Surface Laptop Can Be Switched To Windows 10 Pro For Free Until 2018 (cnet.com) 150
An anonymous reader shares a report: Don't let the new Windows 10 S operating system stop you from buying a Surface Laptop this year. The streamlined OS limits you to using applications that are in Microsoft's Windows Store. But, as noted in the tech specs for Microsoft's new ultraportable, if you'd rather run non-Store apps, you can switch to Windows 10 Pro for free until December 31, 2017. Once 2018 hits, the switch to Pro will cost $49. But be warned: Once you upgrade your license key, you can't go back.
Only LUDDITES want Windows 10 Pro. (Score:1, Funny)
Apps!
Re: Only LUDDITES want Windows 10 Pro. (Score:5, Informative)
Where is all the crying about it not being user upgradable? Gamer dweebs won't be able to rice it out!
Also educational institutions that normally keep such devices for a long time won't find such a machine suitable for student use, as they won't be as readily able to repair or upgrade as needs change.
Modularity is fairly important in devices assigned to kids. Devices are expected to suffer drops, harsh transportation, kids failing to remove USB components, etc. Ideally the external ports are on their own circuit boards connected via cables to the mainboard so that when the unit gets dropped with the AC adapter plugged in or with the USB flash memory plugged it, the inexpensive circuit board for that subcomponent can be replaced instead of having to replace the whole mainboard.
With this mindset already in play, K12 also likes it when storage is modular. It means K12 can buy the storage that they see themselves need for the next few years, and if it turns out they need more storage it's a lot cheaper to spend $50/device to ugprade than it is to spend $500/device to replace them outright. With things like folder redirection and local caching that becomes an issue, as most users, be they students or staff, want the same access to their stuff whether on the organization's LAN or not.
I get that as devices miniaturize it's increasingly harder to continue to be modular, but sometimes the need for modularity outweighs the desire for small form factor.
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We similar with phones. Feature phones got smaller and smaller and then with the coming of smart phones we are reversing direction and they are getting bigger and bigger.
The difference between what was called a phablet and today's flagship phones is nil.
I need something big enough to use comfortably more than I need something something small.
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What alternate reality do you live in where institutions buying/leasing devices by the thousands repair or upgrade ANYTHING?
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Also educational institutions that normally keep such devices for a long time won't find such a machine suitable for student use, as they won't be as readily able to repair or upgrade as needs change.
No educational institution upgrades devices. Most of them can barely afford a sys admin to keep the network going let alone someone to manage hardware. Education institutions have fallen over themselves to buy iPads and Chromebooks, and if you're in a nice enough school Macbook Airs and Surface Pros. "Upgrades" come in the form of renewed contracts with renewed devices, and given these devices get flung around in kids' schoolbags attrition is a perfectly valid way to upgrade an entire group relatively quick
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As someone who works in IT for a school district (laugh it up chuckleheads), the people who are actually in charge of deciding what device to buy don't know enough to not buy Surface RT's or Surface Pro 1,2,3,4....or whatever the next round of garbage is marketed our way. Buzz words and vendor lock-in are the strongest factors in the places that have been at this for awhile....and don't get me started on the new God Awful windows Cumulative updates......I'm headed to the fridge for a beer, anyone want one?
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Now imagine going back in time where we still have square monitors .
That's going to hurt when K12 kids managed to get it to drop from the table.
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Doesn't Apple already solder on SSDs to the motherboard? Though "first device of its kind" may be narrowly defined such that this laptop is the first device of its kind anyway.
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A spinning SSD? Won't it get dizzy?
too expensive (Score:3)
$1000 for 4 GB of non-upgradable RAM and a (probably) non-upgradable 128 GB SSD.
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Dell's XPS 2in1 is $999
with 4gb
and 128 SSD
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Show us. No please, show us. Also pay attention to other specs like quality of screen, touch screen, weight, size. You get awarded no points for cherry picking.
Re:too expensive (Score:5, Funny)
4GB on a $1000 device? What is Microsoft thinking? That they too can sell overpriced underspecd gear now?
They will be sued as Apple surely has this patented!
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That they too can sell overpriced underspecd gear now?
What's underspecced about a device that will ultimately be used to process documents and browse the internet? If your goal is to play Doom 2016 on it, you're running a fools errand.
Hell not being able to load it with that crap may actually be a plus for educational institutions. In the mean time find us some other devices with similar specs for a better price.
Here's one now from Dell: http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop... [dell.com]
It's $1 cheaper.
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Their goal is to compete with Apple.
