Windows 10 to launch this summer

[bill]

http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/03/17/windows-10-launching-this-summer-in-190-countries-and-111-languages/ [blogs.windows.com]

Windows 10 Launching This Summer in 190 Countries and 111 Languages

We continue to make great development progress and shared today that Windows 10 will be available this summer in 190 countries and 111 languages.

No exact date was given, but remember that Microsoft is making Windows 10 available as a free upgrade for existing Windows 7 and Windows 8 users for a year.

[J_RaD]

We are upgrading all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10." This means that everyone running Windows 7 or 8.1, irrespective of whether you pirated the operating system or not, will be allowed to upgrade to a legitimate version of Windows 10

I think this is the big bomb drop.

[mcneely]

There's a devil in the details me thinks -- I would watch what Microsoft does with it's Windows Genuine Activation processes in the future.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is --

[J_RaD]

I think they just want a huge mass adoption rate no matter what they have to do to get it.

Free upgrades for anyone on 7 and 8 are one thing... free upgrades no matter what.....they'll be getting a hell of a lot of installs!

[bill]

That announcement was made in China where perhaps one in ten installs is legitimate. However, it is the countries with the most unlicensed installs where you also find a lot of the script-kiddy bot-nets and other nasties. What will happen to that market when a lot of those PCs are running an automatically patchable, modern, Microsoft OS?

I think Microsoft is looking at the bigger picture of the overall welfare of the internet by removing a lot of these vulnerabilities that result from un-patchable pirated software.

[Selen]

Someone mentioned that Windows 10 NSA Edition is already available to download, but it was probably a joke.

[J_RaD]

nope its not china only, worldwide.

[tangor]

Wonder how much of the biometric info will be retained by MS... and if that can be accessed by governments. I hate that damn tin foil hat, but there are times it just seems practical.

[J_RaD]

great way to lose a user base quick. MS put up as much security as the rest of the tech companies once the NSA was caught snooping around.

[bill]

A bit of an update from Microsoft about the updates to Windows 10

http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/19/8259439/windows-10-pirates-upgrade-payment-option [theverge.com]

Microsoft will let pirates update to Windows 10, but it likely still wants them to pay

Microsoft will allow Windows pirates to upgrade to Windows 10, but it's likely still hoping to get them to pay. Microsoft tells The Verge that people with pirated copies of Windows will still be considered to have unofficial copies after the update. If they want to go official, they can — they'll just have to get it through the Windows Store. "We will provide a mechanism for non-genuine Windows 10 PC devices to 'get genuine' via the new Windows Store, whether they are upgraded versions of Windows or purchased," a Microsoft spokesperson says. Microsoft notes that its upgrade practice will be consistent globally.

[J_RaD]

how windows treats pirate copies will be key then..... otherwise this changes nothing. Scaring the end user at the keyboard is not a great route.

[tangor]

If "freeware" did everything MS Win does then no one would pirate it. I see nothing wrong is accomplishing two things:

Get all the remaining XP Vista Win 7 folks to 10 and shutdown a PITA for security updates, and at the same time make a few bucks by turning pirates into users. Even if the upgrade to 10 has no further upDATEs for the pirates who choose to avoid the Genuine process, at least goal one has been achieved.

[J_RaD]

soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo how is this different then what they do already?

and what does "unofficial copy" mean? if win 10 is just going to act like a non-activated version of win 7 , im not seeing the point of doing anything.


here is a fix, make windows 10 $35.00 or something other then 125.00 for OEM system builders

[mcneely]

All we can do is speculate on the path that Microsoft intends to take with all of this so-called free stuff ...

Here's how my little ole software company would do things ...

I'm only in it for the money, and I'm going take one for the team just to get as many as possible back to the table as I can before I start playing hardball and making buttloads of money.

I'd write in something that would allow total control over the product. (i.e. - kill switch, mandatory paid updates, and things of that nature)

I would dis-qualify all of my previous product builds, and shut down anything that even remotely smacks of updates or patches for them - and ... in order to help keep the Internet more secure, anyone using anything produced before my latest release would be deactivated or shut down after a certain period of time ... Never mind the pirates .. because I know my product and I know where my back doors are.

If I'm writing for mobile and desktop all at once, I'll use mostly all Apps in order to further my cause and to fatten my pocketbook ... I could turn off support for any App I like - My paid updates would be cheap, so no one would have an excuse for not updating - If they aren't updating for the price I say? .. I'll simply shut the App off 'till they come around to my way of thinking.

Your measly little BotNet could never survive in the environment I plan to create for you, so if you have a problem with that, you could always give up on my easy to learn 'point and click' and go back to learning to write command line like all of the big boys do.

I own the software -- I will always own the software, so you will always have to pay in order to use it. My software is mine, and in order to cut support and production costs, I'll keep it safe on my servers, so if there are any holes to exploit, it will only affect me, and I can fix it in my own environment, in my own time, and no one will ever have to know about it, or be adversely affected by it.

Don't worry about your previous 1, 2, or 3 builds ... I've slipped in the kill switch on your last automatic update, and when the time comes, I'll shut it all down because you've become a threat to everyone else on the planet and I'm tired of supporting what I consider to be your obsolete build ... I'll do just like Adobe did - I'll thumb my nose at all of the money you spent on my previous builds because your money has an expiration date, and I don't want my software on your local machine any longer - I'll spend less time and make more money on anything I build from here on out.

I intend to sprinkle my latest release with all sorts of enticing goodies with just enough open source to attract the nix and the Google fan boys in order to bring them back to the fold.

I'll be everybody's buddy and BFF - You'll see - Because I'm the boss and I'm tired of being kicked to the curb for all of my bloopers, bleeps, and blunders over the years .. I'm tired of people discovering that my builds are sub-par and then exploiting them to their fullest -- Things are gonna change -- You'll see.