Has anyone tried Windows 10?

[Perd Hapley]

This grandpa-box is ready for a fresh install. I could re-install 7, but I was thinking about trying 10. Any insights?

[BobR]

It's free, I am not sure what the message is in that move. But please, install and give a report. :)

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2873214/windows-10-will-be-a-free-upgrade-for-windows-7-and-8-users.html

bob

[Perd Hapley]

It says my firmware is not compatible with Secure Boot. I'm not sure what that is. Does that just mean I wouldn't be able to password-protect my BIOS settings?

Looks like Secure Boot is something installed by PC manufacturers, and my computer is homemade. So I guess it's just a feature of the OS that I won't be able to use?

[RevDisk]

This grandpa-box is ready for a fresh install. I could re-install 7, but I was thinking about trying 10. Any insights?

Reinstall Win 7. Win 10 isn't bad, it's already far better than Win 8. I've also heard that customer feedback is bypassing the typical "data massaging" (ie falsification by management) and being directly given to the right folks.

That said, it's a beta.

[Ben]

I forgot about 10 being a free upgrade. While I'm not going to be an early adopter on my physical machine (possibly not an adopter at all) I'm going to go ahead and download it over my Win8 VM and play around with it. I'll report on what I find.

If I were you fistful, I would reinstall Win7 and wait till 10 has been out a while before thinking about it, especially if you just have one machine. I think it's going to be a free upgrade for a year.

[MillCreek]

It is important to remember that it will be a free upgrade for a year, but then you will have to pay an annual fee to use it.  MS is moving towards the 'software as a service' payment model, as they have already done with the new versions of Office.

[Hawkmoon]

It is important to remember that it will be a free upgrade for a year, but then you will have to pay an annual fee to use it.  MS is moving towards the 'software as a service' payment model, as they have already done with the new versions of Office.

Linux.

Open Office.

[Calumus]

http://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-windows-10-will-not-be-sold-as-a-subscription/

[mtnbkr]

yup.  Windows will not be a subscription, but the apps will go that route.  I'm not sure I have a problem with that if the price is right.  If I'm going to pay $250 (just guestimating) for Office and I'll end up replacing it with a new version in 4 years, $60/year subscription works out to be the same.  It all depends on how much the subscription costs and how often you're upgrading to the next version in a traditional model.

I like Open Office for localized use, but if I have to interact with people using the latest version of Office, I find the feature lag to be an issue.  Of course, this was years ago, it may have improved since.

Chris

[lupinus]

I like the newer subscription model. Office isn't cheap and casual folks often aren't interested in paying that much. So they either don't, or they go with Open Office or some such. I know a lot of people that have switched back over to office because they can swallow 70 bucks a year for 1 pc or 100 a year for 5 a lot easier than 220 for a single PC.

[RocketMan]

I read something the other day that said the Raspberry Pi 2 would run Windows 10.  The neat part was that Microsoft was going to offer it free to the maker community for that purpose.  If true, that opens up some interesting possibilities for cool projects.

[Ben]

I'm not sure how I would feel about a subscription OS. If I was still working, I'd probably suck it up and pay so that I could be 100% certain of being able to run any Win based programs I might need to telecommute with. Now that I'm a bum, I'm pretty certain I'd just either live with the last non-subscription Win OS version as long as I could, or switch to Linux as my main OS (run it in a VM now).

I already am sure I won't do subscription MS Office. Again, it might be different if I was still working, but I've been getting along fine with Office 2010 for years, and could probably get along fine with Office 2003. Though I'd likely just switch to Open Office, which has gotten VERY compatible with MS Office these last years. I'm not sure if it's 100% compatible at this point, which could be a concern for someone having to collaborate with MS Office users on the job or in business, but as a personal suite, I'd have no problem switching over to it.

Another reason I'd be against subscription services is that they are too cloud based. I like having physical control of my stuff. 

[Hawkmoon]

I already am sure I won't do subscription MS Office. Again, it might be different if I was still working, but I've been getting along fine with Office 2010 for years, and could probably get along fine with Office 2003. Though I'd likely just switch to Open Office, which has gotten VERY compatible with MS Office these last years. I'm not sure if it's 100% compatible at this point, which could be a concern for someone having to collaborate with MS Office users on the job or in business, but as a personal suite, I'd have no problem switching over to it.

True. For those of us living on social security plus whatever we can eke out from part-time jobs, a subscription-based operating system or application suite just tends to exclude us from the game. I'm still running Windows XP and Office 2003 on my primary desktop and notebook computers. I'll be upgrading to newer computers using Windows 7 soon, but I'll keep using the Office 2003 suite until it becomes impossible.

Another reason I'd be against subscription services is that they are too cloud based. I like having physical control of my stuff.  

Agreed. + eleventy.

[RoadKingLarry]

Is 8.1 lumped in with. 8.0 for the free upgrade? My 2 week old Dell came with 8.1.  As much as I was dreading it 8.1 wasn't the bogeyman I anticipated.

As far as a Office subscription goes I don't need the whole suite. Maybe if they go ala carte ate a reduced price, I'd get along just fine with Word and Excel. OpenOffice will do everything I'm likely to need.

We've got the Adobe CC suite subscription that the wife uses for her graphic design business and I'm using Photoshop and Lightroom but have no need for the rest of it.

