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.

Comments

Windows 10, Windows 10, Windows 10!

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh thank god, another Windows 10 story!
I was getting worried we might go a day without one.

Re:Windows 10, Windows 10, Windows 10!

[malditaenvidia]

John 117 sure can't.

Re:Windows 10, Windows 10, Windows 10!

[Miamicanes]

"Cortana, why is Windows 10 so ugly?"

Aero Glass was too slow on non-Intel platforms, so Microsoft removed it entirely to avoid having Windows look uglier and worse on ARM tablets than it does on a top of the line i7 workstation.

"Cortana, what percentage of people who buy top of the line i7 workstation-class computers actually CARE about running Windows on ARM?"

***DIVISION BY ZERO ERROR***

Re:Windows 10, Windows 10, Windows 10!

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows 10 is like Donald Trump, no one likes it, but we keep hearing about it.

Same As Before

[sexconker]

My thoughts are the same as I've expressed before on these Windows 10 stories.
I'll describe them in detail again.

Fuck MS.

Re:Same As Before

[prograsm]

My thoughts are similar: The OS is nice, it's as usable an OS as Microsoft has made. But there's a reason Microsoft made it propagate like a zombie outbreak. People don't want it. MS has to know there are serious issues with the direction decision makers are taking the company when one of their more tolerable new friendly operating system releases is given away for free and older versions of their product are still preferable. Trying to monetize your customers is not working, M$. Learn from that.

Re:Same As Before

[Killall -9 Bash]

19% market share for an OS that has been free for a year is fucking pathetic.

Re:Same As Before

[Anonymous Coward]

19% market share for an OS that has been free for a year is fucking pathetic.

so tru :-D.

same can be sed about da market share of linux on the desk, free for 25 years.. 2% share.. lmfao.

Win7 4 life

Re: Same As Before

[Miamicanes]

Linux WAS actually well on its way to becoming a meaningful alternative, until Ubuntu (who was responsible for most of that popularity) succumbed to Tablet Fever and, like Microsoft, proceeded to slaughter its golden egg-laying goose.

Remember 2008? Just slightly over 8 years ago? Back when "Ubuntu" had almost become SYNONYMOUS with "Linux" as far as books, magazines, and mainstream users were concerned? Now look at them... the only reason they're even still RELEVANT is because of all the popular distros that take Ubuntu's Unity trainwreck and undo most of the damage.

Re:Same As Before

[Anonymous Coward]

Speaking as small tech support shop, I've had non-technical people willing to pay me to go back to whatever they had before. And I'm not counting the ones that had genuine problems with Win10 (Sound/USB/Networking not working, program incompatibility, etc). Fortunately the rollback feature usually works and most people got the computer to me within the month, so only a few customers actually had to pay full repair rates.

TL;DR - people will pay to NOT have Windows 10

Re:Same As Before

[sexconker]

No, you monetize your product by selling it. When you monetize your customers, you're selling them. People don't want Windows 10 spying on them, serving up ads, having built in backdoors, etc.

Re:Same As Before

[gweilo8888]

Windows 10: The World's Least Successful Commercial Virus.

Re:Same As Before

[chipschap]

Forced updates is the deal breaker for me. Given the stuff MS does these days (see the /. article on the "anniversary" update), I can't trust them not to undo whatever I've fixed, delete stuff, make stuff run that I don't want, etc. I have 8.1 on a separate (seldom booted) partition and even though it's crap, I haven't lost control over it, at least not yet.

Re:Same As Before

[Darinbob]

It's not just the veneral disease outbreak aspect of Windows 10 that is bad. Though the itching is pretty annoying. But there were so many gawdawful design decisions. Decisions made that benefit Microsoft while hurting customers, like an automaker who uses corrugated tin for the seats because it's cheaper and keeps the drivers more alert than with cushioned seats (because it felt like the right time for an automobile analogy).

The default settings for Windows 10 were just plain awful. Their use of a torrent-like method to share Windows 10 with others that was made an opt-out feature. Their extremely bizarre feature to share wifi passwords if your friends already have them (later removed when MS sobered up). Their spyware, and their methods of bypassing the hosts file to make sure it's hard to block this. Their repeat of the IE mistake by making Cortana integrated and supposedly unable to be removed (just the name Cortana is a stupid idea, it's from a lousy xbox game that the majority of enterprise users will never have heard of). And the biggest hugest fuckup of them all, the inability to skip updates, even the pointless updates unrelated to security, the automatic reboot of your machine by default in the middle of doing your work or playing your game just because Microsoft thought it was a good time for an update.

