Model Boat Mayhem
Mess Deck: General Section => Chit-Chat => Topic started by: pugwash on January 21, 2015, 07:42:20 pm
-
Microsoft have announced Windows 10 is coming and for the first year will be a free
upgrade for anyone operating Windows 8, 7 and windows phone.
Windows 8 had a very slow upgrade (and several teething problems)
so this is the reason for the apparently generous offer.
Question is - should we or shouldn't we jump in or should we let others have all
headaches and we will upgrade in 8 to 10 months time when they have been
ironed out.
Geoff
-
We have a beta version at work I have not had chance to play with it yet but the guys testing it have not said anything bad about it.
-
I hope they drop that imbecilic Metro interface and the default 'touch screen' setting!
Must admit, the OS itself was fast and intelligent.
-
Apparently you have a choice of metro on or off when I looked in on the testing they had turned it all off and it looked a lot like windows 7. I will ask the guys tomorrow what they think and see if I can get a few screen shots.
-
I Like W8.1 :-)) so by, bypassing 9 should be good !!
-
I Like W8.1 :-))
Mayhem does offers psychiatric help as required! :P
-
Bill & Melinda providing computing systems without cost!....... %% ......there must be a catch <*< ...Derek
-
Mayhem does offer psychiatric help as required! :P
%% %% %%
-
I understood it was being designated 10 to show a break from 8 which by all accounts was a commercial boo boo. Apparently Industry left it alone in their droves. A touch screen desk top was never going to be popular!
-
I understood it was being designated 10 to show a break from 8 which by all accounts was a commercial boo boo. Apparently Industry left it alone in their droves. A touch screen desk top was never going to be popular!
I think there are a few theories around. The one I tend to believe is that it's because there were W95 and W98 in the past which together got called 9x. Many searches, software packages, drivers, etc., were therefore programmed to look for W9, W9* or whatever. So having an actual W9 could be 'interesting'. May well be wrong of course, but it's hard to see a good reason to arbitrarily skip 9.
We have three W7 PCs, so if they are giving W10 away as an upgrade I will almost certainly take the offer. On the 'alternating versions being good' history of Windows, 10 should be one of the good.
-
There are still too many on XP, after several disasters from Vista onwards.
8.1 at least fires up before the kettle boils, and once you have enabled the keyboard and a regular desktop it is quite usable. Biggest plus with 8.1 is (File) Explorer is back again, although deeply buried as they want you to lose everything randomly in their "Sky" instead of filing it so you can find it and back it up.
-
Looks like XP stalwarts will have to pay up then!
-
I have just had to give in on XP and now using windows 8 I just hate it I cannot find anything where it used to be and wish I had not changed over! <:(
-
I understood it was being designated 10 to show a break from 8 which by all accounts was a commercial boo boo. Apparently Industry left it alone in their droves. A touch screen desk top was never going to be popular!
Not sure about Industry but .. This is from one of the sites I run.
-
Bill & Melinda providing computing systems without cost!....... %% ......there must be a catch <*< ...Derek
:o :o :o It is because they have more money than they can spend so they have to give it away. O0 O0 %) %)
What about XP users >>:-( >>:-( >>:-( >>:-(
-
What about XP users >>:-( >>:-( >>:-( >>:-(
Should have upgraded to win7 years ago!!
-
And HMRC are only just upgrading to win7 and then found that most of the apps on managers machines didn't work %%
LB
-
>>:-(...many years ago my XP machine died
Purchased a new Vista machine on the recommendation of the supplier ........
Result!.......neither printer functioned, Ouickbooks did not work, TELSTRA did not support Explorer on Vista >>:-(...also had a few glitches with Office 2003
Returned the Vista machine & demanded an equivalent replacement functional XP machine........Harvey Norman weren't happy remonstrating that I all needed was to download new drivers
Was rather amusing listening to the Sales Manager telephoning Hewlett Packard, Epson, Intuit for Quicken and finally TELSTRA only to be told what I had suggested 60 minute's prior & so finally walked out with a replacement XP machine of higher spec than the Vista machine
Finally pensioned off the second XP machine to No 3 daughter & upgraded to a replacement Win7 machine.....which is still going great :-))
I certainly will not be a guinea test pig for Win10 <*< even if the provision is for ZERO cost...... Derek
-
Seem to recall somewhere, might even be old age, that we will no longer be able to buy the operating system outright but pay an annual licence fee which will cover updates etc.
A few software providers already do this so Microsoft is going to cash in also.
Could be wrong but time will tell.
For instance, for those that race in, AKA fools, will they be able to revert back to 7 or 8 or will they be caught hook line and sinker.
Me I am gunna sit an watch. O0 O0
-
I'll stick with my Mac thanks
-
XP is out of date but I do think that Vista owners are being treated badly. They were sold a poor system and are stuck with it.
I use 8.1 and like it. There is a learning curve but once you have it sorted the older versions feel very clunky.
