Microsoft Reveals Windows 10 Will Be a Free Upgrade 570
mpicpp was one of many to point out this bit of news about Windows 10."Microsoft just took another big step toward the release of Windows 10 and revealed it will be free for many current Windows users. The company unveiled the Windows 10 consumer preview on Wednesday, showcasing some of the new features in the latest version of the operating system that powers the vast majority of the world's desktop PCs. The developer preview has been available since Microsoft first announced Windows 10 in the fall, but it was buggy, limited in scope and very light on new features. Importantly, Windows 10 will be free for existing Windows users running versions of Windows back to Windows 7. That includes Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and Windows Phone. Microsoft specified it would only be free for the first year, indicating Windows would be software that users subscribe to, rather than buy outright. Microsoft Corporate Vice President of the Operating Systems Group Joe Belfiore showed off some of the new features in Windows 10. While Microsoft had already announced it would bring back the much-missed Start Menu, Belfiore revealed it would also have a full-screen mode that includes more of the Windows 8 Start screen. He said Windows machines would go back and forth between to two menus in a way that wouldn't confuse people. Belfiore also showed a new notification center for Windows, which puts a user's notifications in an Action Center menu that can appear along the right side, similar to how notifications work in Apple OS X. Microsoft Executive Vice President of Operating Systems Terry Myerson revealed that 1.7 million people had downloaded the Windows 10 developer preview, giving Microsoft over 800,000 individual piece of feedback. Myerson explained that Windows 10 has several main intents: the give users a mobility of experience from device to device, instill a sense of trust in users, and provide the most natural ways to interact with devices."
More details are available directly from Microsoft.
No (Score:4, Informative)
It doesn't "indicate" subscriptions.
It says pretty damn clearly that the upgrade to Windows 10 costs exactly 0 if you upgrade during the first year after it's released.
English, motherf***er. Do you speak it?
Re:Only for the first year (Score:5, Informative)
I think the key question is what happens after the first year? How much does it cost after year 1? If you don't pay will it brick your PC or just stop providing updates?
I didn't hear anything about a subscription on the stream, but the stream is buggy, so maybe I just missed it.
But what I understand is that upgrade will be free if done in the first year, like the 30€ upgrade to Windows 8 in the first few months. If you don't upgrade within the first year, you'll have to buy the new Windows.
Re:Rent seeking (Score:5, Informative)
The summary is wrong. What they were saying is that you can upgrade for free during the first year after Win10 release. Then it works as usual, you get automatic updates etc.
Re:Please no... (Score:5, Informative)
Considering they pulled it out of their ass, I'd say it is wrong.
Free for 1 year doesn't mean they start charging after one year. It means you have the option to upgrade for free for one year after release. If you wait more than a year then you have to pay.
Whoever wrote this article has no reading comprehension skills.
Re:Only for the first year (Score:5, Informative)
That's not what it means. It means you have the choice to upgrade to 10 for free within 1 year. If you wait more than a year after release you have to pay. Anyone who got a free upgrade will continue to have a full 100% working and updated OS after the 1 year.
This is exactly how they did things with 8. I don't know why the article author is pulling BS out of his ass.
Re:Only for the first year (Score:5, Informative)
Relevant portion:
This is more than a one-time upgrade: once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device – at no additional charge.
Pete Pachal is an idiot (Score:5, Informative)
The linked article has Pete Pachal's unfounded speculation that Windows 10 will be an annual subscription, touting it as fact.
The actual quote from a MS executive is, "Once a device is upgraded to Windows 10, we'll be keeping it current for the supported lifetime of the device," said Terry Myerson, executive vice president of the Operating Systems Group.
So, no, you won't be losing your upgrade after a year. Like Apple, once your device has reached it's supported lifetime MS isn't guaranteeing that you'll be able to upgrade anymore and you'll be stuck with an OS that has basically been EOL'd as far as support is concerned. This is really a way to (1) get you on the hardware upgrade train (2) reduce version fragmentation in the Windows sphere and (3) reduce legacy OS support for the vast majority of MS users.
Re:Rent seeking (Score:5, Informative)
Sigh.
http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/01/21/the-next-generation-of-windows-windows-10/
"This is more than a one-time upgrade: once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device – at no additional charge."
The article is 100% wrong and as far as I have seen they are the ONLY ones making hints at subscriptions.
Re:No (Score:5, Informative)
No, absolutely not.
http://blogs.windows.com/blogg... [windows.com]
We announced that a free upgrade for Windows 10 will be made available to customers running Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 who upgrade in the first year after launch.*
This is more than a one-time upgrade: once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device â" at no additional charge.
Microsoft is perfectly clear about this.
The article is wrong, the summary is wrong, and whoever decided to post something that links to Mashable's random interpretations should be fired.
Re:Only for the first year (Score:5, Informative)
The Ars Technica post [arstechnica.com] was a little more useful and less FUD-ridden, although I won't hold my breath til I see it directly in Microsoft product marketing materials:
Update 2: A blog post from Terry Myerson clears up what "Windows as a service" means, though the duration of "the supported lifetime of the device" is still foggy. "This is more than a one-time upgrade," writes Myerson. "Once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device—at no additional charge
Re:Please no... (Score:5, Informative)
I read the original article this is sourced from. And then I read the small print at the bottom of the article that most people missed.
