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Slashdot Asks: Free Upgrade To Windows 10 Ends Today: What's Your Thought On This?
Exactly one year ago, Microsoft released Windows 10 to the general public. The latest version of company's desktop operating system brought with it Cortana, and Windows Hello among other features. While users have lauded Windows 10 for performance improvements, the Redmond-based company's aggressive upgrade tactics have spoiled the experience for many. Whether it was installing Windows 10 on computers without users' consent, or eating up tons of bandwidth for users who couldn't afford it, or whether it was deceptive dialog boxes, Microsoft definitely deserves a lot of blame -- and rightfully, a bunch of lawsuits. But many of these things, hopefully, will end today -- July 29, 2016 (or to be exact, Saturday morning 5:59am EDT / 2:59am PDT) Today is officially the last day when eligible Windows 7 and Windows 8 computers could be upgraded to Windows 10 for free of charge. After this, an upgrade to Windows 10 will set you back by at least $119.
We asked you a couple of weeks ago whether or not would you recommend someone to update their computer to Windows 10, and the vast majority of you insisted against it. What's your thought on this now? Those who opt out of updating to Windows 10 will also miss the Anniversary Update -- and its features -- which Microsoft plans to release on August 2 for free of charge.
We asked you a couple of weeks ago whether or not would you recommend someone to update their computer to Windows 10, and the vast majority of you insisted against it. What's your thought on this now? Those who opt out of updating to Windows 10 will also miss the Anniversary Update -- and its features -- which Microsoft plans to release on August 2 for free of charge.
Oh thank god, another Windows 10 story!
I was getting worried we might go a day without one.
My thoughts are the same as I've expressed before on these Windows 10 stories.
I'll describe them in detail again.
Fuck MS.
Now I can get back to the normal update cycle without worrying about getting Windows 10 accidentally on my part.
BSD: Free as in speech
Linux: Free as in beer
Windows 10: Free as in herpes
But that version of Windows 10 is not available without volume licensing. I know that hacks exist to upgrade Windows 10 pro to enterprise, but they carry the caveat that your license key is not a real one.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I moved to osx (with all its own flaws) and linux when windows 8 was introduced. As long as my employer is slow in adapting windows 10, and as i have no control that except quitting, i just simply cannot be bothered.
If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.
Unless you have very specific hardware driver requirements, get it. It really is more secure than earlier versions. Even Steve Gibson, who hates Microsoft, would agree...
You can install Windows 10 Threshold 2 images with Windows 7 and Windows 8.x keys. I bet they will continue to activate these installs.
For a technical user with backups taken, it's worth upgrading and rolling back again simply to get your computer licensed for Win10. If your computer is running Win7 and you expect to use it into 2020 this may save you the upgrade cost later on. Without regard for the support timeline for the releases though, I don't see a major reason to upgrade to Windows 10 unless there is a specific piece of technology you need like DX12 or Bash on Ubuntu on Windows that won't be made available in Win7/8.1.
Thanks! Your check is in the mail! Oh, just a heads up: our typing records say your password for hotmidgetongoataction.com is pretty weak. I think you should add another exclamation mark to the end of it.
Thanks again,
Microsoft
I'm still on XP until I finally get around to putting some version of Linux on the machine. I didn't want Win10 for free, I'm sure as hell not paying for it, either. If I wanted to be spied on and watched like a criminal in prison or an animal in a zoo exhibit, I'd go live in a tent near any major intersection in America in full view of the cameras and microphones.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
It is NOT as bad as I feared; but, it is slower than I hoped it would be. Windows 7 was faster; maybe after I defrag the speed will go up. I now have to check and see which programs fail to work. NOTE: If you have a NON windows software firewall installed; you really likely need to uninstall it before upgrading. NOTE2: The TinyWall software firewall front-end did NOT work for me on Windows 10; even though their website says it should. Tim S.
They keep removing management features, they keep forcing weird searches on users, they are slowly crippling Steam in favor of their app store -- am I really just seeing the negative stuff when it's not so bad, or is there some major Stockholm Syndrome going on? I'm pretty happy with Windows 7 on my nine-year-old gaming laptop that's slowly flaking out and has finally stopped keeping up with new releases.
I've heard you can activate your old license key for Windows 10 without upgrading your machine...is that viable if you want to apply it to a new computer, or is it tied to the hardware like Win 7 licenses?
Win-10 is a marketing tool disguised as an operating system,
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
after watching Microsoft release API after API, only to quickly deprecate them, and after all the psychotic user interface changes for no reason whatsoever, after watching them put a phone user interface on a server operating system, I just have to give up. There is no more "vendor lock in", all my apps are available on both OSX and linux.