History tells me that as the free Windows 10 offer is current for 12 months I should wait for the 1st service pack before jumping or at the very least wait until others tell me that it is OK, drivers are available for all my bits - or not - etc etc etc.
-
XP is out of date but I do think that Vista owners are being treated badly. They were sold a poor system and are stuck with it.
Not quite all of us, m'duck. The HD on my XP machine died and the only system disk supplied when I bought the machine was Vista, despite the thing being supplied as dual-boot (XP or Vista). My man Huw wizzed his magic fingers over a few of the settings and it now runs like XP. I get the very occasional freeze-up and I've had to download a new DLL file in order to run AutoCAD R14, but other than that it's fine.
That said, I would still kill for an XP machine so that I can get all of the functions of AutoCAD running. IMHO R14 is much superior to the latest version of ACAD - and the price??!!!! They are 'avin' a larf!
W10 for a desktop? Just one question - why bother?
DM
-
In the past week I upgraded my 10-year old confuser and moved from XP to 8.1. As it came loaded on the machine the keyboard and desktop screen were working, and a little hunting around let me get going quite quickly. Even my ancient laser printer (no drivers for 8.1 apparently) worked straight away. That said, I still find it odd that a complex piece of software comes with no instructions whatsoever! I know instruction books are so 20th Century but it might help to get going just a bit quicker O0
I will probably go with W10 if what is said above is true - but I suspect RAAArtyGunner might have hit the nail on the head - after a year you get a message from Microsoft "In order to continue receiving essential security and performance upgrades to your Windows 10 product, please pay an annual charge of £xx. Click here to pay."
But of course it is my duty and pleasure to ensure Bill Gates remains one of the richest men in the world. %) %)
-
Seem to recall somewhere, might even be old age, that we will no longer be able to buy the operating system outright but pay an annual licence fee which will cover updates etc.
A few software providers already do this so Microsoft is going to cash in also.
This is already the case with windows.
The small print says that you may have bought your copy of it from your local computer shop, but it remains the property of Microsoft and they can should they wish take it back from you with no recompense at any time! A case of buying something and then not owning it!
-
There has to be a catch somewhere along the line, they give nothing away for free. Is it time limited on use? ie do you install it only to find in 8 months time you are then expected to cough up a license fee once a year? who knows. Until the full details of the offer are released we won't know whether its a good or bad thing!
Again is it going to be like the latest messenger app, in that you have to let them have access to each and every file on your computer, like they do with their install on your phone or tablet? Not good if you want to have anything installed that may be slightly dodgy in respect of illegally aquired software!
-
My thoughts.
I like others I am wary of a 'free' upgrade. If the OS is 'free for the first year', the wording does suggest that it will be an annual renewal fee, a bit like office 365. I have been running the same version of Win7 and Office 2010 since they came out, with no annual renewals.
If it is free it may be that there are still a lot of bugs, but if they want to hit the release date they need to get it out with bugs and all. Speculation, on my part. But again, if there is an annual update fee they still get the money; just later.
Last week MS announced that they will no longer be offering free support for Win7. However, this I think only affects IT departments and the like, not Joe Public.
Vista was not very good.
Win7 was a huge improvement. However, it does not seem to want to support drivers for the new solid state memory drives (super fast and cheap).
XP was also very stable, but won't have the drivers for newer machines.
Also pirated versions of XP is on almost all computers in China. A good reason for MS to want to move on. MS said they were not supporting XP last year and the Chinese government were not happy and promptly banned Win8. Microsoft seems to offer extended support for China, but they deny this.
After years of resisting Apple, I was given an iPad for Xmas. I have had no problems and have spent zero hours on maintenance. I regularly spend about 6-10 hours a month on maintenance for my MS products, and I am only a light home user. That is one day a month of my 8 days a month free time.
I am seriously considering getting an Apple computer next time. Yes they cost more up front, but they will do anything I want to do that MS can do, and even run MS Office files. I think they are not so hot for gaming, but that is not my thing.
-
I'll stick with my Mac thanks
IMac - Not all that Apple PC's are cracked up to be!
My 5 month old machine had to have new motherboard. Went to collect it from dealer and two more were being returned with major problems that day. Not had major problems like that with all of my previous (Microsoft) PCs in 25 years. First and last Mac for me.
-
my laptop at home bought in 2008 is still running vista quite happily, its still on the original battery too (but only has about 10 minutes run time on battery now). yes it does take about 15 minutes to get it fired up from start, but since it never gets turned off I think its doing quite well. I still run a couple of XP machines for software that doesn't like newer (including the scanning software for my colour laserjet printer), but both the XP machines run all the time too, but are almost never logged on (one acts as a file server with about 3 Tb of hard drives - the other runs the printers (black and white and colour laser printers) which either need XP or a parallel port to connect to).
I also use a win 7 laptop and have a couple of dual boot XP/Linux machines for playing with.
Win 10 - not until I have tried it out at work maybe.
