We continue to make great development progress and shared today that Windows 10 will be available this summer in 190 countries and 111 languages. Windows has always been global with more than 1.5 billion users around the world and here in China hundreds of millions of PCs operate Windows today.
In addition, Windows 10 will be a free upgrade not just for paying Windows 7, 8, and Windows Phone 8 customers, but also for pirates. In other words, those with unlicensed copies of Windows 7 or 8 will get the free upgrade to Windows 10 as well.
I have no idea whether Windows 10 will actually be a good OS or not, but offering a free upgrade to the latest OS — even for pirates — will hopefully have a global impact on botnets that rely on security issues in outdated OSes. Botnets, as they stand, harm everyone, so whatever gets people to move to newer OSes with hopefully better security gets my vote.
I seriously, seriously, seriously don’t think Windows 10 will be free. Maybe they won’t charge up front for it but you can bet they will be charging for it through subscriptions or ads or something. OR they’ll make it up through o365 subscriptions.
As a Systems Analyst I will be using Windows 10 as I’ve used Windows ever since version 2. HOWever, they _pay_ me to use it. As far as my personal machines. Other than cross licensing agreements between Microsoft and other companies, I don’t use any MS branded software or hardware because it is no where near reliable or secure enough for me. But that’s just my opinion having used, nerd level used, over 30 different “PC” OSs. But then what do I know. YMMV
Personally, I think they’ll be counting on Office 365 – subscriptions and hoping that they’ll eventually be able to fool people into buying Xbox Music – subcriptions (or whatever it’s called nowadays) or apps from their store. People are gullible and often gravitate towards whatever is closest at hand and easiest to get, so it might even work, even if it happened with a delay.
Anyways, we’re just going to have to wait and see what sort of details we learn once it’s out.
I don’t use Microsoft-branded hardware, either, but I haven’t had any reliability- or security-issues with either Windows 7 or 8.x — aside from Metro. I feel Windows is just fine as an OS, even if it is proprietary code.
Can’t comment on any of their other software-offerings, though, as I mostly use F/OSS software on top of Windows for all of my needs.
Microsoft Lumia 535 Windows Phone – teething troubles with touchscreen hardware, but they fixed it in a patch. Joyful to use, simple and uncluttered.
Microsoft Surface 2 Pro – absolutely the best bit of hardware I own.
Linx 8 – very capable x86 tablet, if you don’t expect surface performance it’s perfect – way better than an ARM based RT device.
Well, I don’t know. It’s not like there’s much money to be made from selling the upgrade anyway, because very few customers actually upgrade versions – they’ll just sit on Windows 7 or 8 (or even XP) until it’s time to buy new hardware. So from Microsoft’s perspective, there’s not much downside to making the upgrade free, and getting customers onto the latest version reduces the costs of support.
The picture is a little different for businesses – but again, there’s not much money in the upgrades. A lot of businesses simply don’t upgrade Windows versions until forced to (usually timed to coincide with hardware replacement) – and many will have site licenses, where they’ll be paying money regardless of whether they move to 10 or stay on 7. So again, providing the upgrade for free costs Microsoft little, and makes it easier for them to retire older versions, reducing support costs.
Really, I think it’s a no-brainer for them… considerable benefit in getting people off old versions, and minimal downside.
Funny… I’ve not bought MS-branded hardware for over a decade either… but for the opposite reason.
My old keyboard (MS Natural Pro) was bought back in 1999 or so, and the MS mouse I use is a little newer, probably 2003 or so. Both of them are still working perfectly after all that time.
Evidence? Because not only has not a single person from Redmond said they were going subscription based but the head of the OS division said that wasn’t even on the table. The closest MSFT is getting to a subscription OS is the same software assurance they have had for a decade.
As for how they are gonna “make money”…they aren’t which is the WHOLE POINT of doing this! Upgrade copies have never been more than 2% of Windows sales, the vast majority being OEM so this won’t even be a blip on the bottom line while having users spread out across so many versions is a support nightmare. By giving it away to everybody they will get rid of the botnets (the majority of which is made up of infected pirate versions with updates turn off to keep from getting WGA’d), get the majority on one OS, and will give them a foothold in mobile as it’ll be a lot easier to sell a Win 10 user a Lumia as they will be able to have everything from their bookmarks to MP3 anywhere they want thanks to OneDrive.
Its a VERY smart move and shows the new guy isn’t a fool like the Ballmernator, he is coming guns blazing.
You’ll be seriously, seriously mistaken. They’ve said it is free, no string attached.
I think this announcement must’ve been posted early; it’s not April 1st yet.
What is the true cost of a free Windows 10 upgrade?
I think this could potentially backfire… They would be fundamentally making Windows “free” for an entire version cycle. I don’t know if they will be able to ever put the cat back in the bag.
How will businesses who pay for volume licenses feel about this? I would expect some of the big corporation to hit them pretty hard during negotiation over it and demand some kind of discount – everyone else is seemingly getting one…
Could be wrong. Maybe everyone will go along quietly. Who knows. I do expect Windows 7 piracy will get a huge boost on this news though…
The idea of “version cycles” with Windows is supposedly dead – Windows 10 is supposed to be the last monolithic release. After that, it’ll be a rolling-release type of deal – new features will get pushed to existing users without having to pay to upgrade (At least, according to several Microsoft/Windows blog entries)
Also, it is only free the first year – after that, if you want a new license, you’ll have to pay. Business won’t likely upgrade in the first year anyways, and I’d imagine OEMs will still have to pay for the license that is included with the systems they sell.