I can power up my mac and the apple menu is in the same place it's been since 1984, my posix code from the 80's still compiles and runs just fine. A real computer doesn't judge you or force you to change, it accomodates you. goodbye microsoft, I've been writing windows code since windows 2.0 in 1990, but no more.
there is no reason to upgrade, there is plenty of reason to free up disk space and wipe all things microsoft from my life
So can you tell us how you feel about the data logging, the changes coming to available settings with the Aug 2 update, etc?
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
...if it means M$ stops trying to force/trick people into "upgrading", GOOD!
Yea, hurry up and get the free forced updates, free advertising in your start menu and in the notification center, free removal of policy options, free violation of the hosts file for Microsoft/NSA privacy invading domains, etc. You could get all that and more and pay absolutely nothing! I liked Win10 when it was still pre-release. I despise what Microsoft is doing with it now. I regret updating my personal machines to it. My work machine may become Linux just because of the forced updates with reboots. It's one thing if it keeps me from gaming for a bit, it's another if it prevents me from getting work done. Yea, fine.. Enterprise may be safe from a lot of that for now, emphasis on "for now". They switched Lync over to Skype for Business and what a pile of crap that is.
I am really interested to see how all the activations shake out over the next couple of weeks or months.
Some things I am looking forward to seeing
- Those that grabbed their "entitlement" to Windows 10 then reverted to Windows 7. Will it work out ok when they do upgrade?
- Retail box copies that are not tied to hardware but were used to gain Windows 10 for free. Will Windows 10 move without issue to new hardware over the coming years?
- Those running insider preview builds for the last year. Will they be able to clean install the stable branch version without issue after today even if they never activated it with a Win 7 or 8 key?
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
Now get that god damn icon off my computers.
I moved to Windows 10 (yes, on purpose) three weeks ago via the "update" and I'm finally getting [back] to the point where life doesn't suck. I had corrupted system files, my Explorer window was crashing when it was launched by apps, when I right-clicked the recycle bin Windows would blue-screen, and applications wouldn't open multiple times (once I closed many apps, they would never reopen until I rebooted Windows). I eventually had to wipe everything and try again, and the second time it worked fine. I had waited this long so that hopefully this wouldn't happen to me - hah, fooled me.
This exact Ask Slashdot has already been done at least three times. The answer isn't different: Don't upgrade if you don't want Microsoft constantly spying on you and tampering with your computer and splicing in and out features.
...Those who have a pathological hate for MS will never switch, those who believe the haters and refuse to switch to Windows 10 get what they deserve, and those on the fence about switching to Windows 10 better move quick or risk paying for what they could have had for free....
What about those, such as myself, who actually had liked Windows in the past, and upgraded multiple licenses with every release (except Vista and Windows 8), starting at Windows NT?
.
I've stated here in the past that I would be willing to continue to upgrade my Windows licenses, even paying for the privilege of doing so, if I could turn off the egregiously excessive data harvesting that Windows 10 performs.
However now, that I've already moved one computer from Windows to Linux, I'll add one more condition for me to stay with Windows... I'm still willing to pay for the upgrade license, but in addition to being able to turn off the egregiously excessive data harvesting, I would also want my computer not to become just another screen that advertisers (including Microsoft) can use to show me advertisements.
I am liking Windows 10 in general as it is a rather lean and quick Windows-version, boots real quick and all. I also like having DX12 for when games start to come out that support it. There just isn't a better OS for someone who enjoys modern gaming.
Alas, I seriously despise Microsoft's way of pushing the free upgrade and how many people it has caused nothing but trouble and even financial losses. I am also disliking the constant push for ever more stalking of people's activities, lying about Edge being so much more superior in battery-life and whatnot than insert-competing-browser, and whatever crap else Microsoft is pulling.
So with your year of experience and all that you could share based on that, you choose instead to bitch about other peoples choices?
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
If you currently have Windows 8/8.1, there's no harm in upgrading and getting back the start menu. If you currently have Windows 7, you should probably stick with it.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
Discovered Slackware 3.0 in 1996.
Dual booted till 2001 till I blew away partition type 0x0b.
Life's been pretty good since then.
You do look at where the train's going from time to time, but you do not have to get on it.
I "upgraded" my laptop when I bought it from Win8 to 10 because it was free. There is no way I would ever pay for an OS at this point. With so many people moving to phones,tablets and small chrome like books, I cant imagine how MS is going to be able to keep this business model going for the home user market.
Maybe I'll turn windows Update Service back on? .. Maybe.
I just wish they would bring Media Center back.....
You're messin' with my Zen Thing, man.....
Microsoft is supposedly going to be making the Enterprise version available to everyone through subscription licensing. $7/month or some such.
We upgraded at home a while back, and we just completed all upgrades at work. Non issue in almost all cases, and for those few that were at issue at work, we resolved all upgrade issues.
At work, it was a no-question decision, because all business-critical programs are Windows-based (Office, Dynamics AX, SharePoint, etc.) Non-Microsoft options are simply not in the cards for the foreseeable future. I'd love to see a transition to Open Source applications, but they just don't exist when it comes to several specialized applications we require.