Grendel
-
IMac - Not all that Apple PC's are cracked up to be!
My 5 month old machine had to have new motherboard. Went to collect it from dealer and two more were being returned with major problems that day. Not had major problems like that with all of my previous (Microsoft) PCs in 25 years. First and last Mac for me.
I'm on my fifth.... never had any hardware issues.
I work in a 50/50 mixed mac/pc enviroment and would say the issues are probably 80/20 towards PCs
-
My 5 month old machine had to have new motherboard. Went to collect it from dealer and two more were being returned with major problems that day. Not had major problems like that with all of my previous (Microsoft) PCs in 25 years. First and last Mac for me.
This can happen to any manufacturer. A duff batch of something and there you go.
Back in 2005 my company bought all of us laptops, same make and model, and 60% of them were returned under warranty within 3 months.
-
Seem to recall somewhere, might even be old age, that we will no longer be able to buy the operating system outright but pay an annual licence fee which will cover updates etc.
A few software providers already do this so Microsoft is going to cash in also.
Could be wrong but time will tell.
For instance, for those that race in, AKA fools, will they be able to revert back to 7 or 8 or will they be caught hook line and sinker.
Me I am gunna sit an watch. O0 O0
Looks like NO annual charge, just a realease badly worded..
http://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-windows-10-will-not-be-sold-as-a-subscription/ (http://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-windows-10-will-not-be-sold-as-a-subscription/)
-
This laptop has Windows 7
My back up laptop has Windows 8.1
My back up to the back up laptop has Linux Mint
My antique steam driven desktop has Windows 98
My HP tablet has Windows 8.1
Out of them all, I prefer the one with Linux Mint...it's much easier to navigate around, doesn't suffer from virus's (virui?), but it can be a devil to boot up sometimes. 8.1 is a nightmare, every time the mouse even dares to sneeze I get all these horrible app things appear on the screen. 7 is far easier to use, but Linux takes some beating. It's like me...simple.
Rich
-
For those with 8.1 who don't like 8.1, google "Classic View" - it is a free download that makes 8.1 look like 7 apparently - recommended to me by a friend who I trust, but I haven't actually tried it myself. Not that peed off with 8.1 - yet!
On the subject of Microsoft support, during my recent computer update referred to in an earlier post, I had cause to call Microsoft support. The lady was very helpful and took over my computer to do some stuff. She then tried to sell me a support package at "only" £95 a year. Apparently in the future if I need support involving similar handover of control it will cost £65 each time (or £95 for a year's cover). >:-o I declined. (Ordinary verbal support is still free.)
Greg
-
I use 8.1 with Classic View and it is great .
I didn't download it. It was an option to click on.
Ned
-
Looks like NO annual charge, just a realease badly worded..
http://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-windows-10-will-not-be-sold-as-a-subscription/ (http://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-windows-10-will-not-be-sold-as-a-subscription/)
In the world of politics and commerce tomorrow is another day.
As the wise sage put it if it sounds too good to be true leave it.
If it is such a good deal why is it not being trumpeted loud and clear near and far >>:-( >>:-( <*< <*<
The article specifically mentions no charges for bought versions not what happens when the year expires for the "Freebie" >>:-( >>:-( O0 O0
-
In the world of politics and commerce tomorrow is another day.
As the wise sage put it if it sounds too good to be true leave it.
If it is such a good deal why is it not being trumpeted loud and clear near and far >>:-( >>:-( <*< <*<
The article specifically mentions no charges for bought versions not what happens when the year expires for the "Freebie" >>:-( >>:-( O0 O0
If a charge is applied, I delete it and go back to W8.1 Simples.. :}
-
Update: [/size]It seems there's still confusion. It is very clear from [/size]this post (http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/01/21/the-next-generation-of-windows-windows-10/)[/color][/size] that for the first year it's available, you can upgrade to Windows 10 for free if you have Windows 7 or 8. You will not pay for it. After that year is up, nothing will happen to your Windows 10 license. If you do not upgrade within that year, however, you will have to pay for an upgrade. The [/size]offer[/size] expires after a year, not the upgrade.
-
As I say, what harm 8) can it do, download it in the first year ( maybe 6 month in ) try it, if you like it the super, if not delete and put old OS back on .. :-))
-
As I say, what harm 8) can it do,said the spider to the fly come into my web {-) {-) download it in the first year ( maybe 6 month in ) try it, if you like it the super, if not delete and put old OS back on .. :-))
Too good to be true and you don't know if you can go back. For Instance, we on XP could not update to later versions of IE unless we changed to at least Win 7, which also meant a new PC.
So it is in the realm of possibility you will be stuck with 10 or having to reformat and Buy 7/8 if it is still available.
Good luck with that. Me I will be talking to the Guru before jumping in.
The gurus still recommend XP. In fact it is essential for some industries/jobs.
The smart money is on, wait and see what happens to those who try to do what you suggest, namely revert back, but if you are a computer savvy person, of which we have a few, let us know how you get on.