They got the price, the locked down OS. Unfortunately, they weren't brave enough to remove the headphone jack.
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Please explain how Apple's laptop OS is "locked down"?
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Other than the fact that it does not run on non-Apple hardware (officially), how is macOS locked down? You can turn off SIP if you want to dance a jig in the system directories, and you can turn off signature checking of programs.
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We're talking about technology here, not religion.
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There's a difference?
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It's a bit like with education and legislation: Often there isn't, but there definitely should be.
Re:And yet... (Score:5, Insightful)
"And yet somehow, Slashdot readers will find a way to bash Microsoft for giving their customers this choice"
Considering what they're doing right now reeks exactly of what got them into trouble with the law in the first place (the web browser) I see no reason why Microsoft shouldn't get slammed.
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"And yet somehow, Slashdot readers will find a way to bash Microsoft for giving their customers this choice"
Considering what they're doing right now reeks exactly of what got them into trouble with the law in the first place (the web browser) I see no reason why Microsoft shouldn't get slammed.
They have learned to play the anti-trust game better and all relevant politicians have been politically donated to. Government power working as intended.
Don't forget the EU pols in Brussels in addition to the national politicians! That was Google's goof a few yearz back.
Before downmodding me as : Too Cynical For My Tastes, go learn history.
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"And yet somehow, Slashdot readers will find a way to bash Microsoft for giving their customers this choice"
Considering what they're doing right now reeks exactly of what got them into trouble with the law in the first place (the web browser) I see no reason why Microsoft shouldn't get slammed.
How is it different than an iPhone, a Chromebook, or another walled-garden device?
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That's because you don't understand the law. How can someone be anti-competitive by locking down their device when they first enter a market? The differences between this and the IE/Netscape saga are night and day in the eyes of the law and also in the eyes of the effect on consumers and competition.
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And yet somehow, Slashdot readers will find a way to bash Microsoft for giving their customers this choice.
It's not very difficult... I'll give it a go.
What "choice" were they given? Between Windows 10S or Windows 10 Pro? Really? That's supposed to be compelling? Think of any other choice that's that narrow, and it seems stupid: hot fudge sunday, or warm fudge sunday? Blue Ford F-150, or Black Ford F-150?
It's clear that Microsoft is trying to do a good thing
Saying it doesn't make it so. This isn't a "good" thing. FWIW, I don't think this is "bad", as in worse than not offering it, but it's not "good" in a moral way, which is how you phrased it. They're even chargin
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Because this is not about choice. This is about conditioning the market to the removal of choice.
If it was about choice, they would offer you the ability to select between S and Home. But instead S is the default, and the only path away is buying the upgrade to Pro. That means a lot of people who are locked in to the phone-like app store experience.
If Microsoft is concerned about programs slowing the computer down by getting their own updates, they could have standardized an update system into the OS.
The S is for (Score:2)
Shitty?
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I went with Strongbad, The S is for Sucks.
But....... (Score:4, Insightful)
does it run Linux?
Only really relevant question here
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Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!
Windows Subsystem for Linux (Score:1)
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lol @ cheap ass windows hobbiests trying to act like apple users now... if windows users had money they wouldn't be windows users!
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Yes, the 2% of the desktop/laptop world is the "only" relevant question here. /sarcasm
Depends on what you mean by "linux". If you count Chromebooks, nobody is quite sure how many are being sold, but it's clearly not so insignificant.
But of course by "linux" we usually don't mean the linux kernel surrounded by a proprietary userland and tied to proprietary network services; we mean a proper distro. But I know *I* have installed Linux on machines that are only used for browsing just to avoid the annoyance of Windows.
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Ugh. How do you make those statements while quoting facts that, IMO, oppose the conclusion you have reached?
2% of the desktop/laptop world (that runs linux) ... No one actually cares.
2% may look small, but consider that MacOS X only has about 3%, and that 2% is almost certainly understated, and the total count is REALLY BIG (billions). We're talking about 10's or 100's of millions of devices, not counting VMs. That's a lot of potential customers, and this segment tends to carry some decision making weight elsewhere.
(does it run Linux) is the "only" relevant question here. /sarcasm
Here is slashdot. Here we have seen all the forced upgrade things
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You answered that backwards. "Does it run Linux?" is not the same question as "Does it run on Linux?" And this is hardware, not software - so it's a bit of a nonsense statement anyway.
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Or is the new MS hardware locked down and will only work with Windows for now.