At home, the only thing really keeping us on Windows is Quicken. We've used Quicken since DOS days, and we rely on it for managing our finances. Simply put, there are no truly comparable alternatives. And because we require that, all other devices really need to be compatible.
Yes, as a tech geek, I could adapt and come up with a nice alternative, but my wife is more of an "appliance user" when it comes to computers, so having different systems won't cut it. Making sure that the user experience at work is consistent with the user experience at home (which it is) is goal number 1.
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
THAT is my thought on Windows 10. I'll pass.
I've purchased a few keys and never paid more than $40.
It'll be free again. Limited time" is just a marketing gimmick, proven to work on some folks.
There are four Windows machines in active use in the household, all running Windows 7, none being upgraded (one isn't up to it anyway). When MS will stop servicing Windows 7 with security updates, I'll check my options again, independently for each machine. If Microsoft hasn't completely changed its course until then, the top options to be thoroughly checked will be Linux and OS X. Only if it cannot avoided at all for a machine, I'll make the update then. Even a small chance of never having to do it is worth it for me to accept having to pay for it later should all else fail.
really? I sure the fuck don't.
Windows? Do they still make that?
Don't stop where the ink does.
ever heard of "sleep mode"? it's been around for decades. The only time you actually need to "boot up" is after a software update, and that is SLOW on Windows 10.
It consumes less power when powered-off than when in sleep. Besides, as it takes only about 6 seconds to boot on my PC I haven't even managed to sit down before it's up and running, making using sleep redundant.
by "modern gaming" you mean "lock yourself in a room"
my idea of "modern gaming" involves getting nekkid with my spouse, you can have your lonely life
Whatever floats your boat. I prefer gaming.
That would be good. Because I am not sure I can be Windows-free until 2020, and the Enterprise Edition of Win10 would be the only one I would even consider for replacing my Win7 Pro. Disabling telemetry completely must be possible. Refusing updates must be possible. Getting rid of Cortana permanently must be possible. $7/Month would not be an issue though.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Considering spinning a bunch of virtual box environments running 7 tonite to upgrade them to 10 just to have sitting around for testing - anyone have any thoughts on that?
never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes
After that, you always have an option to reinstall Windows 10 on the same machine if you need any of the new features. In terms of keeping it? I primarily care about a stable client for running Steam and Windows 10 is not optimum because of game-interrupting updates, notifications and other background activity.
Just because a version is out of support doesn't mean you can't legally use it. Your license doesn't automatically terminate (yet - this policy will change when it's a subscription service).
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
"All those billions of normal people out there"?
Are you forgetting all the Apple users? All the Chromebook users who have been popping up like weeds on university campuses? All the tablet and smartphone users?
They are trying to lock people in because the desktop and laptop market is shrinking.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Fools! You didn't upgrade despite our trying the best to be jerks about it! We'll get your family pictures one way or another... By the way, we'll still use dirty tricks to force you to upgrade to 10, and we'll send out to debt collection to get you to pay now.
God spoke to me
I've skipped Windows since XP (on my personal home computing devices; at work is another matter).
Mastering the English language is fucking easy: all you have to do is to put an f* word in every fucking sentence.
Except Windows-running computers HAVE to be rebooted occasionally, or they'll get slower and slower. I think it's because Microsoft creates a VSS restore point prior to installing the disruptive update, then treats the system like a virtual hard drive mounted from that restore point until you finally reboot. It's been that way ever since Windows XP.
The last (and probably ONLY) version of Windows that you could truly get away with going for weeks without rebooting was Windows 2000 (prior to one of the later service packs... somewhere between SP3 and SP5, I think, which made Win2k require frequent reboots just like XP did). I still fondly remember installing Windows 2000, installing a bunch of other stuff, rebooting, then proceeding to go for almost a month without rebooting after installing Norton Antivirus and updating the AGP GART miniport drivers. Now, Windows wants you to reboot if you so much as raise your voice at it (though I think the never-ending reboots reached their worst point under Vista, before mellowing out slightly with Windows 7)
I don't believe it until I see it for real, and the push for Win 10 had made me wary of any update from Microsoft.
I just worry that they will release an "update" that cripples Win 7 soon.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
I'm thinking I hope it sends a message that I did not upgrade a single one of mine or my family's licenses. Not that we use Windows, but if we did, I would not endorse the changes they are making and the ugly service and telemetry hooks, as well as the predatory approach with UWP and the Windows Store.
Twinstiq, game news
That would be good. Because I am not sure I can be Windows-free until 2020, and the Enterprise Edition of Win10 would be the only one I would even consider for replacing my Win7 Pro...
Windows 7 is supported through January 2020. Wouldn't it make sense to just leave at that point?
Lots of companies would have paid them for more years of Win XP support (security patches etc).
Since Win XP, there has been no useful innovation going on. Instead they rearranged all the functions in order to destroy value (learned functions) for the customer.