[Ben]

Is 8.1 lumped in with. 8.0 for the free upgrade? My 2 week old Dell came with 8.1.  As much as I was dreading it 8.1 wasn't the bogeyman I anticipated.

As far as a Office subscription goes I don't need the whole suite. Maybe if they go ala carte ate a reduced price, I'd get along just fine with Word and Excel. OpenOffice will do everything I'm likely to need.

We've got the Adobe CC suite subscription that the wife uses for her graphic design business and I'm using Photoshop and Lightroom but have no need for the rest of it.

Should be XP-8.x for the free upgrade.

If you're already figuring you'd get along fine with just a couple of Office components, it sounds like you're one of the target audience for Open Office.

As long as your wife is in "The Biz", I suspect you'll be cemented to the Adobe subscription. That world (which is mostly Mac based) is completely tied to the Adobe products. I used to drive one of our graphic design people crazy, because when they wanted to use some analyzed image I'd done for an article or report or something, I'd provide it to them either via my remote sensing software export function, or via GIMP (which does everything Photoshop does and more for free). They'd always ask me about making some "little change" and phrase it to me in Photoshop terms, which don't translate to any language I speak. Got me out of doing their job for them on many occasions. :)

[Hawkmoon]

Where is Win10 now? It's out there as a beta release, correct? Are there any reports as to how stable it is in beta? Is it worth looking at if I can free up an old box? What are the minimum hardware requirements?

[Hawkmoon]

If you're already figuring you'd get along fine with just a couple of Office components, it sounds like you're one of the target audience for Open Office.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2010005/5-free-open-source-alternatives-to-microsoft-office.html

[MillCreek]

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2015/02/is-microsoft-planning-a-windows-365-trademark.html?ana=e_sea_rdup&s=newsletter&ed=2015-02-09&u=G/vun7sJocZR54r4qTedGQ00c85a73&t=1423496915

My nephew works for Microsoft, and he is the person who told me that sooner or later, Windows will be software as a service with an annual fee.

[Hawkmoon]

My nephew works for Microsoft, and he is the person who told me that sooner or later, Windows will be software as a service with an annual fee.

I hope when that happens the computing world will vote with their feet and switch to Linux. It used to be that the operating system was an integral part of the computer; after all, a computer without an operating system is a large doorstop. Selling a computer that includes a rented operating system is about like selling a new car but you have to pay an annual fee or they repossess the tires.

That's just wrong. It's blackmail. MS is counting on the inertia of the installed user base to carry them through such a landmark change. I hope it bites them in the butt -- hard.

[mtnbkr]

Windows wouldn't be the first OS to go to a subscription model.  Red Had does that today with their Enterprise Linux.  Some of the Mainframe systems operated on a subscription model IIRC.

What I've been reading with regards to Windows is that the core OS will likely be free, but you'll pay to enable certain features.

Chris

[Perd Hapley]

I hope when that happens the computing world will vote with their feet and switch to Linux. It used to be that the operating system was an integral part of the computer; after all, a computer without an operating system is a large doorstop. Selling a computer that includes a rented operating system is about like selling a new car but you have to pay an annual fee or they repossess the tires.

That's just wrong. It's blackmail. MS is counting on the inertia of the installed user base to carry them through such a landmark change. I hope it bites them in the butt -- hard.

Uh, riiiiight. It's just a market transaction. A computer w/o an operating system is not a large doorstop. It is actually more like a large doorstop that can be easily converted to a Linux/Ubuntu/whatever system, at no charge. So long as Microsoft can still get away with expecting payment for their particular operating system, how is there a moral objection?

[lee n. field]

http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/02/09/1518227/microsoft-trademarks-windows-365

(No, I haven't tried Windows 10.  I've never bothered with beta versions of anything.)

[BryanP]

I haven't tried it yet, but I'll give it a couple of months and then update our Win 8.1 laptop.  After that, if everything goes smoothly I'll make a backup image of my Win7 HTPC and try it on there. 

[Fitz]

I hope when that happens the computing world will vote with their feet and switch to Linux. It used to be that the operating system was an integral part of the computer; after all, a computer without an operating system is a large doorstop. Selling a computer that includes a rented operating system is about like selling a new car but you have to pay an annual fee or they repossess the tires.

That's just wrong. It's blackmail. MS is counting on the inertia of the installed user base to carry them through such a landmark change. I hope it bites them in the butt -- hard.

 


What's the difference between spending $x a year for a subscription to windows versus paying $xxx every 3 years or so for an upgrade?

Further, you should read your OS license. You NEVER owned it, you've had a license to USE it.


The industry is moving towards subscription models as a whole. Despite the decade (or longer) cries of the "death of Microsoft Office", it's not only gained popularity, but Office 365 is our single biggest moneymaker, raking in enough dough to keep the loss leader XBox afloat, and accounting for a massive amount of revenue (on a 90 percent margin).

[Brad Johnson]

The industry is moving towards subscription models as a whole. Despite the decade (or longer) cries of the "death of Microsoft Office", it's not only gained popularity, but Office 365 is our single biggest moneymaker, raking in enough dough to keep the loss leader XBox afloat, and accounting for a massive amount of revenue (on a 90 percent margin).

Kinda presumed Xboxes were to MS Gold subscriptions what printers were to ink cartridges, a machine sold at break-even to get the consumer in a perpetual-resupply (or subscription renewal pipeline)

Brad