

Windows 10, coming July 29, free to Win7 and 8.1 users - aroch
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/windows-10-faq

======
btgeekboy
Maybe I'm just thinking old school here, but I don't see a way to download an
ISO / USB image and get a product key. If we want to do a fresh install,
anyone have any ideas how that's going to work?

~~~
rdudek
I was going to ask the same thing. I am not 100% but I think I did see an
option to do a format type of deal when I got the 8.1 upgrade.

In any event, even though my Windows 8 setup from 2 years ago is running
excellent on my Intel SSD drive, I thing Windows 10 will be a big enough
upgrade to warrant a fresh install. I already have most of my stuff backed up
so it will be just a matter of reinstalling my applications.

~~~
Encosia
FWIW, the upgrade process works very well. If your current setup doesn't have
any issues, I wouldn't bother with a full repave.

I've upgraded a half dozen machines from 8.x to 10 throughout the past several
months and all of them have gone smoothly. The only real issue I've had is
that I needed to reinstall the driver for my ScanSnap scanner after one of the
upgrades.

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Tomdarkness
What is the purpose of reserving your free upgrade? Is there any advantage or
is it just some kind of capacity planning tool for Microsoft?

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nogridbag
This is surprising. I was expecting a release much later this year. Actually,
I just tried installing Windows 10 in a VM using VirtualBox with OS X as my
host OS and it hasn't really gone so well. I encountered lots of bugs and
instability right from the initial setup and first 15 minutes of use. Right
after initial setup, it froze while signing into my MS account (seems to be a
common problem) so I took some advice I found online and rebooted skipping
this step and opting to use a local account. This worked fine, but upon
completing initial setup it flashed the welcome message multiple times "Hi"
... "Unknown User" .... "Hi" .... (I suppose for each of the two accounts it
had just created). Then I launched Settings, and then Spartan, and the start
menu stopped functioning... :) Really looking forward to this release. I just
hope it's stable!

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ListeningPie
Does anyone know if Windows 10 will support external graphics via thunderbolt
like in the vaio Z [https://www.theverge.com/2011/10/24/2510531/sony-vaio-
series...](https://www.theverge.com/2011/10/24/2510531/sony-vaio-series-
review)

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mhurron
And what if I fail to 'reserve' my free copy? Because that's excatly what I
intend to do.

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arscan
I thought that Windows 10 was switching to a subscription model, but I can't
find any details on that here. Did they decide to stick with the traditional
pricing after all?

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wlesieutre
Previous discussion here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9637292](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9637292)

~~~
atap
Microsoft's forum sliding efforts are quite muscular, and serious.

~~~
pmelendez
If you check the history of the user who posted this, it is not Microsoft
exclusive at all.

Why is there always a comment like this in every MS related story?

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mplscoder
I'm skeptical it will work with Mac BootCamp

~~~
wlesieutre
Yes, you'll want to wait until Apple puts out drivers for it.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9638084](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9638084)

~~~
Max_Horstmann
Hopefully, when they do, it'll support _two_ external Thunderbolt displays on
a MacBook Pro.

[http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/171650/boot-camp-
on...](http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/171650/boot-camp-only-detects-
two-out-of-three-monitors)

------
rfolstad
Here I thought Microsoft was changing.. Why not make the consumer/developer
version free for all and only charge for the enterprise versions.

Is it so hard for them to realize that they can make more money in the long
run if people use windows rather than promoting other free alternatives by
putting a price on it?

~~~
wvenable
> Why not make the consumer/developer version free for all and only charge for
> the enterprise versions.

Probably because Microsoft makes a lot of money licensing the OS to PC and
device manufacturers.

Most end-users already don't pay exclusively for Windows -- it's bundled in
with the price of the device. What's the purpose of making Windows free if
most people, with the hardware to run it, are already entitled to it?

~~~
rfolstad
If windows was free for schools, consumers and developers for the last 15
years I think the tech landscape would look much different than it does today
in Microsofts favour. Also I dont think that it would affect their revenue
that much. If i'm not mistaken most of their revenue comes from enterprise
licensing.

~~~
apalmer
Ummm windows even today, own 93% of the desktop market. You think giving it
away would have improved on that? The only significant desktop OS that they
could have taken share from is OSX where people are paying the same or more.

Microsoft makes money from selling OSs and from selling Office. The suggestion
to stop selling OS's for some kinda freemium model, just doesnt make sense.

