that just meaningless marketing speak? I'll say this, Microsoft has a bad track record of making these events 50% longer than they should be and filing in the gaps with marketing department nonsense that doesn't mean anything. There were some bits of that that were simply cringe and or a huge time waster. Some fruit-named company do these presentations better. They're still better than Google however...
joshstrange 12y ago
Can someone explain why it would only be free for the first year? To spur adoption? It just seems like more trouble than it's worth to start charging people for it sometime in the future.
- BigChiefSmokem 12y ago
  Ever since Amazon Web Services nothing has ever been the same. Maybe one day we'll all go back to actually "owning" the software we buy instead of just timed licenses and logins.
  - mhurron 12y ago
    You haven't owned software for a while, long before anyone every thought of AWS. Remember XP having to be re-authorized if you changed too much hardware? It was before then too.
- greggyb 12y ago
  For 1 year from release it is free to migrate from 7/8 -> 10. After 1 year from release you must pay to migrate from 7/8 -> 10. Regardless of when you migrate, system upgrades are included for the lifetime of the device. This is a push to get everyone onto the new platform and jumpstart the ecosystem.
- jjcm 12y ago
  A forcing function to get people to move to it quickly. Microsoft traditionally has had trouble in getting people to adopt new versions of their software (IE6 ring a bell? XP still has an 18% market share worldwide, despite being 13 years old). This will hopefully make people adopt it quicker.
devindotcom 12y ago
Guys arguing about what "free for a year" means, be aware they DID specify this and if you think they haven't communicated it, you probably weren't there! "For the first year after Windows 10 is available, we will be making available a free upgrade to Windows 10 for all devices running Windows 8.1. Once a device is upgraded to Windows 10, we'll be keeping it current for the supported lifetime for the device." If that's not clear enough for you, I don't know what to say! Furthermore the actual public awareness campaign hasn't started (this announcement came two hours ago, remember) so chill out for a second before calling something a poor job of communicating. They have a limited time to show off a huge amount of features including a goddamn top-secret holographic VR helmet, plus the details on the release aren't even ironed out yet, so if they didn't spend an extra five minutes drilling down on the release strategy (8 months away at this point) you're going to have to forgive them.
- McGlockenshire 12y ago
  Here's the smallprint from the page on their current Windows 10 promo site[1]: > It is our intent that most of these devices will qualify, but some hardware/software requirements apply and feature availability may vary by device. Devices must be connected to the internet and have Windows Update enabled. ISP fees may apply. Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1 Update required. Some editions are excluded: Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise, and Windows RT/RT 8.1. Active Software Assurance customers in volume licensing have the benefit to upgrade to Windows 10 Enterprise outside of this offer. We will be sharing more information and additional offer terms in coming months. 1: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/about http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/about
  - devindotcom 12y ago
    No RT! That's harsh, but the truth is dropping RT like a bad habit is the best thing they could do. Sucks for anyone who bought a copy on a cheap tablet, though.
    - Someone1234 12y ago
