Windows 10 passes 50 per cent adoption - among Steam users

[Jonatron]

Now that I think about it, I can see why they're so keen to move to a subscription model.

Windows for most people just needs to run windows apps, and stay secure. So far they've just been trying to add features and make old versions unusable to get people to keep upgrading.

People buying an OS once every 7+ years doesn't make enough money for them. The problem with adding features and making old versions unusable is just now just annoying everyone. I don't want Cortana or a windows app store or internet account integration. The problem now is that windows 10 has too stuff I don't want or need, and the basics don't work properly. Changing how updates work seems reasonable to me. But the QA seems to be majorly lacking. So if they just improved QA, and gave me more choice (a minimal install without all the stuff I don't want), then I'd be happy to pay for windows 10 on a subscription basis.

At the moment, I have to stick with windows 7. They're not that far off - just those two changes would mean I switch. I'd put the odds for improving QA/updates at evens, but they seem to be on a massive power trip about taking control away, so them changing that seems about 5/1.

[DanceswithUnix]

People buying an OS once every 7+ years doesn't make enough money for them.

When £150 buys you a Chromebook and all the high end workstations I come across are running Linux, the massive price of Windows is driving it into the gaming niche market.

[TheAnimus]

When £150 buys you a Chromebook and all the high end workstations I come across are running Linux, the massive price of Windows is driving it into the gaming niche market.

Which industry are running those?

(Also, who the hell runs chromebooks.... It's like the antichrist of software oh google, please have everything and hold it on your servers with no other option for me, gg, thanks.)

[Saracen]

I'd say there is a right and wrong answer as peoples blasé attitude towards privacy effects society as a whole, privacy is one of those things people don't know they've lost or how important it is until they need it and realise it's not there.

So would I, but others don't much care, or will "sell" their privacy for what I regard as a pittance.

Some people would say it's already too late, so get over it and get what you can out of it. I don't think it's too late, but it's getting close. Some people like the benefits and will give up some privacy. For example, enabling location services so that SatNav software works or you can get directed to the nearest coffee shop, etc. But you give up a bit of privacy if you location data is constantly tracked. Thing is .... do you care? I do, but someone saying location-based services are worth it to them is fair enough.

And you can scale that principle up. Does it matter if shops kniw what you bought? To me, yes, and a few % off the bill is NOT an acceptable "price". Frankly, at 100% off the price, my answer would still be no. Free car, if we can track you? No thanks.

And clearly, nobody is going to offer me free shopping or cars just for my data, so my position is absolute - my privacy is not for sale at ANY sensible, realistic price.

But it's not wrong for others to put a different, even trivial price on privacy.

Where I very much agree is about not knowing what you've lost until it's gone. The decisions we all makenow are going to be with us for life. Once data has been gathered, it's likely to be permanently out there. Every bit you lose incremenrally increases the amount you've lost, and decreases the point of keeping anything else back.

If someone doesn't care now, and changes their mind in 10 years, it's effectively too late, the damage is done. So a decision now to not protect data is permanent.

I'm glad I've been very guarded for a very long time.

But if other peoole don't care then maybe that's right for them.

[Saracen]

.... So if they just improved QA, and gave me more choice (a minimal install without all the stuff I don't want), then I'd be happy to pay for windows 10 on a subscription basis.

At the moment, I have to stick with windows 7. They're not that far off - just those two changes would mean I switch. I'd put the odds for improving QA/updates at evens, but they seem to be on a massive power trip about taking control away, so them changing that seems about 5/1.

Again, on a personal basis, no way would I buy Windows on a subscription basis. I stopped upgrading Photoshop, after being a user for about 20 years, for exactly that reason.

If MS, or Adobe, put a proposition to me that a upgrade offers <insert list> of benefits and new features, and costs £x, then I have a basis for deciding whether or not it's worth it to upgrade. But take Photoshop, for instance .... I might use it intensively for a couple of weeks if I have a project in, then not touch it for months. I'm not paying monthly for someone I know I may not use.

Similarly, Windows. Given what MS have done and the decisions they've made, I xan fulfil some of my needs with legacy systems on Win7, or even XP. For the rest, I can manage perfectly well with Ubuntu.

So why pay monthly for subscription Windows, or for that matter, Office 365?

The subscription model, for me, is buying a pig in a poke. I've no idea what changes, good or bad, will be made yet it's going to cost me every month? Nah, not me.