Well if that is the case this makes a lot more sense then…
But that is not the case. After the first year nothing changes to your machine that is now running Windows 10. It will forever stay licensed. The only thing that changes after the first year is that the free upgrade offer no longer applies for machines.
Microsofts play here is really simple. They want everyone to move to Windows 10 within a year. So they make running it on existing hardware free, keep charging OEMS to put it on new hardware (maybe less though) and keep charging enterprises who have mostly had free upgrade rights anyway (through their volume license agreements).
So for people with existing machines there isn’t much reason not to use Windows 10
For OEMS there isn’t much reason not to put Windows 10 instead of 7/8.1 as they do now
For Enterprise it always used to be a PITA to update Windows versions so it was only done through Wipe-and-reinstall and only if there was an incentive to do so. Updating from any version to Windows 10 will now just be a matter of running all the Windows Updates and you will end up with Windows 10 while all your drivers and software and settings keep running.
Why do they want everyone on the latest version? Because they want Store apps to succeed, less support needed for older versions and more people using the benefits of the latest versions instead of complaining about the negatives of the old versions.
Consumer OS-ses have become completely commoditized. Linux has been free forever, OSX became free a few years ago and especially mobile OS-ses have tought people “oh, so I will just receive the latest version automatically and for free? Nice”. Software that runs on the OS, mostly store apps and “cannot live without” desktop programs are where money is being made
Considering the new way Windows will be distributed, this makes sense.
Retail sales of Windows were never a large money maker – the overwhelming majority of sales came from OEM licensing. Microsoft’s new plan seems basically to only worry about selling Windows on new hardware – once you have it, free updates forever (Well, until your hardware is no longer supported)
The majority of those pirated copies in China probably started out as a legit license sale, bundled with a computer they bought. Might as well bring them into the fold – when they buy another computer, they’ll be buying another license anyways.
and I am not being sarcastic.
Mostly windows is sold with the PC – that probably accounts for 99% of its sales.
The only place where I have encountered pirated windows is in the second hand market where actual branded laptops have for some reason had their OS removed and a pirate copy of Windows installed.
Even on these laptops, there would originally have been an OEM windows licence.
I suspect the cost of doing this to Microsoft will be minimal, but it buys good will, and allows people who otherwise wouldn’t to upgrade improving overall security of the ecosystem.
Exactly my thinking. The income Microsoft earn from people paying for Windows updates is tiny, and by charging for them, they encourage people to stay on older versions, forcing MS to devote resources to supporting old versions for many, many years.
Giving away the upgrades costs them almost nothing, and allows them to save a lot of money on support costs.
In the fine print in the news bit on Reuters is the mention that only Chinese Non-Genuine Installs will be able to upgrade to Windows 10 for free.
It looks like an admission of defeat to keep Windows Genuine in that area of the world.
Again, there is still lots of time between now and the release of Windows 10 to revise the terms of the license and the extend of the free upgrade.
I wonder if useful things like remote desktop server, etc will be enabled or if this version is more like starter edition.
This might legitimize my windows compile box that sits in a corner. it runs in demo mode with cygwin ssh server and remote desktop. i occasionally jump on it for cross compiling and verification.
Interesting the demo mode never truly “blew up”. it just runs and occasionally annoys me telling me I might be a victim of software counterfeiting.
Sadly more than few of our customers dump money into running multiple windows server systems for our stuff.
Edited 2015-03-19 04:26 UTC
Ars is reporting that it will be free to all pirates everywhere.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/03/windows-10-wi…
The extension to everyone appears to be an after-thought about the promotion.
Anyways it appears that a “Non-Genuine” Install will remain so even if upgraded to Windows 10. This possibly imply that follow-on updates (including security update?) would not be available until the appropriate license is e-purchased.
Nothing great there, unless you activate it you have a very crippled OS
Next step:
Free ‘upgrade’ for all the OS X and Linux users
Aren’t Apple users the only one that would actually buy Windows? They get OSX for free with their hardware and literally all of them that I know run Windows in either BootCamp or Virtualization software as well. Most of them nicely paid for Windows.
Giving Windows away for machines that never had any Windows license to begin with seems like a counter-intuitive move. It would be a great move if they would follow it up with the right kind of advertisement, but I can also imagine a simple Apple Message:
Apple Hardware: Runs OSX, Runs Windows
Microsoft Hardware: NOPE, Runs Windows (but who wants THAT)
Seems to me that making the cut-off point Windows 7 is arguably a bit dumb.
There’s tons of PCs out there in China (and other places) that are running pirate copies of XP, and are thus still using seriously outdated (and insecure) versions of IE.
Indeed, there’s tons of PCs still running legitimate copies of XP too. Overall it’s the second most widely used desktop OS out there right now after Windows 7.
So they put on a pirated copy of Win 7 (which can be bought on many street corners there, they even have Steve Ballmer branded thumbdrives with pirated 7 on them) and then get the free upgrade, problem solved.
Oh and to the person who wondered why so many pirated Windows in the second hand market? Tons of really great hardware that came with only XP or Vista. Remember XP was sold until 09 so that leaves a lot of good hardware, I’ve seen more C2D and Turion X2 laptops with XP than I can count but the cost of a copy of Windows is worth more than the laptop. this should wipe out piracy in the second hand market overnight which should be great for everybody as that is where the botnets come from.