      RT would have been amazing if they had been able to create an x86/64 emulator. Even if it ran 50% slower than on a native CPU and even if it ate battery like crazy at least it would have given the platform a nice back-catalogue. Instead not only did RT have virtually no software on it, but Microsoft went out of their way to make it "impossible" to build ARM-native software for it without essentially hacking into your own system. Microsoft set RT on the road to ruin from almost day one. It is unsurprising that they're pulling the plug. I will say when they announced the Surface Pro 3 without a Surface RT 3, the writing was on the wall as far as end of life...
Norp 12y ago
I guess when you have a product that screams NSA backdoor you have to put it out for free.
rasz_pl 12y ago
Clippy: I heard no one likes our phone OS, so we are going to put it on your desktop for FREE, arent you glad? Metro squares for everyone!
- Gmo 12y ago
  Actually, a lot of people who have an WP 8 phone do like the OS a lot. I know I do at least.
  - copperx 12y ago
    I doubt the OS was ever an issue. The issue was the lack of applications for the OS.
    - dagw 12y ago
      Or more importantly the lack of quality of the apps that do exist. As a part time WP8 user I've never really suffered from a lack of apps, but I often find that the apps that are there never live up to the quality and finish of equivalent apps on Android. Don't get me wrong, they're all fine and all get the job done, but never quite as nicely as on Android (or iOS). The only exception where the Nokia Here navigation apps.
thought_alarm 12y ago
I don't think this free upgrade is much of a shock. People who bought a Windows XP machine in 2001 enjoyed 6+ years of free OS upgrades from Microsoft. Likewise, people who buy a Mac enjoy 5+ years of free OS upgrades from Apple. If Microsoft wants to shift into a yearly release cycle and they don't give away the updates to their existing customers then they're essentially charging for service packs, which won't fly.
- talmand 12y ago
  It's not a shock but it's outside the norm for Microsoft. Typically you do not get free upgrades from one version of Windows to the next. You can free updates to your current version. But never a free upgrade to the next major version. WinXP users enjoyed six plus years of free updates to WinXP. I don't see this type of release from Microsoft changing their update/upgrade model. They're just doing it as a means to push the user base harder to transition and possibly as a small admittance of the screw-up over Win8. Apple, on the other hand, went from cheap upgrades to free upgrades over the last few versions of OS X. It's not the same thing as Microsoft's release pattern.
  - jeeva 12y ago
    Let's be a little honest, though - this is a spectacular rebrand for 8.2, along with large user-visible changes (not forcing Metro) and some cool backend stuff. A lot of this stuff was originally going to be in the second service pack for 8.1, if I remember correctly (most distinctively, the start menu returning). They've said themselves that they needed to get away from the stigma that is associated with 8.* - and that's great. Charging for it would be a bit harsh.
    - talmand 12y ago
      Well, sure, it's like what happened with going from Vista to Win7. But since they are mostly a software company I don't have much issue with them having a business model that makes them money, and that involves charging for software.
z3t4 12y ago
Probably they are changing business plan to take 25-30% of each app ever sold for the OS instead of just charging for the OS itself. Finally, you do not have to port your app to all devices. And hopefully you, as a user will be able to control how much access each app has to the computer. Imagine buying a new smart-phone with lets say Android, then you install Windows 10 on it instead and everything just works. The only problem I see is that they need to make the SDK easier for me to start making native apps instead of web apps. Especially the UI part.

