Slashdot Mirror
Surface Laptop Can Be Switched To Windows 10 Pro For Free Until 2018 (cnet.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Don't let the new Windows 10 S operating system stop you from buying a Surface Laptop this year. The streamlined OS limits you to using applications that are in Microsoft's Windows Store. But, as noted in the tech specs for Microsoft's new ultraportable, if you'd rather run non-Store apps, you can switch to Windows 10 Pro for free until December 31, 2017. Once 2018 hits, the switch to Pro will cost $49. But be warned: Once you upgrade your license key, you can't go back.
Anything not on the Appdows 10 Store is LUDDITE software, so only LUDDITES want LUDDITE Windows 10 Pro. Modern app appers only app apps, which is why Appdows 10 S is the appiest apperating app!
Apps!
$1000 for 4 GB of non-upgradable RAM and a (probably) non-upgradable 128 GB SSD.
And yet somehow, Slashdot readers will find a way to bash Microsoft for giving their customers this choice. It's clear that Microsoft is trying to do a good thing, but it will somehow be spun into a reason to criticize them. Microsoft can't win around here. No matter what they do, they will be wrong in the eyes of Slashdot readers.
Shitty?
does it run Linux?
Only really relevant question here
Why are other peoples sig's always more witty ???
I don't understand why anyone would want to downgrade from windows 10 pro back to the S version. Can someone enlighten me?
And with the smallest app store in the industry on top? Many Chromebooks have a far greater selection of Android apps, plus you can sideload more and install competing Amazon appstore.
>Don't let the new Windows 10 S operating system stop you from buying a Surface Laptop this year.
It doesn'...t I have a shitload of other reasons not to buy it.
They hook you in with a "free" upgrade, then down the line when you get your next computer they extort you to get an uncrippled version of Windows, which is needed for real applications. They will use the paywall to lock out competitors and secure boot will stop you getting the unlocked version for free. Its time to take action against Microsoft before the "S" becomes the default for all new computers.
Maybe this new Surface laptop will be a big seller? Way too early to predict that. Regardless? I view this one as copying all of the wrong things Apple has done lately.
Basically, you've got Microsoft trying to compete on "thinnest, lightest!" (and for now, actually beating Apple at their own game in that department) - at the expense of functionality. You're always going to pay a premium price for hardware that's been crammed into as small a space as the manufacturer can possibly put it in ... hence the underwhelming specs; offering a model with only 4GB of non-expandable RAM and only 128GB of drive storage.
The gimped edition of Windows 10 (even IF you can upgrade to the normal version at no charge for a limited time) is more evidence that MS realizes this thing costs more to build than it's really worth to a lot of people. (They've already laid out a "roadmap" for it that ensures once the early adopters have all bought theirs, they'll get to extract another $50 from each person after that who buys one expecting it to run a full-fledged Windows 10 OS.) That amounts to a way to keep the initial purchase price down and let people pay later for the whole Windows experience on it.
(Even Apple hasn't stooped to that level. OS X is OS X on every Mac out there. There's no "Professional" edition, "Home" edition, or any kind of "Lite" version that only lets you run apps purchased in the App Store!)
So many times, what I see people *really* wanting is a good, all-around portable computer with cutting edge graphics/GPU capabilities to go along with a good CPU. And right now, the industry still seems to have tunnel vision that only gamers would ever want such a thing. Just yesterday, an employee in our office got frustrated with slow performance doing "warp transform" processes on images in Photoshop on her PC. The Intel 4000 integrated graphics just weren't up to the task of handling that very well, even though her PC had good hardware specs in other areas.
But if the main focus continues to be making all laptops as thin as possible, you're not going to have better graphics because they can't dissipate the heat OR put big enough batteries in them to power the higher end video chipsets.
Yesterday trolling of Apple, then shilling for M$ laptops. I guess we know who paid for the current /. campaign.
The Surface laptop fills a niche that has a very small userspace inside the Surface lineup and, more importantly, breaks almost zero new ground (save for the super-soft keyboard surface that is a pita to clean). It doesn't fold flat/back so inking isn't really as useful as on the other two Surface portables. You can't get it with a second, discrete GPU like you can with the Book. It's heavier and lower resolution than the Pro4. It's only real claim to fame is a very suspect 14.5 hour "video playback" benchmark which, I'm going to guess, is based on the CPU being in a near-sleep state while the playback is completely decoded in the new Kaby Lake HEVC circuit. There are no specs on the battery because if we know the Wh, we could back out the high power profile time (Wh/15W GPU for most serious work, about double that for light web surfing, maybe 2.5x with Edge).
Similarly equipped, the SL costs within $100 of the SP4 and SB. That seems like a small differential to give up the ability to go tablet mode.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Don't believe the hype: the Surface is an abject failure. They AREN'T SELLING. Have you ever seen one in public? Nope. But cue the people who will claim "I have one" or "we all use them at work". Sure you do.
The legal fiction being that you must use the accessibility tools - so upgrade and use the screen magnifier. There, you've satisfied the requirements.
I remember saying, when they set a time limit on the "free upgrade" that it would be unenforceable...Microsoft doubled down on this when all their new Win10 releases accepted Windows 7 and 8.x Product keys. In theory, they could enforce it through activation, but they simply do not, and trying to enforce it on activation introduces a lot more (costly and operational) headaches for Microsoft.
I can see them, however, expanding this idea that some hardware gets an extended period of upgrades, but the reality is that it's just a thought exercise.
The autism-hating, custom EpiPen-hating, Musk-hating Slashdot troll!
Only question I have is when is Microsoft going to a annual Subscription Fee? That's the direction they seem to be headed they just haven't said when.
windows home vs pro was about domains in the past for the most part.
OSX did have server ver's in the past.
they do have annual fees for some Enterprise Agreements
So you get a free upgrade from bullshit to slightly more full featured bullshit.
Until they start making Enterprise readily available, this is all just handwaving.
It's so frustrating... Apple has been pissing me off to no end with their hardware decisions, and yet Microsoft has *still* managed to piss me off so much more that I would rather pay the Apple Dongle/Dingleberry Tax than go back to Windows..
a clusterfuck of DontWant. From the locked-down hardware, the Microsoft appstore, the reboot-when-Microsoft-says, ads in the taskbar (and elsewhere), locked-down browser and search... it is indeed a big pile of shit.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Yes OS X still has a server version but so does Windows. But the point was/is that OS X only has one version for most consumers. Some businesses and consumers may need the server version but Apple doesn't split their consumer version into multiple flavors.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
After WindowsRT for the Surface tablet, you'd think MS learns its lesson. Now they are doing the same stupid mistake again.. all the while having to spend money and time to create windows 10S.... that's just begging for trouble!
No, since the Creators Updare, Windows Store apps are in an encrypted container so you can't just plop the files on WINE and run it.
Windows S (ShitStorm) there you have it.
Yes, as of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Ask, and you shall receive.
Is there something I can switch in Surface Tablet that will send a standing wave back through Microsofts' EPS conduit systems, overloading their warp core and blowing them to smithereens? I'd like to save the Galaxy from them.
Once you upgrade to Pro, be advised, you cannot revert back to Windows 10 S*
- -
*Mwa ha ha ha ha ha
Why the fuck would you want to?
You can never go back.
OK, I won't let Win 10S specifically stop me from buying a Surface. I'll let the presence of any form of Windows 10 stop me from buying it.
Free as in herpes right?
Have you ever fallen asleep at the keybhanusdiog?
How's life in the hypocrite lane?
Do you really want to be locked into Microsoft app store ecosystem? They need an app store that's both popular and non-exclusive before they attempt to foist an OS on people that can only install apps from that store.