W10 doesn’t appeal to me esthetically, but none of MS’s OSs have, so that’s no biggy – or at least not a new biggy.
Anyway, lots of folks seem really happy about “free W10”. That would be W7 and W8.1 users, I guess (because MS hasn’t specifically said) and 8, RT, Vista and XP users are SOL.
“Microsoft said that certain existing "qualified" Windows users will be able to upgrade for free to the new software. But it didn't define who exactly would be qualified or eligible for the update. Some Windows users clearly will be left out; on a blog post, the company noted that "some editions" of Windows would be excluded from the upgrade offer and that it would set certain -- but similarly undefined -- hardware and software requirements for it.” – Troy Wolverton
So, unless you/your computer fit some undefined list somewhere which might get better defined sometime, you too are SOL.
Now then, about the updating after installing W10. It’s going to come via Windows Update (of course). It’s going to happen in the background. Automatically. Doesn’t seem there’ll be a “choice” as to what you update and when, and no one should worry about it because everyone will be on the same version. Ummm…need I remind you guys about .NET updates? How about a borked update of similarly poorly tested Windows updates which MS is famous for? Two of the 3 last updates for W8 and Vista were rejected by users because of flaws!
XP: Currently it’s a good, stable OS (looks like crap but WB, etc. can fix that) but XP wasn’t “Mr. Stable” from its beginning. There were plenty of BSODs. Also SP1, SP2 and SP3 dealt with huge security flaws. SO, when MS finall achieves a stable OS it moves on…to an unstable one.
This is why experts say to hold off on the Windows updates until they can look at them and watch Forums for issues. If MS updates ‘automatically’ you might not have that choice.
I don’t think I’ll be on the first, second or third wagon “updating” to this OS, folks. Not until it’s really clear it isn’t another Vista.
Sorry to be a killjoy but somebody’s got to do it. My thanks to Troy Wolverton for bringing up some of these issues.