I'm more worried that 6 months after release they'll require all software to be sold through their marketplace app. And they'll take 30%, thank you very much. 

Seriously, I can't even imagine the development cost of an OS like windows, but I guess it must be in the billions. If they're not oogling the app market they'd be crazy, but knowing MS they'll fuck it up.

Well shit, everyone's running around scared wondering why it's free. But why not turn it around and ask what you'd be willing to pay for instead?

I know I'd pay for a dx12 update. I don't see it as unimaginable to pay for a dx13 down the road, a couple years.

Sorry for the tri-post, saw this in regards to how MS will ever get paid for win10: they're putting bloatware in it.

don't forget the ads, for example in the Sports or Weather apps.

Now this...

You may not have control over your updates anymore. Again, this is just what serious observers (like Mary Jo Foley) have pieced together, but if it's true, 

I won't be going the Windows 10 route.

http://www.ghacks.net/2015/05/15/windows-10-home-and-pro-automatic-updates-could-become-mandatory/?_m=3n%2e0038%2e1609%2ehj0ao01hy5%2e1o42

i was under the impression the free upgrade is just what it says. free for home user and will match edition with what you have. (eg home->home, etc)

i think they did say it'll be kept updated for the lifetime of the device... no idea what that means. eg.. i install win 7 on a new machine, free upgrade it... what happens if i do a fresh install on the same machine? install 7 and upgrade again (what are the chances of it asking me to cough up some money)? or is there a win10 installer?

Seems like a lot of speculation re:mandatory updating. They also had another article about win8.1 being mandatory, but their definition of mandatory was "if you don't get this update you can't get the next one".

If memory serves, Win7's service life is through 2020.  Should be about right.

Thing is, Doc, whether we like it or not, Cloud OSes, MS' own walled garden and enforced updates may very well be the route we will all have to take if we still want to compute and use the internet.  Do I like it?  Absolutely not, but given tech development in that area of late, recent announcements, it pretty much seems set in stone, that we older users are pretty much irrelevant in terms of future considerations, and that the kids of today are the intended recipients... er,  unwitting victims of all this 'wonderful' stuff

As MS has already declared, Win 10 is the last OS, and maybe it'll be updated for the next 5 years, but you can pretty near bet the farm that the progression to Cloud based OSes is firmly entrenched in MS' agenda for the future... your future and mine.   And there will be no "but I've still got Win 7". 

Given that MS wants adoption to Win 10 approach 100% sooner rather than later, it is somewhat doubtful Win 7 support will endure as long as many would hope/expect.  While many believe.... hope it will last until 2020, I wouldn't bet the farm on that.  In fact, I doubt that support for Win 8/8.1 will last very much longer once 7 becomes unsupported.

Oh well, I've a while before Cloud based OSes take over the world... and I give up computers altogether.  That's when I take up downhill skiing, bull fighting or long distance leap frogging.... anything to get the + 70 y/o me out of the man cave... where from outside, people would hear much weeping and the gnashing of teeth over the untimely demise of the household PC.

Windows 10 is going to be the last OS because the idiots in charge of the asylum [MS] have run out of imagination...as proven by Win 8.

It ain't rocket surgery.

Feast your eyes, me hardy...

https://forums.wincustomize.com/465609/page/1/

I think they mean that in the sense that they'll be renting it to you, updating it as they please with no choices on your part as to fixes/patches/updates, and letting the OS evolve through the updating process...

https://forums.wincustomize.com/465609/page/1/

now that sounds just down right ridiculous. Kind of like renting the engine of your car.  It so ridiculous that you know some damn fool has to make the attempt to do it.

Actually, the idiots in charge of the asylum [MS] now are indeed much smarter than most give them credit for.  True, things there went guts up under Balmer's watch, but since then the new management team has taken MS by the scruff of the neck and implemented a path that will very much follow Apple's model and even exceed it.  Gone are the days of new Windows editions and queuing up to buy the discs at Hardly Normal. 

Nope, folks are going to have to download it directly from MS and it's newly created walled garden, where MS and its partners will control and sell everything Windows... and unless there's a way around it, some kind of reprieve from MS, expect to see the back of alot of small developers who simply don't have the bucks to compete in a lopsided marketplace that favours only those preferred partners, etc.

I had hoped it would never come to this, and I even argued it wouldn't with various ones who predicted it would, but it is inevitable that computing as we know it is on its last legs and the death knell ain't far off.

Yes, Win 10 will be around a while, and if one has the Pro edition [I will have- upgrading from Pro] there is more leeway regarding updates, so there is no need to panic about Cloud OSes as yet.   However, it is in the works for when Win 10 has outlived MS' usefulness.... and renting it, well some kind ofl subscription/leasing will be the aim, for sure.   Hehe, all the kids, etc, who think the Cloud is the bees knees, and Cloud OSes are the next great progression, well aren't they in for a shock when they fail to pay the rent on time/at all, hehe... NO OS, LOL.

The thing that does have me curious, is what will happen to all the hardware developers/manufacturers when Cloud OSes are mainstream and PCs no longer need high powered CPUs, GPUs and buckets of RAM to operate/perform day to day tasks.  Yes, there will be power usera and gamers who'll still demand high-end equipment, and maybe games on DVD will resurface in order to bypass the walled garden - that's if MS doesn't block all non-store installations to keep the bucks turning over in its own coffers.

Yup, it's a bleak looking future for PC owners if MS and the like have it their way... though what's the hope of stopping them, given MS has always done exactly as it wanted.  Thing is, we do have some time to cherish with our current setups.  The world is not yet ready for Cloud based OSes, given the millions worldwide who don't have high speed internet capable of streaming it, not to mention some governments banning and/or refusing to support it.

Just an update about what is known and what isn't regarding the upgrade to W10:

http://www.ghacks.net/2015/05/27/clearing-away-confusion-about-windows-10s-free-for-a-year-offer/?_m=3n%2e0038%2e1621%2ehj0ao01hy5%2e1ola