146 points by secfirstmd 12y ago

It's not the price of Windows that was keeping people from adopting Windows 8. It's the irrelevancy and the fact that corporations don't see the ROI. The time it would take to upgrade their company isn't worth the gains, which are minimal. Unless Windows 10 proves to be a massive improvement in performance or usability, I suspect it's uptake will be just as anemic, free or not.

iza 12y ago
What prevented companies from updating was the bastardized UI requiring retraining and extra IT support. I don't think Windows 10 necessarily needs a huge improvement. Companies will either update when they upgrade the physical computers and the new ones happen to come with Windows 10, or when some crucial piece of software drops support for 7. They won't actively avoid 10 or downgrade like some did for 8.
- colechristensen 12y ago
  All Windows 10 needs is the option to make the UI look and behave the same as Windows 95 to 7. Do that, and the enterprise world will adopt it.
epochwolf 12y ago
I would have upgraded several of my machines to Windows 8 if it wasn't for the price. I already have a bunch of Windows 7 licenses.
- abandonliberty 12y ago
  I got an 8 upgrade when offered it for 20$. It was worth the price.
cwyers 12y ago
Microsoft has always had seperate enterprise and consumer pricing for Windows. This is an announcement about consumer pricing. So... consumer pricing won't affect enterprise adoption. We already knew that, though.
bad_user 12y ago
Users in general don't upgrade unless forced, because non-technical folks are conservative. All of Microsoft's competition have encouraged (free) updates in one way or another, with much less regard towards backwards compatibility. This also creates expectations for developers, assuming that a majority will upgrade in a timely manner, therefore users feel compelled to upgrade otherwise their favorite apps may stop being supported for their current OS. Microsoft's biggest enemy is the old Microsoft that took years to update Windows XP and IExplorer 6. And then Vista happened, which brought no improvements, except a flawed and annoying security model, bloat and instability. And do I even need to rant on 8.0? So it's no wonder that users lost their appetite for updates. However, I believe there is serious room for improvement in how we use our computers, especially our PCs. However that line on a single OS for all devices doesn't sound good to me, because there are fundamental differences between the devices in question and I hope that Microsoft will do more than marketing gimmicks and interfaces meant for tablets being shown on large screens that have keyboards.
- yuhong 12y ago
  Vista bought no improvements? BTW, I think always notify for UAC is a better idea anyway.
  - talmand 12y ago
    If the negatives outweigh the positives, would there be improvements?
moskie 12y ago
Even if price wasn't the main problem that prevented adoption, it's the problem with the easiest and most obvious solution: make it free. So it's a good thing they addressed it.
fit2rule 12y ago
I haven't used Windows in 10+ years, so I've got some questions for those who are smarter than me on the subject of Windows: Does it come with package management yet? Can I easily avoid DLL hell these days? Can I add my own local repository and use it to maintain a fleet of workstations, making sure they always have the same configuration no matter what? Is it easily possible to connect to a Windows machine and administer it from a command line/scripting environment? Can I disable the GUI and use Windows without tying up resources for unneeded functionality - i.e. no graphics card required? Is all of this onboard, or does some/most of it require the involvement of a 3rd-party add-on? If its not onboard, can I validate that 3rd-party with signed keys? Is there an onboard key agent that will make this possible? Is there an easy way to get a compiler onboard without requiring registration and so on, or does it ship with development tools already set up and configured? Are these tools usable without requiring GUI involvement - i.e. remotely? These are earnest questions, I honestly don't know. If the majority of the answers are in the affirmative, then I'll give Windows 10 a try - it would make a nice change from what I've gotten used to with my Linux machine.
- mavhc 12y ago
  > Does it come with package management yet? Not really > Can I easily avoid DLL hell these days? Yes, it just stores every version on the drive, seems to work > Can I add my own local repository and use it to maintain a fleet of workstations, making sure they always have the same configuration no matter what? For free? not easily. > Is it easily possible to connect to a Windows machine and administer it from a command line/scripting environment? Powershell does a lot more on this front > Can I disable the GUI and use Windows without tying up resources for unneeded functionality - i.e. no graphics card required? Considering Windows Server Core still has a GUI? no. > does it ship with development tools already set up and configured? No
  - fit2rule 12y ago
    Thanks - so it seems Windows is not competitive with my 15+ years of experience with Linux. I would have thought that would have changed by now, but I guess its just different.
Someone1234 12y ago
The upgrade isn't "free" for most companies, kinda. If they're a small business and use OEM installed copies of Windows and those OEM copies are Pro or lower then, yes, they get a free upgrade. If it comes with Enterprise OEM they won't get the upgrade, and if they are on a volume licence (which most companies, even medium sized are) then they won't get a free upgrade and will instead need Software Assurance (subscription upgrades). Many companies upgrade because of non-obvious benefits, namely how newer versions of Windows ineract with Active Directory, WDS, WUS, and similar. Every version of Windows comes with new and sometimes impressive enterprise features that consumers just rarely notice. For example, go here[0] and look at the Enterprise column. It is these types of things that are what gets enterprise excited, not how pretty alt-tab looks or if it has Cortana. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_8_editions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_8_editions
cheshire137 12y ago
The price is what was keeping me from upgrading my personal PC running Windows 7.
overgard 12y ago
I think most companies like to be up to date as long as the move is at least lateral. I think the problem with windows 8 was that it was largely seen as a downgrade. Nobody really liked the new features or wanted them. If Windows 10 isn't worse than Windows 7, I think people will upgrade.

kemayo 12y ago

I wonder if they'll let the (vast number of) pirated versions of Windows 7/8 participate in the free upgrade program. It'd be an interesting change to the dynamic of Windows.

secfirstmd 12y ago
Especially in emerging world markets, where it's often impossible to buy a legitimate copy of Win 7/8 even when you want to.
mmebane 12y ago
I would be a bit surprised if they did. The $14.99 Win7 -> Win8 upgrade they offered for a while required validation of your old product key. Still, MS has changed quite a bit in the last few years, so it's hard to say.
ckarmann 12y ago
I doubt it, but anyway if you pirated your Windows 7, you can pirate your Windows 10 too...

