Want Windows 10? You got it: for free. This is a sea change in Microsoft's strategy when it comes to upgrades. Gratis upgrades will be available for Windows 7, 8.1 and even Windows Phone 8.1 users for a full year.
I heard that and assumed they meant if you bought the computer a year before the upgrade. Would be nice if all 7 and 8.1 users will get it.
Should have googled before my post. It will be available to all current users of 7 and 8.1:
I got an Android based tablet for Christmas and believe Android may be the worlds largest OS and upgrades are apparently free. If MS wants to be competitive, this is competition they must beat.
From googling, it sure looks like it means a year from the date it's launched, not the date you bought a PC. Seems kind of silly for MSFT to be making a major announcement, talking about free for Win 7 if it was only if you had bought the PC within a year. Most PCs aren't be sold with 7 anymore already, no? and 10 is a long ways out.
Apparently there are a few computers with 7 to be sold and MS does not want to make them boat anchors. Oren wondered why not Vista and probably same reasoning in that there are not any unsold Vista machines.
Again, from everything I've seen online, it's as Moe said, one year from the date of Win 10 release, not from the date of any PC purchase. Where do you see that it has anything to do with when the PC was purchased?
Liar, liar your pants are on fire. Won't apply to my nearly 3 year old Win 7 system.
Get the facts and get back to us. =======
You're making the liar claim. What are you seeing that says it won't? Everything I've seen online, many sources, say Moe is right.
Too damned lazy to click the link and read, hey? Or are you comprehension-impaired?
Here's another link:
Free Upgrade Offer
Great news! We will offer a free upgrade to Windows 10 for qualified new or existing Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 devices that upgrade in the first year!* And even better: once a qualified Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it up to date for the supported lifetime of the device, keeping it more secure, and introducing new features and functionality over time ? for no additional charge. Sign up with your email today, and we will send you more information about Windows 10 and the upgrade offer in the coming months.
*It is our intent that most of these devices will qualify, but some hardware/software requirements apply and feature availability may vary by device. Devices must be connected to the internet and have Windows Update enabled. ISP fees may apply. Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1 Update required. Some editions are excluded: Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise, and Windows RT/RT 8.1. Active Software Assurance customers in volume licensing have the benefit to upgrade to Windows 10 Enterprise outside of this offer. We will be sharing more information and additional offer terms in coming months.
My initial thought was that was done in the past when a new OS was coming out you'd get a chit for the new one when you bought the old one.
I just got an ad from HP that they were selling Win 7 machines with up to 25% off.
| Would be nice if all 7 and 8.1 users will get it.
Maybe. But no one really knows exactly what it is yet. P.T. Barnum's Egress exhibit was free, too.
I've got like 6 Vista licenses , all from people that retroed back to XP . I'm still running XP , and don't plan to change .
| > And why don't they include Vista? | > | | Because all six people using Vista already upgraded from that crap.
I don't think there's really much difference between Vista and 7. I think of them as the same OS. But there are two factors that make them seem different:
1) It's easier to tone down the pointless nags in Win7, making it appear to be smoother.2) Microsoft screwed up the release of Vista. Intel had a big pile of chipsets they wanted to dump, but those chipsets couldn't support the demanding Aero graphics. (The translucent techno-kitsch that was the only real selling point of Vista/7.) So Microsoft helped out their buddy, creating new categories of vista at the last minute. The general public got very confused, faced with choosing between PCs that fully ran Vista and PCs that could run Vista but couldn't do Aero. As a result, Vista got a bad reputation.
Microsoft acted in a similar way with WinME. When that version flopped they sort of swept it under the rug, pretending that it just didn't exist. Now, for some time, it's been Vista's turn to be the black sheep that no one admits to. Yet if one just turns off User Account Control in Vista I don't think there's much difference between that and Win7. (Personally I avoid both. I occasionally use Win7-64 for memory intensive things, but I prefer the leaner, no-nonsense style of XP. It doesn't fight with me about how I want to do things, and its spyware functionality is less well developed.)
Some editions are excluded. Some other conditions apply. Must be connected to the Internet.
If I QUALIFY I may be interested.
Wow, must be connected to the internet to get the free update. What a show stopping hurdle for consumers! Outrageous!
So far, from what I see my Win 7 PCs are covered. Amazing how some folks want to just piss all over stuff, even when it looks genuine and generous. I mean here is MSFT giving out a free major OS upgrade and you're complaining.
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I can't see any content on that webpage. I don't know why. Here's another link to Mary Jo Foley, who seems to be as much an insider as anyone when it comes to MS:
Note that she points out Win10 will be a service, not a software product. Once you go to Win10 you'll likely have very little control over your computer. (Similarly, I think Apple OS upgrades are now free, but Apple is basically selling the device and making a lot of their money by locking it down and then selling services, like music through iTunes. They don't just hand it out for free because they're generous.... and no one would ever accuse Apple of being generous.)
Win8 Metro is probably a good portent of what to expect with Win10. It's likely people will have to get a "Microsoft ID", allow Microsoft total control and access, which also means fullscale spying, as well as restrictions on what one can install/use/buy. It's hard to guess how they might integrate that with computers that are actually used to do anything more than shop and play games. Maybe they'll show ads. Maybe they'll just "sell you down the river" to marketers and data miners. But one way or the other, you can be sure they intend to make more money on you by giving it away free than they do by selling it. Otherwise they wouldn't be doing it.
Restrictions and spying are becoming a big problem. I see articles repeatedly about both iPhone and Android phones, detailing the near impossibility of not being tracked everywhere one goes, and spied on by much of the installed software. It's becoming very difficult to not be locked into a service and lose control of the device. Win10 is likely to be a similar situation. So it might be wise to at least wait and see how it plays out before jumping on board.
Just yesterday I saw an article about how Google is looking into entering the insurance business. The explanation was that Google already knows how and where people drive, through their Android phones running GPS, which are essentially radio collar tracking devices. So Google could be one up on other insurance companies in terms of knowing the best rates to charge individual customers. Microsoft wants a piece of that action. They know their strength is the Windows base. Their angle now, as seen through their ads, is to convert that to a big customer base of people who find it convenient to live in Metro-land, whether on PC, tablet, or phone.
She didn't say it's not a software product. It obviously is. What she said was MSFT will be treating it like a service by updating it for life on the device and that there wouldn't be version numbers.
No indication of that at all from what you posted.
Realistically, I wonder how much MSFT actually makes from selling upgrades, at least to the home market. I doubt it's a core of their revenue stream. I haven't paid for an upgrade in probably 15 years. I probably paid for one upgrade ever. I think most people are in that boat too. You get an OS with the PC when you buy it, do whatever free upgrades there are and that's it. The upgrades never offered anything compelling enough to justify the price. And by the time they do, you probably are ready for new hardware too.
I still have an XP machine at home and a couple at work. They are doing what needs to be done, reliably. W7 is better, but I'd now spend the money unless I was putting it towards a new machine out of need.
I know of a few people running Vista from a new machine and have had no problems. I know people that upgraded from XP to Vista and had many problems. That may be the biggest difference in reliability. W7 was explained to me as being "what Vista was supposed to be".
There is no such thing as a free lunch. What does Microsoft get out of all of this? Articles claim Microsoft is now looking at Windows 10 as a Service. What does that mean? To me it might mean it will be just another way to suck up info on what you do with your Windows device up to a mothership in the cloud, that mothership analyzing that data and selling it to the highest bidders, perhaps targeting you for custom ads, like the robocalls on the phone you get when you sit down for dinner.
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