Re: Same As Before

[Thelasko]

Linux WAS actually well on its way to becoming a meaningful alternative, until Ubuntu (who was responsible for most of that popularity) succumbed to Tablet Fever and, like Microsoft, proceeded to slaughter its golden egg-laying goose.

That's only half the story. GNOME did the same thing. An entire generation of operating systems were lost to "tablet fever". At least Microsoft was smart enough to realize it was a mistake.

Re: Same As Before

[Thelasko]

You do realize that you can install any desktop environment that you want onto Ubuntu, right? (or onto any linux distro)

1. The default environment is the one most people use.
2. The default environment is the one that receives the most testing.
3. The default environment is the one that receives the most support.
4. The default environment has had the most attention into it's functionality and user experience.

I've recently tested what you propose on Mint and Debian. The default user experience is superior. When I tried installing Cinnamon on Debian, I was left with a lackluster desktop. On Mint it's fantastic.

Relief!

[Anonymous Coward]

Now I can get back to the normal update cycle without worrying about getting Windows 10 accidentally on my part.

Re:Relief!

[SeaFox]

No, I think that's forever ruined.
They can't install Windows 10, but they can add all sorts of spyware to what you have via system updates, and they have already tried.
So from now of you will need to have automatic updates off and actually check up on each update before installing.

I have about a half-dozen I'm preventing from installing now because one of them causes my Firefox to crash all the time. Not sure which one, most of them are security-related regarding graphics drivers or something like that. All I know is, Firefox stayed running before I installed them and once it started crashing uninstalling them fixed it.

I might say something to Microsoft, but their response it either going to be blaming Firefox or saying I have to update to Windows 10 to fix it.

Handy guide to operating systems

[Man On Pink Corner]

BSD: Free as in speech

Linux: Free as in beer

Windows 10: Free as in herpes

Dont care

[Ubi_NL]

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.

Re:Dont care

[OzPeter]

I moved to osx

Have you ever run something like Little Snitch and seen the ton of places that OS X wants to connect to? It's a real eye-opener

Re:Dont care

[_xeno_]

In short, yes.

If you read through their privacy stuff you'll notice they talk mostly about how they encrypt all the data they collect on you and how they try and keep it "secure" - but they still collect a ton of data on you. iOS was known to gather your location, OS X has been sending all the wifi passwords you connect to back to iCloud for several versions (yet no one cared until Windows 10 did the same thing then everyone got mad), iTunes sends back information about what music is on your Mac, and who knows what else since I'm not about to dig through their excessively long privacy policy to find what they gather on you.

In short: yes, OS X collects a shit load of info about what you're doing and then sends it back to Cupertino. But they "encrypt" it so I guess it's OK.

Re:Long done

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Doesn't affect me; couldn't care less

[kheldan]

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.

I just upgraded my OLD PC to Win10

[TimSSG]

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.

All the stories I'm seen look horrifying

[Sowelu]

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?

Re:Long done

[i.r.id10t]

So can you tell us how you feel about the data logging, the changes coming to available settings with the Aug 2 update, etc?

Well...

[MitchDev]

...if it means M$ stops trying to force/trick people into "upgrading", GOOD!

Re:Long done

[OhPlz]

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.

Re:Long done

[QuietLagoon]

...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.

Depends

[Comboman]

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.

Re:A no-brainer...

[LVSlushdat]

MY "hardware driver requirements" are VERY specific.. Such that NO MS product will EVER touch MY hardware ever again.. I supported/used MS products from 1991 to 2010, at which time I retired.. At that time, all of my home systems were moved to Linux.. and thats where they'll stay...

Unblockable OS-level advertising

[ThatsNotPudding]

THAT is my thought on Windows 10. I'll pass.

Re:Long done

[BarbaraHudson]

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).

Oh noes!

[hattable]

I missed it! How did I not get a notification or something? Was it a feature you had to enable?