It's FREE WINDOWS 10 time: 29 July is D-Day, yells Microsoft Windows 10 will be coughed up by Microsoft on July 29, the company said on Monday morning – and Windows 7 and 8.1 users can reserve their free upgrade right now. Gratis upgrades to Windows 10 are pegged to last for 12 months, as previously announced by Microsoft. That gives you until the end of July 2016 to claim them. Also, …
None? We'll be installing it and getting on with our lives, just like when people got/get Lollipop/iOS7
I'm going to guess you use Linux, switched from Windows and don't see the point in going back, fight the power and all that, unless you want to play anything outside of the 100 or so steam games.
If not then it must be OSX and you are looking for a invite, since you have to use Windows part of the time to do everything one would expect from an OS (bit like Linux), but I thought you'd be all partied out by the "amazing" announcements Apple have made in the last few years.
(I'll soon be publishing my new book entitled "How to alienate 90% of people who comment in Windows related threads in one easy post" (working title))
"And Linux's answer to Lync is?"
That depends, which version of Linux you use, which kernel, are you using "yumm"or "apt-get", do you have the Gnome libraries or not, which compiler subversion, do you know all of the compiler command lien options by heart, do grep, awk, bash or multiple levels of piping make your sweat or smile....
Of course it's command line, yes of course you need beard and adhere to Stallmans Chronicles but believe me it really is fast....and is so much better than the Windows/Mac version....It's all about choice, it's free, as in beer, and we already have 5 people in the Github ( if you count my 2 dogs, the neighbour and my unborn child)
Our distro is amazing......it's far better than Windows, it's called GlyncLinux....and we use a penguin in a Giraffe costume as our mascot... All Linux versions need a mascot, its just so much more coollll...
At home we call it Gerard the Gyrating Giraffe GlyncLinux... and were currently working on a chewing gum sized bootable "shoe" installation....because you never know when a bootable shoe can come in handy for Glyncing to others.
Yes Linux can do anything you want. If it can't someone in sandals will whip up some code to make something that can. Trouble is 'open source' doesn't mean free and for business supportability is just as important as everything else you mentioned.
I love everything tech. Windows works for 60% of what I do. Mac works for 20% of what I do, and when I'm feeling all nerdy I'll boot linux.
Each have plus and negative points. For most people Windows works and does what they need.
I for one won't scoff at a free upgrade.
MS posts, Apple posts they always end up with an OS equivalent of a willy waving contest.
This post has been deleted by its author
Not really free. You already paid for it with your Windows 7 or 8 license. Even so, at first glance it seems quite generous of Microsoft not to charge extra for a new version.
However - it's actually a very astute business plan - consumer OS licensing revenue is not as important as it used to be. Microsoft want to get the Windows App Store on your desktop and sell you Office 365, OneDrive, Xbox Music / Video and get you using Cortana (and therefore Bing), etc. etc!
If it gets me a "free" OS upgrade though, then it works for me...
"To be fair I'm pretty sure it's a major deal for Microsoft and shareholders are going to take some convincing."
It really isn't. Consumer OS sales are worth much less than business ones - and most are heavily subsidised OEM versions anyway. Microsoft will likely only need to sell a single Office 365 or OneDrive subscription, a few Windows Store apps, or have you use Bing (even via Cortana) for a few years on each PC to make more money than a home license would have cost...
DX 12 should be supported by most current, and a lot of older DX10/11 cards, as it's basically driver optimisations, rather than hardware changes.
For example, nVidia Fermi chipset upwards will support DX12, that's the GeForce 400 series from 2010.
For AMD it needs GCN, which is HD 7700 onwards (2012).
So anyone who has a reasonably current system, and especially anyone with a 'gaming rig' should benefit.
Personally, I'm on Win 7 64bit, I'm not planning on shifting to Win 10 any time soon.
Anonymous Coward: "Quite - up to 40% performance gain on a PC and up to 20% performance gain on the Xbox One...OpenGL is at least a year behind."
In your dreams! The overall average performance gain is not going to be anything better than 10% to 15%.
And Microsoft was claiming a +100% to +500% improvement...
First games with DirectX 12 support are proof that that is far from the truth and there will be no real reason to use DirectX 12 at all. So no real reason to install the awful Windows 10 aka Windows 8.2 with Metro/ModernUI crap and the fake start menu plagued with Metro.
"In your dreams! The overall average performance gain is not going to be anything better than 10% to 15%."
If you count crappy integrated graphics PCs maybe. For high end hardware, 40% performance gain is realistic.
"And Microsoft was claiming a +100% to +500% improvement..."
Actually it's better than that for many use cases:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2900814/tested-directx-12s-potential-performance-leap-is-insane.html
I'd like to see some clarification on how invasive Win 10 is (Cortana, always connected, MS account, sync to "cloud" etc.) first.
Well if like 8.1 on the phone, here is the bizarre, complex thing...stand by, it's really difficult....You TURN IT OFF.
I know, crazy shit.
Next you'll be telling me Android needs a Google account and iOS needs an Apple ID in order to get all the extra bits, like Apps.
> Lost all faith...
I guess I'm an "off by default" kind of guy who like to add in features if they're useful to me. But if you prefer to eat in restaurants where your food comes with mayo AND tomato ketchup AND HP sauce AND mustard AND custard AND ...
You can always scrape them off the plate after all.
Trolling slightly, hence icon.
After I am convinced it will not wipe the restore partition on my laptop. And then, if I can install a third party firewall and discover that there is still sufficient function left after I stop it talking to Microsoft, I may just keep it long term. My win 7 restore partition will remain until I am convinced that this is not a bait and switch scam.
To be honest the ONLY attraction of this OS is Direct X 12. And curiosity as to how much user data win 10 will actually want to send to Microsoft. I can't see any other benefit (other than it allegedly being a little quicker) to me personally and my usage patterns to warrant a change.
...after a few months, to let everyone else sort out the normal issues.
And when MicroSoft make good on theit threats to though the proverbial "it", at the Walls to see what stick... Stinks so as NOT to upset the Banker Classes? e.g. Patch Tuesday? I'll be sitting here on Window 7 x64 thank you....
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