It's a problem of advanced stupidness. They will drive this company into the ground.
Shuttleworth probably got a nice cheque...
Curly Bill Brosis said it best: "Well, Bye".
Laptops are so cheap that when they die, you don't fix them - you get a new one. Or get something else.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
It went smoothly and so far so good...
Greed is the root of all evil.
When perfectly serviceable open source software,which compiled correctly and ran well under both Windows 7 and 8.1, cannot EVEN BE INSTALLED in Windows 10, I tried to downgrade.
Remember that "guarantee" of downgradability?
It was another Lie.
It boots fast because it's not actually shutting down.
What it's doing is closing apps and logging you out then goes into a modified hibernate/sleep mode. Read up on Fast Startup (Fast Boot for Win8).
It's a nice feature, even if it's lying to you.
Happy SysAdmin Day from Microsoft. It's their gift to us all... no more annoying Windows 10 upgrade popups.
I switched to Windows 10 as early as I could. Those who have a pathological hate for MS will never switch, those who believe the haters and refuse to switch to Windows 10 get what they deserve, and those on the fence about switching to Windows 10 better move quick or risk paying for what they could have had for free.
Well, this is /., what did you expected?
So does this mean people who haven't disabled the Windows Update Service can breath easy knowing their PC's will no longer "upgrade" to Windows 10 without explicit permission from the user? (Those who DID disable their windows update service as we all should should probably keep it that way, these days nothing seems to be beneath MS these days). For those who need their PC's exorcised I say these words: "The Power of lawsuits, compel you, the power of lawsuits compel you". If that fails, remember, these is always the power of Linux. (Suggest ElementaryOS or Linux Mint to start)
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
Well, and FWIW, if the OS doesn't insist on calling home, you can run it in a virtual machine for as long as you want. Be sure you have updated backups, though, because the virtual machine partitions are HUGE files, and can become unreadable, or experience undesirable degradation due to actual bit rot. You may also want to forbid Internet access to the virtual machine, to allow for security issues not being fixed.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Yes, but marketing and sales are full of liars. You may well end up being the product even if you do pay.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
GPL and BSD are both free as in speech, but the question is "for who?"
GPL maximizes freedom for the users -- nothing can take away their control over the code running on their computer.
BSD maximizes freedom for developers -- they can do whatever they want with it, including close it up and sell it.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Well, you've demonstrated that you don't understand Marxism, but the rest of what you said may be correct. (I don't have any direct knowledge of recent versions of MS software, so I can't say for sure.)
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
You're confusing hibernation with sleep, they are not the same thing. Hibernation saves RAM's contents to disk, then powers off, whereas sleep keeps power running to the CPU and RAM so as not to lose RAM's contents. That is to say: yes, your computer is powered-off when it's hibernated, and I do not see any lies in there. Also, when you reboot Windows it can't do its hybrid-hibernation, and yet it still boots just as fast on my PC -- the hybrid-hibernation is useful when booting from traditional mechanical storage where seek-times are horrendous, but the benefits from it quickly diminish on a modern system with solid-state storage.
Oh gawd, the flame war was supposed to be dead, now I can feel it rumbling in its grave! Run everyone, run before it's too late!
Plenty of time to migrate to something else. Or set up a set of sandboxed VM images on burner PCs for those times you feel like slumming.
Tried to update three of my PCs and wound up with three unbootable PCs. One PC had a stand-alone Linux install on it and it went so far as to trash the boot record on that drive as well. Windows 10 is also a fail when it comes to dealing with UEFI secure boot. I'm just going to restore my back ups of Windows 7 for these three PCs and live with it. After several years, Microsoft finally has a somewhat stable desktop OS -- Windows 7. It's a decent gaming platform and has it's productivity users as well so I'm just going to stick with it. By the time I'm actually forced to move to Windows 10, I'll probably just buy all new hardware with windows 10 pre-installed.
Microsoft should realize they are not Google. We expect the shady "customer is the product" advertising because that's how Google started. They began as an advertising/search/spying company. Microsoft is our business productivity operating system. We expect productivity and administration upgrades. Windows now acts just like a virus. We used to have programs specifically designed to get rid of intrusive spying... called anti-virus. How in the hell hasn't this company been sued out of existence by every country in the world? Trojan horse was a free gift from Greeks... doesn't mean it was a good gift for everyone involved.
If it's an OEM license, don't worry because your PC will probably die before official security support expires. If it's a transferrable licence then you can probably still use it in a VM sandbox with no network access for as long as you want. Just like many places still have dos or windows xp running on disconnected PCs to keep critical applications running.
End of windows 10 party tonight!
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
In decreasing order of importance:
1) Mandatory upgrades / patches. Almost everything else in Win10 I can deal with, but this real burns me. I've been screwed over by Microsoft patches too many times in the past (not least being KB3035583 "Win10 Upgrade Notification tool") to ever accept this.