Why would anyone downgrade? (Score:3)
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I had a netbook that had Windows 7 Starter Edition on it back in the day. Hell, still have it laying about somewhere. Anyway, as a device for simple web browsing and basic usage it was fine. It was annoying as hell that Microsoft wouldn't let you change the background picture on the desktop (a feature one could do on Windows 3.1 on a 386, so their excuse about computing power was bullshit) but even as someone that asks their computers to do more than most it still was adequate for what the platform was.
I
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It's bitztream (Score:1, Funny)
The autism-hating, custom EpiPen-hating, Musk-hating Slashdot troll!
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Awww. Poor little biztream can't handle people liking someone pointing out of the fact that it's a troll, so has to post a fake reply [slashdot.org] to make it look like somebody agrees with it.
So (Score:2)
Why would anyone want a crippled laptop? (Score:4, Interesting)
And with the smallest app store in the industry on top? Many Chromebooks have a far greater selection of Android apps, plus you can sideload more and install competing Amazon appstore.
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Ok-
'Hey Chromebook users! Why would you want a crippled Win10 S laptop?'
What? For a laugh? That's no answer!'
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And with the smallest app store in the industry on top? Many Chromebooks have a far greater selection of Android apps, plus you can sideload more and install competing Amazon appstore.
Many Chromebooks don't run Android Apps. Chromebooks were bloody popular before there was any talk of them running Android Apps. Also given what constitutes "computing" to a lot of people today (Gmail, writing a document in Office 365, uploading photos to the cloud) frankly for a lot of people "Apps" are completely optional.
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MS is chasing the people who don't need Office applications.
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Why another platform with less productivity apps though?
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It doesn't (Score:2, Informative)
>Don't let the new Windows 10 S operating system stop you from buying a Surface Laptop this year.
It doesn'...t I have a shitload of other reasons not to buy it.
This is what secure boot was designed for (Score:1)
They hook you in with a "free" upgrade, then down the line when you get your next computer they extort you to get an uncrippled version of Windows, which is needed for real applications. They will use the paywall to lock out competitors and secure boot will stop you getting the unlocked version for free. Its time to take action against Microsoft before the "S" becomes the default for all new computers.
Copying Apple's mis-steps ..... (Score:2)
Maybe this new Surface laptop will be a big seller? Way too early to predict that. Regardless? I view this one as copying all of the wrong things Apple has done lately.
Basically, you've got Microsoft trying to compete on "thinnest, lightest!" (and for now, actually beating Apple at their own game in that department) - at the expense of functionality. You're always going to pay a premium price for hardware that's been crammed into as small a space as the manufacturer can possibly put it in ... hence the unde
windows home vs pro was about domains in the past (Score:2)
windows home vs pro was about domains in the past for the most part.
OSX did have server ver's in the past.
Re: windows home vs pro was about domains in the p (Score:2)
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Except you're confusing your limited cases with the broader industry.
The large majority of people outside of gamers have no need for discreet graphics. Even on the occasions that something goes more slowly, the trade-off in cost/weight/size balances in favor of accepting the slowness.
There certainly ARE laptops with discreet graphics. Nice ones too. But even so it's a niche market, costs more, and has other trade-offs. Manufacturers are going to focus on the masses by default.
Shilling for M$ much (Score:2)
Yesterday trolling of Apple, then shilling for M$ laptops. I guess we know who paid for the current /. campaign.
A solution without a problem (Score:5, Interesting)
The Surface laptop fills a niche that has a very small userspace inside the Surface lineup and, more importantly, breaks almost zero new ground (save for the super-soft keyboard surface that is a pita to clean). It doesn't fold flat/back so inking isn't really as useful as on the other two Surface portables. You can't get it with a second, discrete GPU like you can with the Book. It's heavier and lower resolution than the Pro4. It's only real claim to fame is a very suspect 14.5 hour "video playback" benchmark which, I'm going to guess, is based on the CPU being in a near-sleep state while the playback is completely decoded in the new Kaby Lake HEVC circuit. There are no specs on the battery because if we know the Wh, we could back out the high power profile time (Wh/15W GPU for most serious work, about double that for light web surfing, maybe 2.5x with Edge).
Similarly equipped, the SL costs within $100 of the SP4 and SB. That seems like a small differential to give up the ability to go tablet mode.
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Similarly equipped, the SL costs within $100 of the SP4 and SB.
This is one I don't understand but it does seem to address one of the complaints about the Surface line, which was that it isn't hinge supported (i.e. very difficult to use on your lap).