MrGuyUser 12y ago

Windows 10 looks pretty awesome. And if you like me down graded to an android phone from a pretty good old windows 7.8 phone you'll realize that the voice recognition stuff on android hardly works. I use a nexus 4 which is too new to change again, but I hate that I can't reply to texts with the headset. Yeah I know there is probably an app out there and probably a mode. I didn't figure it out. Win 7.8 phone did it automatically and switches off when you turned the headset off. So the Cortana feature looks even more amazing to me. One note that I've realized the voice rec on the latest version of Android works acutally pretty good now. It's been like 4 years. And still doesn't work great with the headset. All apps on android are scary since they want all kinds of access to contacts, messages, phone. Oh boy, I can't install anything because I'm too afraid of what it might do with that access. I only really trust the native stuff. What I wonder is how they plan to monetize free windows 10 as a service. I'm not going to be happy if I find it's another yearly fee like Office 365. I searched forever to find a legit activatable copy of office 2010 to avoid that.

sliverstorm 12y ago
Supposedly the big money has never been in Windows licenses. For example, Office is a big money-maker for them. So it is in their interests to have everyone run Windows, even if they don't get license revenue. Hearsay though.
- kryptiskt 12y ago
  Windows licenses is a big money maker, but nearly all of it comes from OEM installations and enterprise customers. Few people shell out for upgrading their old computer, they tend to run what came installed on it.
- 7952 12y ago
  They should just merge the consumer versions of windows and office together. Cut the subscription plan and make it reasonably expensive even for OEMs. This would let them differentiate themselves from Chrome OS and retain all their old Office customers.
dragonwriter 12y ago

Narishma 12y ago

Does it mean that if you do the free upgrade, once the year is over you'll have to pay to continue using it? Or does it mean instead that the upgrade will be free for the first year, and if you want to upgrade after that it'll cost you?

kyriakos 12y ago
From what I understood from the video it means you get the chance to upgrade within a year of release. They also said you'll be receiving automated updates for the supported life time of the device (whatever that means)
- BigChiefSmokem 12y ago
  Sounds more like a year long trial period as you never seem to quite own the "free" copy. Not exactly what loyal Windows 7 and 8 users would have wanted (a real free lifetime copy), but a genuine step in the right direction.
  - nightski 12y ago
    You never "own" software in the first place. But yes the license is perpetual for whichever device(s) you activate it on.
- Someone1234 12y ago
  They've done a really poor job of communicating that. The free upgrade for one year thing is fairly cut and dry. However what they meant by that "we'll support updates for the lifetime of the device" is completely meaningless and confusing. As opposed to what they've been doing until now..? Also they keep on talking about "Windows as a service" with zero clarification on what that means. Is Windows becoming a paid subscription? Is that just meaningless marketing speak? I'll say this, Microsoft has a bad track record of making these events 50% longer than they should be and filing in the gaps with marketing department nonsense that doesn't mean anything. There were some bits of that that were simply cringe and or a huge time waster. Some fruit-named company do these presentations better. They're still better than Google however...

joshstrange 12y ago

Can someone explain why it would only be free for the first year? To spur adoption? It just seems like more trouble than it's worth to start charging people for it sometime in the future.

BigChiefSmokem 12y ago
Ever since Amazon Web Services nothing has ever been the same. Maybe one day we'll all go back to actually "owning" the software we buy instead of just timed licenses and logins.
- mhurron 12y ago
  You haven't owned software for a while, long before anyone every thought of AWS. Remember XP having to be re-authorized if you changed too much hardware? It was before then too.
greggyb 12y ago
For 1 year from release it is free to migrate from 7/8 -> 10. After 1 year from release you must pay to migrate from 7/8 -> 10. Regardless of when you migrate, system upgrades are included for the lifetime of the device. This is a push to get everyone onto the new platform and jumpstart the ecosystem.
jjcm 12y ago
A forcing function to get people to move to it quickly. Microsoft traditionally has had trouble in getting people to adopt new versions of their software (IE6 ring a bell? XP still has an 18% market share worldwide, despite being 13 years old). This will hopefully make people adopt it quicker.

devindotcom 12y ago

Guys arguing about what "free for a year" means, be aware they DID specify this and if you think they haven't communicated it, you probably weren't there! "For the first year after Windows 10 is available, we will be making available a free upgrade to Windows 10 for all devices running Windows 8.1. Once a device is upgraded to Windows 10, we'll be keeping it current for the supported lifetime for the device." If that's not clear enough for you, I don't know what to say! Furthermore the actual public awareness campaign hasn't started (this announcement came two hours ago, remember) so chill out for a second before calling something a poor job of communicating. They have a limited time to show off a huge amount of features including a goddamn top-secret holographic VR helmet, plus the details on the release aren't even ironed out yet, so if they didn't spend an extra five minutes drilling down on the release strategy (8 months away at this point) you're going to have to forgive them.