2) Privacy issues. No, Windows10 isn't as bad as was initially reported, but its defaults are still terrible, and even with it buttoned down it still leaks like a sieve... possibly worse, since I have only Microsoft's word that they aren't keylogging everything. And now you can't turn Cortona off anymore, so that data-torrent is opened right up again...
3) It has an ugly interface, where they've stupidly moved controls about for no real purpose other than to say they changed it, obfuscated commonly used controls, and removed the less-commonly used options so they can only be toggled via the registry (for now... they're recent policy change on policies indicates that even these options may go away soon). Sure, there are third-party solutions, but they don't entirely solve the problem.
4) It's very pushy with regards to using other Microsoft services, to the point where it cripples itself if you don't fully buy into the Microsoft ecosystem (try using the app store or onedrive if you don't use a microsoft log-in as your main credentials). And then there's that whole worry about the direction Microsoft is going with regards to service-based pricing...
5) Windows10 brings very little new to the table that I find of interest. It apparently boots faster, but my computer is up and running in 30 seconds already, and how often do I really reboot anyway? DirectX12 might be more exciting if there were any significant games using it. Better interactivity with an XBoxOne might matter if I owned an XBone, which I don't (and even then I doubt I'd care).
In the end, there's very little Windows10 has to offer me that earlier versions of the OS don't do as well, or better. Even if Windows10 was a compelling upgrade, I'd reconsider an OS upgrade if my current set-up is working well enough (as it is). But right now Win10 is just a little bit too ugly, too creepy and too pushy for me to want to have anything to do with it. Maybe in a few years it might be worth taking a look at but right now it seems far more bother than reward.
I power off. This saves power. Too much stuff in the home siphons off power even when nominally asleep. At least with my PC I have a power strip so I can really kill the power.
The Windows 8 & 10 version of powering down basically is a hybrid hibernate. It kills all apps and most things, but then hibernates just the kernel and drivers. So it boots very fast but without taking so long setting up the hibernation. Though the power down is still noticeably looooonger than a real power down. It's actually pretty annoying if you're waiting to flip the power strip button but probably not noticed on laptops where people shut the lid and walk away, and laptop/tablet/phone is Microsoft's preferred market here.
Thanks! Your check is in the mail! Oh, just a heads up: our typing records say your password for hotmidgetongoataction.com is pretty weak. I think you should add another exclamation mark to the end of it.
Thanks again,
Microsoft
Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) 2015 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
PS C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0> ping hotmidgetongoataction.com
Ping request could not find host hotmidgetongoataction.com. Please check the name and try again.
PS C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0>
...just in case anyone else wondered if hotmidgetongoataction.com was actually a website that existed.
Leave WHAT? Leave town? Is there any chance you could make your point comprehensibly?
But you gave zero reasons for upgrading! You don't upgrade just because you can! You need a reason to upgrade!
Your number 4 is important, because it does break/fold/mutilate/fondle very important must-haves for everyone. It screws up privacy. It screws up security. It screws up stability. This is not just a new and improved version, it's not even an improved version. It changes how things work, it changes the relationship between the customer and Microsoft, it changes the EULA in very disturbing ways, you will have to learn how to use the OS all over from scratch. You must spend a lot of time undoing all the misguided default settings that Microsoft foolishly set up.
There is no reason to upgrade because there is nothing new in Windows 10 that anyone needs or wants. You totally discounted all of the negatives in Windows 10 and assumed that after step 4 that it was a neutral choice.
Here's are more steps:
5) you don't know any better and all these big words that the experts are confusing.
6) you have a relative who understands computers and who can help you out if needed.
7) you think that Microsoft knows better than you do what is good for you.
If so, then you might want to consider upgrading to Windows 10. I'm not saying you should upgrade, but you could consider doing so.
1 As I have supported a goodly few folk 'update' to free Windows 10 as a volunteer IT helper; (Others on Windows Vista to GNU/Linux), and in some cases have had a lot of trouble with the update, 2. I see a rest from my labours with the end of 'free update'.
Regards Eion MacDonald
My last Windows was Windows 2000.
x86 Linux and Mac OS X ever since. Probably down to Linux only in the next hardware cycle.
Honestly, I really couldn't care less.
My 2 cents.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
You won't see a lot of positive remarks towards Windows here, period!
But as someone who's not really all that much of a "Linux head"? (I went through a phase where I thought Linux was the end all, be all future of personal computing, but then realized continuing to push it in a corporate setting was simply bad for my chances of continued employment or advancement.) I have to say I'm not at all thrilled by this upgrade.
These days, I try to be as "platform agnostic" as possible. I work for a company where we use roughly 50% Macs and 50% Windows PCs. We run VMWare ESXi on our primary server, even though it cost a lot more than using Microsoft's Hyper-V solution, just because we didn't want to be that reliant on MS technologies where good alternatives existed. And yes, we use a bit of Linux where it makes sense for us -- such as hosting our CrashPlan Pro-E backup solution in some of our offices, or the ESET anti-virus central administration console.
