Windows 10 free...if you live in the Empire of the Sun that is.

Windows 10 is FREE FOR EVERYONE!

Not just Chinese people.

Microsoft don't do free. Their operating systems and products in general are expensive. Mr Gates did not become one of the richest men on earth by 'giving things for free'.
Something very insidious is going on here, my 'smell a rat' meter is off the charts. Just what will windows 10 do for microsoft and the NSA,NWO etc that we will not know about ? They seem pretty desparate to ensure that everyone has it. Microsoft usually sue people to death for pirated copies of their software, so why would this even extend to pirated copies of windows ?
Tread carefully all those that seem so keen to upgrade !!

originally posted by: sayzaar
Microsoft don't do free. Their operating systems and products in general are expensive. Mr Gates did not become one of the richest men on earth by 'giving things for free'.
Something very insidious is going on here, my 'smell a rat' meter is off the charts. Just what will windows 10 do for microsoft and the NSA,NWO etc that we will not know about ? They seem pretty desparate to ensure that everyone has it. Microsoft usually sue people to death for pirated copies of their software, so why would this even extend to pirated copies of windows ?
Tread carefully all those that seem so keen to upgrade !!

They are now...

Free upgrades to OEM Windows 10 whether your upgrading from a licensed copy or not.

I like fourtune cookies....

a reply to: eriktheawful

Decided to use a couple of old laptops as HTPC's running Ubuntu and Kodi a while ago and am generally happy.

Cant work out for the life of me though why the people who make Linux versions of software still use Terminals and Admin prompts to install none "software centre" software or to undertake custom program add ons etc.


If Linux could do away with Terminals there would be no reason to EVER buy or use MS again- but as it stands; unless you are prepared to wade through pages of Linux tech posts online and copy/paste stuff that you have no idea what it does; it is pretty inaccessible to 98% of users.

To be fair to Microsoft, it's very much in their interest to get major developing markets using legitimate copies of Windows - even if they have to give it away.

The Windows market is much too fractured between versions as it is, so 10 could be something of global reset of their user's technology base.

What happened to Windows 9?

Everybody running Vista to Win8 will get a free upgrade, even in the US.

ok Now do you believe Microsoft is just a Spy tool!

a reply to: darkbake

Microsoft never said, but here's one person's theory:

It appears that many Windows app developers have in their apps a line of code that checks for the Windows version the user is running, and that code uses a “Windows 9” shortcut to detect whether the computer is on Windows 95 or Windows 98. Apparently, those developers never imagined that Microsoft could release a different Windows 9 version in the future, and that particular shortcut might cause enough problems for Microsoft to simply skip a beat.

bgr.com...

originally posted by: Jukiodone
a reply to: eriktheawful

Decided to use a couple of old laptops as HTPC's running Ubuntu and Kodi a while ago and am generally happy.

Cant work out for the life of me though why the people who make Linux versions of software still use Terminals and Admin prompts to install none "software centre" software or to undertake custom program add ons etc.


If Linux could do away with Terminals there would be no reason to EVER buy or use MS again- but as it stands; unless you are prepared to wade through pages of Linux tech posts online and copy/paste stuff that you have no idea what it does; it is pretty inaccessible to 98% of users.

The last Linux install I did was Red Hat Enterprise 6. I have also installed other versions, such as, Fedora, Ubuntu, etc. It takes a little getting used. It has point and click technology like Windows but it requires a little Bourne shell scripting knowledge for automating many tasks. I like Fedora the best out of all versions.

a reply to: LoveSolMoonDeath

Whether Microsoft made it free or not, no one in China would pay for it anyways due to their exceedingly lax copyright laws.

originally posted by: darkbake
What happened to Windows 9?

Here's the most plausible reason why Microsoft skipped 9 and went to 10 that I know of.
Is this why Microsoft named it Windows 10?

Yet no explanation seems to come close to matching that of a self-described Microsoft developer who goes by the name cranbourne on the social news site Reddit. The user points the finger at Microsoft's almost 20-year-old releases that helped make the software maker a household name during the rise of the PC:

Microsoft dev here, the internal rumours are that early testing revealed just how many third party products that had code of the form

if(version.StartsWith("Windows 9")) [ /* 95 and 98 */ ] else [

and that this was the pragmatic solution to avoid that.

"Having worked on the Windows compatibility team before, I have no difficulty believing this," wrote user richkzad in response. There are in fact examples of this on publicly available code repositories.

Essentially, many software programs that have been updated to be compatible with each and every Windows upgrade since 1995 may have recycled a version of this code snippet to allow them to work with both Windows 95 and Windows 98. If Microsoft's next OS had been named Windows 9, such software would have seen that the name starts with "Windows 9" and could have confused the new operating system with Win 95 and 98. That could have created compatibility issues and caused the programs to stop working, or it could have led to version-check errors or other unknown problems.

originally posted by: Jukiodone
a reply to: eriktheawful

Decided to use a couple of old laptops as HTPC's running Ubuntu and Kodi a while ago and am generally happy.

Thank you! I didn't know about Kodi. Looks like I have a new project!

As for Windows 10... not sure how I feel about it, but I'll probably play around with it anyway!

originally posted by: darkbake
What happened to Windows 9?

the joke goes "7 8 9". get it?

Anyways, as others have pointed out, china isn't the only ones getting it free.

Nothing is free in this world, im sure Windows 10 has some sneaky hidden back door giving the NSA full accesss or it reports in to somewhere every day with a log of your activities.

a reply to: LoveSolMoonDeath

There going to steal it anyway!

This is just a preemption

The great thing about windows 10 is:
THE DESTRUCTION OF INTERNET EXPLORER
Hallalullia!

Microsoft has today officially confirmed a July 29 release date for Windows 10 .
Bring on DX 12.

originally posted by: LoveSolMoonDeath
a reply to: feldercarb

From Win 7 & 8 for the first year you're right.

blogs.windows.com...

But not for the 15 % of XP and NOT for the pirated ones here. See, one in China build a pc, he puts a Win whatever pirated from web, and get Win 10 free. Here we upgrade, there they get OS free on new PC...

as a former hardware guy, long retired, there is old chipset hardware, that will not be compatible with the new OS. planned that way? of course, but not exactly how you think. it would be like putting a corvette Z06 LS7 engine in a 1925 Ford model T...,great modern engine, that clearly wouldn't work with the rest of the car.

originally posted by: Willtell
a reply to: LoveSolMoonDeath

There going to steal it anyway!

This is just a preemption

The great thing about windows 10 is:
THE DESTRUCTION OF INTERNET EXPLORER
Hallalullia!

Kind of like how there was a lawsuit back when XP came out that "killed" IE?


I've been working in this field a long time, and microsoft giving away an OS doesn't feel right- but it's a marketing thing.
Making linux "free" as in no money has given it a large market share increase worldwide in the last few years.
Education systems were conned into spending our tax dollars on apple products- so kids are getting free macbooks when they're too young to know any different- those kids are now in college, and sure enough almost all of them use apple products exclusively.

MS has to do something drastic if they're going to retain the user base they're used to. With all "office" functionality (word, excel, powerpoint, making a pdf, etc) being able to be done in a web browser on any platform really kills the argument for spending an extra $500 on software licensing for a typical cubicle workstation.

I have to say that yes, there's probably something insidious going on under the hood- but that's not why it's free.