Windows 10 upgrade to be 'free' for one year - BBC Report

[=assassin=]

Link to article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30924022

Is this for real, and for everyone on Windows 7 or 8, or is the headline mis-leading?

[abaxas]

Since everyone else is giving it away for free, MS has to follow.

[cam1986]

When is it going to be 'free'

[scaryjim]

Win 10 isn't going to be free.

For one year from launch date, anyone running Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 can get a free upgrade to Win 10. Anyone buying a Win 10 with or for a new PC, or upgrading a year or more after launch, will pay in the usual way.

MS want everyone on Win 10 'cause they're starting to push unified apps and a device ecosystem. A free upgrade to people who've already paid for a PC OS might persuade them to buy more Win 10 devices (after all, who wouldn't ant their phone, tablet, laptop, desktop and games console all seamlessly running the same apps). It's a reasonable ploy from MS - they get some feels back from the community, and they get a quick boost in install base of their new OS (for instance I can't see anyone currently on Win 8/8.1 not taking the free upgrade, and I suspect a reasonable proportion of Win 7 users will go for it too).

[wasabi]

Waiting for the in-app purchases model. Want to open the file on your C drive more than 3 times a day? Buy new Windows Explorer Pro, only $1.99

Sadly a sign of the times rather than MS being at fault. They're simply following the money.

[scaryjim]

Waiting for the in-app purchases model. Want to open the file on your C drive more than 3 times a day? Buy new Windows Explorer Pro, only $1.99

Can't see them going that far, tbh. As I said in the news thread, their anti-trust history is going to make them very cautious of being seen to be taking advantage of their dominant position.

Aggressively pushing cloud services though, they'll be all over that. I strongly suspect we'll start seeing device manufacturers - particularly in the mobile sector - being persuaded, or perhaps even incentivised, to keep on-device storage low so MS can push cloud storage. Office 365 is another obvious one; that's a subscription service that's already there, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them push a whole raft of 365 products out, with greater segmentation within the market. I suspect we'll see a few features drop off the free version too so they can charge a subscription to get them back. And I imagine that they'll do Office 365 "apps" that will be cloud enhanced and will check your subscription details. They've already pulled a lot of the "standard" content out of Windows too: no built-in DVD playback, no free games etc. which they can offer as paid enhancements.

Ultimately the PC OS market is actually a hard sell in terms of profitability. Someone pays a one-off fee for an install, then essentially expects 10+ years of continuous support, enhancements, improvements, security fixes ... that's a lot of effort. Google has tried to buck that with a free OS (or two, if you count ChromeOS) and selling services on the back of it, and is doing pretty well out of it. If MS can move to a continuous improvement model with the OS and remain profitable by selling services that integrate with it, more power to them. Bottom Line, MS is a business, not a charity.

[jetfire]

how much ram and how many cpus will win 10 pro see hardware wise, any links?

[gamesaregood]

how much ram and how many cpus will win 10 pro see hardware wise, any links?

I would be suprised if they increase the memory limits from windows 8 X64 as I would consider 128 GB for the standard version and 512GB of Pro to be more than enough currently.

Also expect the physical CPU limit will stay the same which is 1 physical processor for Windows 8.1 and 2 physical processors for Windows 8.1 pro.

[tates11]

They say it is free to upgrade from win7 and win8 to win10, but I'm waiting for more info about win10 pricing

[shaithis]

They've already pulled a lot of the "standard" content out of Windows too: no built-in DVD playback, no free games etc. which they can offer as paid enhancements.

DVD playback was supposedly to keep the cost down. Paying a license fee for every sold copy, obviously mounted up.

Also Microsoft isn't trying to get you to buy their paid alternatives but they are trying to get movement on the "Windows Store". Which I cannot blame them for as they are playing catchup with "Play Store" and "App Store"

[BlueScream]

Might take it up to extend the date the OS I have is supported until, will have to wait till people release stuff that lets me make it work like windows 7 though lol

[scaryjim]

DVD playback was supposedly to keep the cost down. Paying a license fee for every sold copy, obviously mounted up.

Yeah, I know that, but they included it with Win 7; at some point they took the strategic decision to stop offering the codecs/libraries as standard. I'm not sure I entirely buy the "keeping cost down" argument; it's not like Win 8 licenses are significantly cheaper than the comparable Win 7 ones. But since most OEMs bundle a DVD package, it's a margin they could afford to shave because 98% of their customers wouldn't notice.

Also Microsoft isn't trying to get you to buy their paid alternatives ...

Unless they've suddenly become some philanthropic or socialist benevolent fund, of course they're trying to get you to buy their paid alternatives - that's how they make money, and that's what being a business is all about. They can't stop you buying someone else's paid alternative, but you can bet your bottom dollar they'd rather you bought theirs.

[Singh400]

It's nice of them to include 7 users, I wasn't taken with 8 to be honest.

[Crhis]

It's nice of them to include 7 users, I wasn't taken with 8 to be honest.

Curious; what is it about 10 that is making you think about upgrading that wasn't there with 8?

[Dooms]

Curious; what is it about 10 that is making you think about upgrading that wasn't there with 8?

Indeed for most people 10 is just 8.1 with Classic Shell installed & the tick box "When I sign in or close all apps on a screen, go to desktop instead of start" ticked.

[Singh400]

Curious; what is it about 10 that is making you think about upgrading that wasn't there with 8?

The whole Metro nonsense, now that I have a Surface Pro 3. Metro makes sense for me, but on a desktop? It's awkward.