For example, had Win7 been on subscription, when Win8 came out with that horrible interface, and the disappearance if the Start menu I've been using to organise my tasks for many, many years, I'd have been stuck with it. Instead, I junked the garbage that was Win8, and went back to Win7. And that's where my Windows machines will stay, until such time as I migrate everything to Linux.

I do undersrand the appeal of subscriptions to many users, especially business users (whuch I am) but it so doesn't suit me that I stopped upgrading Photoshop because if it.

[DanceswithUnix]

Which industry are running those?

(Also, who the hell runs chromebooks.... It's like the antichrist of software oh google, please have everything and hold it on your servers with no other option for me, gg, thanks.)

I'm currently in the storage industry as a programmer, previously in financial transactions. Targets are very wide ranging, at the low end embedded systems so you end up using gcc, or at the high end mix of Unix systems with a very heavy bias to Redhat depending on client but they can all run gcc code. You can compile gcc from Windows, but I would rather have my teeth slowly extracted it would be more fun.

As for Chromebooks, we have one at home. It gets used for YouTube, Facebook, general googling. Stuff that doesn't involve a local copy of anything anyway so nothing lost, but within that use case it is ideal. I gather they mostly sell into US education though, as they are so easy to maintain (just wipe it, it doesn't contain anything useful anyway).

[Corky34]

<Snip>
But if other peoole don't care then maybe that's right for them.

True and I'm not going to argue what's right or wrong for an individual, however the blasé attitude towards privacy effecting society as a whole i was referring to is how every time an individual devalues their privacy they're devaluing it for everyone, that's the thing with 'rights' when people stop caring the 'rights' start to become meaningless.

I won't go on though as i get the feeling I'm contributing to a thread derailment.

[benboy1983]

im still on windows 7 going to use windows 10 soon

[Saracen]

True and I'm not going to argue what's right or wrong for an individual, however the blasé attitude towards privacy effecting society as a whole i was referring to is how every time an individual devalues their privacy they're devaluing it for everyone, that's the thing with 'rights' when people stop caring the 'rights' start to become meaningless.

I won't go on though as i get the feeling I'm contributing to a thread derailment.

While I agree on the devaluing point, I can't justify seeking to insist everyone else values their privacy to help me protecting mine. It's in the nature of democracy, I guess, kinda like the 48% that voted Remain having to suck it up because 52% voted Leave. Yet, either we all leave or we all remain ...., though someone ought to explain that to the SNP leadership. But that really is a thread diversion, so I'll leave it there.

Suffice it to say I'll do what I can to protect my privacy, but I can't do much about how anyone else feels about theirs.

[Lord Midas]

Not sure why Windows 10 is thought of as crap. Simply saying it doesn't make it true. I've not had a single problem with Win10 since I installed it on day one.

[Lord Midas]

Not sure why Windows 10 is thought of as crap. Simply saying it doesn't make it true. I've not had a single problem with Win10 since I installed it on day one.

Though these new "Windows Apps" are mostly rubbish. As for browsing the web and playing games, I don't have an issue.

[Saracen]

Not sure why Windows 10 is thought of as crap. Simply saying it doesn't make it true. I've not had a single problem with Win10 since I installed it on day one.

Describing it as crap isn't very helpful, because it lacks any specifics, and because much of it is very good. However, any reasonable analysis would put a number of aspects in the plus column, and others in the minus column. Which go where is often subjective, depending on users circumstances, needs and preferences.

If you're happy with it, then for you, that's all that matters. For me, there is sufficient in the negative column that I'm not willing to use it, and one or two of those negatives are red lines all by themselves.

What those points are is covered ad nauseum in previous threads.

However, I suppose any product that has so many fundamental issues that I'm not prepared to use it even when the manufacturer wants to give it to me for "free" could maybe be described as, IMHO, crap. Doing so, though, certainly doesn't help anyone else understand why I so dislike it.

[shaithis]

With the new snooping charter, will Windows 10 really make a difference to your privacy?

[DanceswithUnix]

Not sure why Windows 10 is thought of as crap. Simply saying it doesn't make it true. I've not had a single problem with Win10 since I installed it on day one.

Shhh, the Win10 spontaneous reboot and mysterious slowdown gremlins might think you are mocking them and come to put that right

Seriously, I'm happy for you that Windows is working out well, but personally I am shocked at how bad my experience has been, and this is from someone who thinks Windows ME was actually OK

With the new snooping charter, will Windows 10 really make a difference to your privacy?

Well the government won't get anything out of my Windows 10 laptop because it takes so long to boot I don't ever bother turning it on. So in that respect, I might be leaking less to the government thanks to Win10