Our company stuck with Windows 7 Pro throughout the whole Windows 8 and 8.1 upgrade cycle, opting to skip it completely since it didn't really have any tangible benefits for us. (Any small improvements were offset by breaking compatibility with some of our EMC software we still use for Finance and the need to re-train a bunch of users on the whole new UI. Plus, we had custom drive images all assembled with our software apps on them. Nobody in I.T. was looking forward to doing all of those over from scratch for Windows 8.)
Now with 10? Microsoft's "only free for a limited time!" push got to my boss, so he started rolling out the upgrades, piecemeal, on machines in a couple of our offices. (Understandably, he didn't want to get stuck having to answer to higher-ups why he didn't bother to take advantage of the free offer while it was out there, leaving us stuck paying thousands in Win 10 licensing down the road when we WERE ready to deploy it fully.)
The whole thing has left us supporting 2 very different OS's at the same time on the Windows side, and since we didn't pay the "Microsoft tax" for the Enterprise edition - we still get stuck with problems like "Candy Crush" installing by default.
and The Angels:
No way, get fucked, fuck off.
Actually, it's the words of the audience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
Leave WHAT? Leave town? Is there any chance you could make your point comprehensibly?
Leave the Windows Platform? You know, the topic I was replying to, as evidenced by the portion of the parent's post I quoted, and even boldfaced for emphasis? Or is using inference in reading comprehension too difficult for you?
Plenty of time to migrate to something else.
Exactly what I'm thinking. I'm on 8.1 now, and even if I have a little more time, I would like to build a new system before the end of the decade. I'll likely change off then.
I missed it! How did I not get a notification or something? Was it a feature you had to enable?
OMG facts!
Windows 10 is going to be the new drive up window... it looks inviting and nice, you get up to the window, get your bag of food and drive away.... then when you've blocks away, you've found it's not what you ordered and they've fucked you on the ass. And they don't care, they know you're going to be blocks way, so they fuck you. That's windows 10. They've come out with a decent idea, to have an OS that simply will be continually updated instead of replaced every 2 year, but now they're going to be fucking assholes and force you into things you don't fucking want.
A couple years years ago some asshole from Microsoft wrote a piece complaining that people still treated them like someone who'd killed their father.... this is why, they still fucking act that way. Dear Microsoft....fuck Cortana.
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
I used instructions online to install Windows 10 to a VHD file on one of my external disks so it would be activated and valid in the Microsoft database and then kept using Windows 7. So I have a working copy of Windows 7 and if I ever want to upgrade to Windows 10 in the future (at least on my current PC which was upgraded to a Skylake chip, new Motherboard and 8GB RAM 6 months ago) I have the digital activation thing that will get me Windows 10 for free.
So I can install Windows 10 any time I want with no cost but I dont have to install it until I want to.
Buh -- bye Windows.
Have to say the installs went flawlessly. The final selling point was to get a couple more years of support out of an OS I am basically stuck with (i.e. MS Windows in general) due to work constraints.
I do hope to see these performance improvements folks are talking about, and am heartened that this Cortana thing can be turned off. However, some of my first experiences with Edge just now were giving ~20 second delays between letters typed into an input field.
I am not a great fan of MS's philosophy, nor, technology, but, like I said, feel relatively stuck/trapped with it (FOR NOW). Fortunately, the 10 OS seems fairly well performing and usable thus far, and I have already seen one improvement that has completely justified the switch. The infuriating behavior I put up with for a couple of years where edge swipes would continually send me to that worthless Apps palette seem to have finally gone away. I had found ways to turn that off at times (as well as the maddening edge window maximization), but they always managed to turn themselves back on again. So now, I guess, that palette is gone, which certainly seems to be the best option.
Just heartened to see a general trend of MS chastening over time. I believe in that - "the bigger they come...", "snake eating it's tail", etc. It's been mainly the open source movement / Linux which has done it. Even if the average Joe can't appreciate Linux's quality, MS can. "Ask not for whom the bell tolls...".
Bukowski said it. I believe it. That settles it.
There are still a lot of people on MS WinXP. I fixed an XP machine of someone I know on Tuesday.
With enough memory and an SSD it's actually very quick.
It's potentially malware prone (which wasn't the problem), but all MS systems still are almost as bad in that area and there are third party solutions to keep them protected.
I've got to see my parents a lot more since they upgraded to MS Win10 from the MS Win7 that they could understand.
Microsoft, bringing people together.