The article is actually spot on if you read the small print. But it looks like it's wrong if you just read the main article.
The main article states the following:
"We announced that a free upgrade for Windows 10 will be made available to customers running Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 who upgrade in the first year after launch.*
This is more than a one-time upgrade: once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device – at no additional charge."
Note the asterisk.
Now here is what it says in small print under the article:
"*Hardware and software requirements apply. No additional charge. Feature availability may vary by device. Some editions excluded. More details at http://www.windows.com./ [www.windows.com]"
This basically let's them downgrade the "free version" into shitty "limited edition" and then ask for sub money for "full edition".
The issue here is that Microsoft pulls a lot of money from windows tax. I seriously doubt that they are willing to lose this money. Either we're looking for an upgrade as a desperate means to push windows app store upon people (which doesn't exist in 7, which majority of PCs are on) or this is a classic "try before you buy" scheme which downgrades the OS after a year "trial". Either way, we just don't know. Original article's claim of "no charge" promise is pretty much gutted by the "feature availability" caveat. We'll have to wait and see what they do.
Re:Only for the first year (Score:4, Informative)
From the announcement (as opposed to the silly article that slashdot linked which creatively quoted a few things for hype): "We announced that a free upgrade for Windows 10 will be made available to customers running Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 who upgrade in the first year after launch." I hope that clarifies things for everyone.
Re:Only for the first year (Score:5, Informative)
We announced that a free upgrade for Windows 10 will be made available to customers running Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 who upgrade in the first year after launch.*
*Hardware and software requirements apply. No additional charge. Feature availability may vary by device. Some editions excluded. More details at http://www.windows.com./ [www.windows.com]
Re:Only for the first year (Score:1, Informative)
No, he means buy. The story posted here on Slashdot does not reflect what was stated in the article, nor by Microsoft. It is an outright lie fab and mpicpp is a troll.
Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for anyone running Windows 7/8, but the free period will only last for a year. After that, anyone who wants Windows 10 will need to buy it. It will not be subscription based.
Re:Full-screen Start is the problem (Score:5, Informative)
The fact that it's forced full-screen rather than snapped is the problem. At least with the Windows 7 Start menu, I could see a bit of what I was working on in the corner of my screen, which provided some subconscious continuity. In fact, if I had a program snapped to the right side (Windows+Right), I could see all of it while the Start menu was open. But with Windows 8's Start screen, everything is covered up. The full-screen context switch imposes a cognitive burden similar to going through a doorway and forgetting what you came in for.
All true. No argument.
Now, as you are clearly both intelligent and a power user: why exactly do you use the start screen so much in 8.1?
Create custom taskbar menus and pin the apps you use. Documents folder is pinned. Control panels, system properties, etc is right-click on the start button? I can go days without using the start screen on windows 8.1. And when I do use it to search for some obscure thing I rarely use, the fact that its full screen instead of crammed into a corner of the screen is actually a benefit.
Don't get me wrong, I think bringing the start menu back with 10 is the right move for a LOT of reasons. And primarily I completely agree that the way the OS throws them back and forth between the classic and modern UIs is a problem; that shouldn't happen unless they want it to.
You don't need classic shell; you just need to pin and create custom toolbars.
The reason I don't like classic shell, is that while it rejects the mistakes of Windows 8; it PRESERVES the mistakes of Windows 7. The classic start menu is an abomination. Clearly what they did with win 8 isn't the correct solution; but at its heart the startmenu is a fixed size POPUP window stuck in the corner containing 2 operating modes, with an arbitrarily deep nested folder heirarchy, and then a bunch of widgets (search), pinned apps, automatically adding frequently/most used apps, and so forth all bolted onto it. It is categorically a terrible bit of user interface.
Windows 8 got the start screen wrong. But Classic Shell clings to a UI that's at least as terrible but is "familiar". We need to try something new. Maybe windows 10 will get it right... i haven't tried it yet.
Maybe Some Clarification (Score:4, Informative)
Ars Technica was present at the announcement, and the Q&A afterward [arstechnica.com] was both insightful and confusing. They clarify [arstechnica.com] the free upgrade to Windows 10 as follows (emphasis mine):
Update: Microsoft fielded some questions about this upgrade in its Q&A session after the event. The company "hasn't decided" how it will handle upgrades from Windows 7 or 8.1 after the first year of Windows 10 availability ends, and it is "working on an update for Windows RT," but doesn't have further details to share.
Update 2: A blog post from Terry Myerson [windows.com] clears up what "Windows as a service" means, though the duration of "the supported lifetime of the device" is still foggy. "This is more than a one-time upgrade," writes Myerson. "Once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device—at no additional charge."
It seems to me Microsoft is still keeping the details close to the vest. So, for my money, the jury is still out for what happens in a year.
Still, as a strategy to get people to move off Windows 7 in a hurry, this is pretty good [arstechnica.com]. You'd only wonder what would have happened to the XP user base if Vista or 7 had been free. On the other hand, this Windows 10 ecosystem is a really big gamble, and Microsoft desperately needs developers to make their platform compete against iOS and Android. Based on that, giving the first taste away free is a pretty ballsy move.
I only hope they don't try to recoup some of that lost revenue by filling Windows 10 with trackware and clickbait, forking out tons of your personal data to Bing servers because, well, that's where the action is.