Microsoft Reveals Windows 10 Will Be a Free Upgrade

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.

Comments

Only for the first year

[Timmy D Programmer]

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?

Re:Only for the first year

[MisterBuggie]

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:Only for the first year

[Anonymous Coward]

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

[clorkster]

http://blogs.windows.com/blogg...
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.

Re:Only for the first year

[AK Marc]

Nah, you'll see me do like I did with Office 2013. Screw 360. I own my Office for life. I don't pay subscription fees for software. It's mine, or I don't run it.

Re:Only for the first year

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Which is the reason that software companies want to sell subscriptions. It's hard to employ an army of highly paid developers if you don't know whether you have any future revenue.

So maybe you should keep improving your software in ways that are actually worth more to your users. If you don't have a solid plan for doing that but you've got the point of employing an army of highly paid developers, you're doing it wrong and need new leadership.

There are literally dozens of changes that Adobe could have made to the major CS apps we use where any one of them would have justified a three-figure upgrade fee for everyone in my company who uses that app. I'm not even talking about huge changes that would have been expensive new developments; even some relatively small UI improvements to remove time-wasting frustrations might have made buying the upgrade an instant yes as a business decision.

They didn't do any of those things in several years before CC, and as far as I've seen they haven't since then either, so we wouldn't have upgraded so far. On the other hand, we would never rent essential software from anyone unless it was literally the only viable strategy to continue the related business activities at all, which in reality it never is. So in effect, Adobe have gone from a position where even one of many modest improvements would probably have earned a small business worth of upgrade fees from us sooner or later to a position where there is basically zero chance of ever getting more money from us.

You can play that game for roughly as long as the extra money you're making from other people makes up for the losses. However, as certain other big software companies have been learning in recent years, taking your user base for granted it rarely a viable long-term strategy in this industry. Sooner or later, significant people at your big customers start doing the sums, figure out you're charging them more in long-term pricing, and take steps to change that one way or another but invariably at your expense.

Re:Only for the first year

[Anonymous Coward]

I use windows 8.1 as well. The start screen is annoying and obtuse and useless but it's not much less usable than the win7 start menu.

But that's not a problem for us. We're power users. We know what we're doing. We can turn off and uninstall the useless distracting dreck that comes pre-loaded on the start screen.

For everyone else win 8 is an abject fucking nightmare. What used to be a familiar star menu is a whole other computer-in-a-computer. A bizzare split-brained experience with this new.. Thing covering up the old and familiar when all they want to do is browse the web or launch word. I've seen users launch the calculator app and be completely unable to get out of it, left staring at a full-fucking-screen fucking /calculator/ designed for a touch interface. On their desktop computer.

And that's the real issue. The start screen isn't a replacement for the start menu. It's it's own OS that's had the start menu functions shoehorned in to it. It has it's own APIs, its own software store, it's own interface metaphors.. And it sucks. It's completely and utterly inappropriate for a business environment to boot. A whole shitload of new things nobody in the business world needs that need to be turned off and managed because who-fucking-knows what data they leak to MS servers. Who the fuck thought it was a good idea for enterprise versions of windows to ask for microsoft-cloud-appstore-onedrive-what-the-fuck-ever accounts on first boot? (Fortunately you can now bitchslap the majority of that out of existence with group policies and the rest with some easy scripts)

The underpinnings of win 8.1 are fantastic. It's fast, has support for cutting edge hardware, is stable as hell, and is somehow smaller than windows 7 (After updates. I'm not kidding. Look for yourself.)

If microsoft could decouple windows from the braindead consumer shit they try to shovel on to it they'd have no problems going in to the future.

Windows 10 is shaping to be the next win7. It looks like microsoft has finally realized they pulled a vista with win8 and they're listening to their users.

Re:Only for the first year

[hantms]

You evidently don't actually use Windows 8.1. The much-maligned UI is actually just the Windows 7 UI with a full-screen Start menu, which I find interrupts my workflow to exactly the same extent that the Windows 7 Start menu does, meaning minimally.

No.