I knew someone who was insistent on upgrading to Windows 10. I mentioned to her what I found out about the operating system. She even heard some of her friends having problems upgrading - mainly it would "lock up" and render the computer useless during the so-called "upgrade" process. She succumbed to the pressure Microsoft was exerting on her and finally upgraded one machine from 8 to 10 and another from 7 to 10. The reasoning behind that was the worry that the old OS would "dry up" (which apparently was her way of worrying about security updates finally coming to a halt). She let me sit in to watch the process of going from 8 to 10. I tried to keep an open mind about the process. After the slideshow which lasted forever (it was still installing, but it wasn't until 10 minutes in that the slideshow finally mentioned that), I watched Windows 10 begin pushing ads all over the place. At the same time, I got to witness it de-install programs the OS didn't like because of "compatibility" reasons. The programs were admittedly minor anyway (i.e. Rapid Storage technology), but the idea of the OS just uninstalling programs without your permission alone unnerved me.
Once the process was complete, she was horrified that her card games had vanished. Hearts, solitaire, spider solitaire, freecell, etc. were all gone. She eventually found it by scrolling through the start menu, but when she booted it up, it began telling her that she had a one month free trial of solitaire before she could upgrade to premium solitaire. We both had the same thought, "So much for "everything is exactly where you left it"!". It took some digging, but she was able to find a free version in the store so she wouldn't have to pay something like 10 bucks a year for a simple card game.
Suffice to say, after that first hand experience, I was more convinced than ever that I'm sticking with Windows 7. I was already one foot out the door with all the news, but seeing the install process sealed the deal for me.
Daily read for tech news: Freezenet.ca
You mean I no longer have to read auto-update horror stories? Thank you!
... it wouldn't allow me to upgrade this computer (I didn't try it on my others). Not certain whether that's good or bad. But at least we can all take a breather now, and maybe get some peace.
I did try it once
microsoft are trying to get win10 refuseniks to panic at the "loss" of their free "upgrade" option and voluntarily upgrade while they still have the chance.
In a few weeks, they'll "have a change of heart" and decide to continue offering it for free after all, and continue with their increasingly aggressive attempts to force people to install their spyware whether they want it or not.
expect them to go way beyond just trying to sneak win10 in to unrelated updates, if they haven't already, they'll soon start issuing win7 updates that introduce subtle instabilties. of course, this will partially flop because it'll be hard to distinguish from normal operation.
---
disclaimer: i use win7 solely for gaming and nothing else (and i don't allow my banking or credit card details to go anywhere near windows* - all steam etc purchases are done from my linux macine). There are some features from win10 that I wouldn't mind having, but not at the price of advertising, spyware, and other malware built in to the OS, and the inability to disable useless features like cortana (which is partly spyware and partly useless-i-have-no-fucking-need-or-desire-for-voice-control), or the inevitable transition to a walled-garden app-store (with other vendors increasingly locked out).
steam on linux is becoming an increasingly viable alternative to win7. by the time win7 is completely unusable, there's a reasonable chance I can convert my gaming machine to steam on linux (or steam on linux plus wine - i used to use wine exclusively for games until i built a win7 gaming box, most games worked fine).
* or android, either. there's no way i'm trusting either google or an insecure and easily lost or stolen device like my phone or tablet with my credit card, financial or other private/confidential information. I'm not missing anything, ignoring the uninstallable google apps, almost every android app i use is GPL or MIT/BSD or other free software anyway.....and 90% of everything is crap. In the case of app stores, it's 99.999999%.
As comebacks go, that was about a 4th graders level.
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
Alt least you cannot say MS is not innovative. What they came up here is massively against the customer's interest, but still.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Does that mean Microsoft will finally stop spamming my perfect Windows 7 installs with Win10 upgrades?
I held off allowing the update to 10 to happen forbquite a while, using apps to help prevent it from happening. i bought another hard drive snd used clonedrive to copy everything, so now i have teo indistinquishable drives. I put one into cold storage, and then allowed the new one to dobthe 10 update.
I also have some vrtual machines, one with win7 pro that I have several things in (to help make it easier to move to a new computer someday) and one with win8 and win8.1 that i never really used but had to check out the 8.x versions. this past week i got all my apps up to date and got a few things od been thinking about, sobthat they are thrre and working in win7 land. thrn made a copy of virtual hard drive, stored away the older versions, and sllowed win10 updates on new copies. the moment i dont like win10, i have a path back to "better versions" for everything i have and do today.
The most important is the last point: Since upgrades are not optional they can slowly update Windows to make it more closed, to push their services even more intensely to show even more ads. To sum up, they can do whatever they want to your PC
Everyone it's safe to come out now.
I have for a long time felt that Microsoft will sooner or later switch from selling outright licences to a system where we are all forced to pay annually and since with Windows 10 we are pretty much forced to accept updates whenever MS chooses to post them we may not even have the choice of opting out and sticking with the release we have paid for or been given by MS. Worse still, whenever windows changes in a way that screws other applications, those will all have to be updated as well (more money). Given the way that Microsoft has completely lost the plot with respect to mobile systems (mobile/cell phones) future revenues will rely more and more on a shrinking market of desktop PCs. Who knows, perhaps MS will spin off and maybe even sell its Windows business as it focuses more and more on its cloud and services businesses.