McGlockenshire 12y ago
Here's the smallprint from the page on their current Windows 10 promo site[1]: > It is our intent that most of these devices will qualify, but some hardware/software requirements apply and feature availability may vary by device. Devices must be connected to the internet and have Windows Update enabled. ISP fees may apply. Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1 Update required. Some editions are excluded: Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise, and Windows RT/RT 8.1. Active Software Assurance customers in volume licensing have the benefit to upgrade to Windows 10 Enterprise outside of this offer. We will be sharing more information and additional offer terms in coming months. 1: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/about http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/about
- devindotcom 12y ago
  No RT! That's harsh, but the truth is dropping RT like a bad habit is the best thing they could do. Sucks for anyone who bought a copy on a cheap tablet, though.
  - Someone1234 12y ago
    RT would have been amazing if they had been able to create an x86/64 emulator. Even if it ran 50% slower than on a native CPU and even if it ate battery like crazy at least it would have given the platform a nice back-catalogue. Instead not only did RT have virtually no software on it, but Microsoft went out of their way to make it "impossible" to build ARM-native software for it without essentially hacking into your own system. Microsoft set RT on the road to ruin from almost day one. It is unsurprising that they're pulling the plug. I will say when they announced the Surface Pro 3 without a Surface RT 3, the writing was on the wall as far as end of life...

Norp 12y ago

I guess when you have a product that screams NSA backdoor you have to put it out for free.

rasz_pl 12y ago

Clippy: I heard no one likes our phone OS, so we are going to put it on your desktop for FREE, arent you glad? Metro squares for everyone!

Gmo 12y ago
Actually, a lot of people who have an WP 8 phone do like the OS a lot. I know I do at least.
- copperx 12y ago
  I doubt the OS was ever an issue. The issue was the lack of applications for the OS.
  - dagw 12y ago
    Or more importantly the lack of quality of the apps that do exist. As a part time WP8 user I've never really suffered from a lack of apps, but I often find that the apps that are there never live up to the quality and finish of equivalent apps on Android. Don't get me wrong, they're all fine and all get the job done, but never quite as nicely as on Android (or iOS). The only exception where the Nokia Here navigation apps.

thought_alarm 12y ago

I don't think this free upgrade is much of a shock. People who bought a Windows XP machine in 2001 enjoyed 6+ years of free OS upgrades from Microsoft. Likewise, people who buy a Mac enjoy 5+ years of free OS upgrades from Apple. If Microsoft wants to shift into a yearly release cycle and they don't give away the updates to their existing customers then they're essentially charging for service packs, which won't fly.

talmand 12y ago
It's not a shock but it's outside the norm for Microsoft. Typically you do not get free upgrades from one version of Windows to the next. You can free updates to your current version. But never a free upgrade to the next major version. WinXP users enjoyed six plus years of free updates to WinXP. I don't see this type of release from Microsoft changing their update/upgrade model. They're just doing it as a means to push the user base harder to transition and possibly as a small admittance of the screw-up over Win8. Apple, on the other hand, went from cheap upgrades to free upgrades over the last few versions of OS X. It's not the same thing as Microsoft's release pattern.
- jeeva 12y ago
  Let's be a little honest, though - this is a spectacular rebrand for 8.2, along with large user-visible changes (not forcing Metro) and some cool backend stuff. A lot of this stuff was originally going to be in the second service pack for 8.1, if I remember correctly (most distinctively, the start menu returning). They've said themselves that they needed to get away from the stigma that is associated with 8.* - and that's great. Charging for it would be a bit harsh.
  - talmand 12y ago
    Well, sure, it's like what happened with going from Vista to Win7. But since they are mostly a software company I don't have much issue with them having a business model that makes them money, and that involves charging for software.

z3t4 12y ago

Probably they are changing business plan to take 25-30% of each app ever sold for the OS instead of just charging for the OS itself. Finally, you do not have to port your app to all devices. And hopefully you, as a user will be able to control how much access each app has to the computer. Imagine buying a new smart-phone with lets say Android, then you install Windows 10 on it instead and everything just works. The only problem I see is that they need to make the SDK easier for me to start making native apps instead of web apps. Especially the UI part.