Indeed I can live with the start screen. It's awkward, but I can live with it. The real disaster is elsewhere and I can't believe I still have to point this out after 2-3 years.

1. Default apps for many file formats are ridiculously dysfunctional Metro versions. This means users are cast into Full Screen Hell, showing Beelzebubs re-imagining of a PDF reader, image viewer or music app, designed for those confined in the darkest levels of hell. Escaping from these apps is actually hard. Noone can hear you scream.

2. Charms Bar on the right that pops up usually when I don't want it to. Which is always. Heh.

3. Some other bar on the left with any Metro apps that opened, usually without me wanting them to. What is that thing anyway and why is it there. Why is having two task/app switchers in a single OS ever a good idea? WTF Microsoft! W!T!F!?

4. Settings Schizophrenia. Where is that setting? Full-Screen-Hell-Mode or Control Panel? Or (gasp) BOTH? Oh My @#(&$ing GOD!

5. Installed Apps.. Where do they go? 8.0 Put everything and the kitchen sink in the start menu. 8.1. puts nothing in the start menu. Where are they? They're in a level below in the middle of a huge list of stuff. The only reasonable way to open an app is to search for it. So you better remember what it's called, Mom!

6. Search. I'm running out of expletives. It manages to open yet another full screen abomination in front of me when I'm looking for "Supplier Visit Notes 15Jan.docx", AND it starts finding stuff on the Internet.. What the hell MS!! You've messed up just about the most basic purpose of an OS user interface which is to let me store files, find them back and open them!

Anyway, you may feel less anger and pain about the above than I do but the point remains that Win 8's peculiarity (See, I can be nice too) isn't confined to having a start screen instead of a start menu. I guess I could have made that point in just a single line. ;)

Han.

Please no...

[Detonia]

indicating Windows would be software that users subscribe to, rather than buy outright.

I sure hope that indication is wrong.

Re:Please no...

[Anonymous Coward]

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:Please no...

[Luckyo]

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./"

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.

Or another interpretation

[sitkill]

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets...
"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.
Sounds like it could be either.

Re:Rent seeking

[mobby_6kl]

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.

im guessing the iterations were something similar

[nimbius]

Windows 3.11: Better than dos!
Windows 95: now 32 bit!!
Windows 98: uh...3 more than 95!
Windows ME: grinds cats into freezer meat!
Windows XP: We've been told you dont want or like having cats ground into freezer meat...so this one doesnt do that. also we're doing letters now for real instead of numbers. Dont question it..
Windows Vista: Reboot simulator included!
Windows 7: ok so lets just do numbers again. 7 is less than 95, plus 3.11 minus the square root of 2000 is....eh....we changed the start button for you
Windows 8:: Hello there youths! we're told you like touched screens! Also we have an app store now and that has always been there. check out the full-screen start menu there now isnt that nifty?
Windows 9:: Maadamme Romani threatened to unravel my lifeweave if we ever used 9. seriously. its cursed. also all our code would mistake it for 95 or 98.
Windows 10: We gave you back the start button, but also included a mini start screen in it as a big fuck you for not accepting the start screen. Also its free...because uh...Ubunt...er...apple is still our competitor...yeah.

Dear Microsoft

[DickBreath]

Please remember the words of your younger, wiser self. If it is free, then it must not have any value.

Cinder Rella at 12:01 am

[Tablizer]

what happens after the first year?...If you don't pay will it brick your PC...?

It turns into Vista, the equivalent of a pumpkin.

beer wants to be free

[raymorris]

> Beer is never free. Someone has to pay for it.

beer wants to be free

Pete Pachal is an idiot

[Overzeetop]

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

[Anonymous Coward]

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

[A Friendly Troll]

No, absolutely not.

http://blogs.windows.com/blogg...

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.

Full-screen Start is the problem

[tepples]

The much-maligned UI is actually just the Windows 7 UI with a full-screen Start menu, which I find interrupts my workflow to exactly the same extent that the Windows 7 Start menu does, meaning minimally.

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. That's why the first thing onto every Windows 8.1 PC that I use regularly is Classic Shell, which reproduces the functionality of Windows 7's Start menu.