Yes, we all need childishly featureless interfaced scripted apps instead of useful well crafted applications.
NRRPT/RCT
I had a date cancelled yesterday because the girl was desperate to upgrade to Windows 10 while it was free. Best excuse ever, but I know for sure that is was real. I had know her for 26 years :). I just called a few buddies and spend the night doing geocaching and chatting until 4:00AM.
Anyone doing serious work on a laptop over an extended period of time isn't going to give a shit about the screen - they'll be using an external screen, monitor, and mouse. So all that extra money is wasted.
The internal components come from the same manufacturer as the consumer line. So really, what are you paying for?
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
My experience of Windows 10 came to me along with a Surface Pro 4.
These are some of the problems I experience daily whilst attempting productive work using the dock and an external monitor:
* Switches itself off and displays a giant thermometer on the SP4 screen if I attempt to switch it back on - the fans don't come on so it overheats ^_^
* The mouse pointer randomly jumps around occasionally because the type cover is closed and bizarrely the touch panel is still active despite my screen configuration being set to 'display on the external monitor only'
* Non-deterministic screen resolution issues abound (often at the same time): 1) text is super-tiny; 2) all other ui is HUGE; 3) font is close to normal size but appears *wrong* / fuzzy / faint - generally this occurs along with: 4) the screen configuration randomly changes from 'external monitor only' (my preference) to mirrored
* Keyboard or mouse stop working for no apparent reason
* Windows updates to fix the drivers for the dock / firmware etc. fail again and again and require googling and low-level hacks to get them to install
* Close buttons on windows become non-responsive ! ^_^
* My installation of Office 2013 needs to be 'online repaired' every time I reboot
In short it's a total clusterfuck - way worse than the Windows Mobile 6 thing that sent me towards Android. I'm going to have to bite the bullet and abandon years of experience of using and developing on Windows and embrace the dark side that is Linux / Mac just to get away from this kind of BS. :-| )
Microsoft: what the hell? You control the hardware, the OS and the software but it still doesn't work. WTF!?! How do I make this right given that this is a £2100 ($2778 current rates) investment for the hardware alone! Aaaaarh (not in a pirate sense
Requiem for the American Dream
Free Upgrade To Windows 10 Ends Today: What's Your Thought On This?
I'm very pleased for my friends and relatives that the continual harassment from Microsoft to do "something that sounds scary and sinister" will now end.
As for me, I couldn't care less .... I use only Linux for my day-to-day needs (the only gaming I do these days is Tetris and Mahjongg), though I keep a copy of XP in a VM for those rare occasions I need to run a Win32 app. I have Doom 3 installed on a real metal WinXP somewhere here .... never finished it ..... got bored by all the dim lighting ..... maybe I'll finish that one day. At least it didn't "require a Steam connection", and therefore Internet connectivity.
I thought about buying a copy of Win7 Pro while you still could (well it is quite a nice product if you can get it at a reasonable price), but in the end just couldn't face the continual struggle with Microsoft's dirty tricks department over whose PC it is. They made it perfectly clear they would bolt on telemetry to Win7 & 8.x, and would try ever tricksier ways to force download the Win10 files over my link onto my hard drive, and fool me into starting the upgrade, which were only circumventable by switching off all security updates and maintaining constant hyper-vigilence. I have enough stress in my life, without that nonsense. F*ck that. Out here, we are free, and the air smells good.
So I say hooray for the end of free Win10 upgrades :)
.... (sorry - wrong link, I know, but it'll do)
"And tap into America !"
If you don't pray in my school, I won't think in your church.
They already have. A recent W7 update has prevented my desktop from coming out of standby without hard locking.
Kinda sad that all the bullshit that was made fun of with Win 8 still holds true on Windows "superspyware with Bing" 10.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
"...those on the fence about switching to Windows 10 better move quick or risk paying for what they could have had for free."
Having a dog do its business on my lawn isn't right at the top of my list. Paying for the privilege ranks even lower. In either case, I'd rather introduce the dog to my paintball gun in a very direct way than allow it to leave a POS on my property.
I feel just the same about "upgrading" to Windows 10.
How long have you been working for them, by the way?
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
I say no because the features over Win7Pro present too high a learning curve for most users.
The vast majority of my clients do not wish to become computer weenies. They love XP because it worked for everything they needed. Win7 was an easy migration albeit a bit less stable (skipping the nightmares of Vista, and now Win8.x). Yet I get major complaints that the migration to Win10 is too unnecessary and to much trouble for the effort. My clients have important work to keep doing.
I am actually inclined to just go with a good Linux distribution. If one must learn a new computing system every few years, why not just bite the bullit and go Linux. There are far smaller learning curves between updates and version releases. And, there are more and more apps available; plenty to meet my clients' needs. And, more stable and faster!
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.