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Unsure of the pricing Surface Laptop versus Pro 4 on higher end models, at launch the SP4 i7/16GB/512GB was around $2,700 and the similarly configured Surface Laptop seems to be around $2,100.... Unless one is getting the performance base, there isn't much advantage to the dedicated GPU in upgrading to a SB - the intel IRIS pro gpu in the SP4 is relatively fast....not sure about the new builtin GPU of the surface laptop (i7 variant).
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Surface is a failure (Score:3, Interesting)
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just because surface users don't spend their days in starbucks doesn't mean there aren't any
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Actually yes, I've seen many of them. Surface Pros.
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Actually yes, I've seen many of them. Surface Pros.
as a microsoft employee you probably have a big pile of them stored in your cubicle
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Doesn't the doorman stop you when you try to go into an office building? Or do you disguise yourself by carrying a broom?
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I support Surface Pro2s and up at work. One client is an office that is running AutoDesk on Surface Pro 2/3 models.
We also have a technical sale company that uses Surfaces for sales people and engineers.
I don't care for them and find them to have a few quirks, but the users like them. Or they say that do after convincing their company to shell out the money for the Surface and dock.
One thing we did get complaints about is the decrease in battery life of a Surface Pro 4 compared to a Pro 3.
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I have never seen one "in the wild", personally.
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I have never seen one "in the wild", personally.
I have never seen an elephant in the wild. Therefore, they must not exist.
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Have you ever seen one in public?
Yes, several, and not all of them owned by Microsoft employees.
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Sigh. Go to an indoor event and try and see it through the fucking forest of ipads being held up to photograph or video it.
Trust me, I'd much rather people left them at home.
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This response was written on an SP4 with 16GB, which I use in my job to write code and share information. Yes, it runs Linux. Yes, it runs AmiDuos, meaning I can use pretty much any Android app as well. It's actually a much nicer machine than I expected it to be.
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Don't believe the hype: the Surface is an abject failure. They AREN'T SELLING.
I'm sick of feeding your trolling but some idiot out there has too many mod points so:
They aren't selling. They are ONLY providing MS with $1bn worth of revenue per quarter. I wish I could produce something that doesn't sell that bad.
Have you ever seen one in public? Nope. But cue the people who will claim "I have one" or "we all use them at work". Sure you do.
You're an idiot. /Posted from a Surface Pro 3.
Windows 10 upgrade still free for everybody (Score:5, Interesting)
The legal fiction being that you must use the accessibility tools - so upgrade and use the screen magnifier. There, you've satisfied the requirements.
I remember saying, when they set a time limit on the "free upgrade" that it would be unenforceable...Microsoft doubled down on this when all their new Win10 releases accepted Windows 7 and 8.x Product keys. In theory, they could enforce it through activation, but they simply do not, and trying to enforce it on activation introduces a lot more (costly and operational) headaches for Microsoft.
I can see them, however, expanding this idea that some hardware gets an extended period of upgrades, but the reality is that it's just a thought exercise.
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This new Windows 10 S is just the first step into trying to force everyone into only using apps installed through their app store.
I wish the "walled garden" model had never been invented.
Annual Subscription Fee? (Score:2, Insightful)
Only question I have is when is Microsoft going to a annual Subscription Fee? That's the direction they seem to be headed they just haven't said when.
they do have annual fees for Enterprise Agreements (Score:2)
they do have annual fees for some Enterprise Agreements
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It appears you'll need a subscription fee of $49 to $99 per year [microsoft.com] in order to make an unlisted app [windows.com] on one PC and install it on a Windows 10 S laptop. And this will remain the case until Microsoft adds Visual Studio to Windows Store.
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Nah, they charge every time you buy a new PC and throw away the old windows license that's tied to the hardware.
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Pffft (Score:2)
So you get a free upgrade from bullshit to slightly more full featured bullshit.
Until they start making Enterprise readily available, this is all just handwaving.
It's so frustrating... Apple has been pissing me off to no end with their hardware decisions, and yet Microsoft has *still* managed to piss me off so much more that I would rather pay the Apple Dongle/Dingleberry Tax than go back to Windows..
Everything that orbits around Windows 10 is (Score:3)
a clusterfuck of DontWant. From the locked-down hardware, the Microsoft appstore, the reboot-when-Microsoft-says, ads in the taskbar (and elsewhere), locked-down browser and search... it is indeed a big pile of shit.
Repeating the same mistake (Score:1)
OK, I won't (Score:2)
OK, I won't let Win 10S specifically stop me from buying a Surface. I'll let the presence of any form of Windows 10 stop me from buying it.
Free? (Score:2)
Free as in herpes right?