Microsoft back pedals on Free upgrade to Windows 10 for non genuine installs
-
http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/05/15/genuine-windows-and-windows-10/
Microsoft and our OEM partners know that many consumers are unwitting victims of piracy, and with Windows 10, we would like all of our customers to move forward with us together. While our free offer to upgrade to Windows 10 will not apply to Non-Genuine Windows devices, and as we’ve always done, we will continue to offer Windows 10 to customers running devices in a Non-Genuine state. In addition, in partnership with some of our valued OEM partners, we are planning very attractive Windows 10 upgrade offers for their customers running one of their older devices in a Non-Genuine state. Please stay tuned to learn more from our partners on the specifics of their offers.
-
I wouldn't say "back pedal" so much as "retracts their offer".
The amount of fluffy marketing words and phrases was immense. They could have said " :fu: pirates, buy our stuff!" in a more concise way. -
It's not really a back pedal. They said before they wouldn't actively seek to prevent installs over illegal copies but that the windows 10 would also not be properly licensed without a legal previous license of windows.
-
This is a complete back pedal. True they didn't say you'd suddenly have a legit copy of windows, but they also said you could get it free ( and remain non-genuine)... That no longer appears to be the case.
-
@Dashrender said:
This is a complete back pedal. True they didn't say you'd suddenly have a legit copy of windows, but they also said you could get it free ( and remain non-genuine)... That no longer appears to be the case.
Sounds like they aren't going to stop it still, but just put a water mark there.
When we can’t verify that Windows is properly installed, licensed, and not tampered with, we create a desktop watermark to notify the user
-
Not so worried about pirates, They can have a watermark for using a free OS
My big worries about 10:
- My OEM install is upgraded to 10, a year later it breaks, how do I wipe and reinstall?
- What is the subscription license cost they are planning on bringing after year 1
- In a domain environment, to use 10's new features (cortanna) requires a Microsoft account, how do I manage 600+ individual microsoft accounts.
-
@Breffni-Potter said:
Not so worried about pirates, They can have a watermark for using a free OS
My big worries about 10:
- My OEM install is upgraded to 10, a year later it breaks, how do I wipe and reinstall?
- What is the subscription license cost they are planning on bringing after year 1
- In a domain environment, to use 10's new features (cortanna) requires a Microsoft account, how do I manage 600+ individual microsoft accounts.
- Not only after the first year, how do I do a clean install now?
- Paul Thurrott and Mary Joe Foley both feel that there is no subscription for Windows 10. The first year free only means that if you are on Windows 7 or 8 or 8.1 as of the release you'll get 1 year to submit your activation code for upgrade. After that time you will not be able to upgrade for free (unless upgrading requires you to install it at the same time you submit your upgrade request, I see no reason not to submit it immediately, then do the actual upgrade any time you want later).
3)Why do you need to manage 600+ Microsoft accounts? Let your users worry about that. If you're on O365, you're probably already covered, if not use GPOs and other PC management tools to prevent users from installing crap, but let the users manage their own accounts.
The worst thing about all the media hype around Windows 10 (besides the blatantly obvious click-bait headlines) is all the consumer focus. The world has definitely changed. Yesterday businesses dictated where computers are going. Today it's clear (from Apple's example) that while business is important, consumers can have more spending power and computer vendors need to cater to the extremely fast paced updates that consumers want.
I'm sure some of you have heard about Microsoft's new login solution, Hello. Hello works with many pre-existing biometrics, but also adds facial recognition backed up with infrared scanners (based on Xbox Kinect). My question is - how does this work in the enterprise?
My boss came to me the other day and said - I want to use fingerprint scanners on our computers. I said OK, The hardware is around $100/device (maybe less, it's been a while since I priced them) and $30/user/year. She said.. wait right there! My daughter just got a laptop that included that. I explained to her that the computer she purchased was a home user device and that the included software wouldn't work on a domain, at least when it came to centralized administration. While this might work for some companies to not worry about centralized administration, our users are constantly moving, using different workstations/laptops. Without a centralized component I'd have to manage 120 computers and all the users profiles over them manually - talk about a nightmare!
With this in mind - I really hope that Microsoft can provide a connection method between AD and the reinvented 'passport' that is part of Windows Hello.
-
@Breffni-Potter said:
- What is the subscription license cost they are planning on bringing after year 1
Why do people keep assuming because it's free for the first year it will be Subscription. I don't think that's the case. Windows 8 was free if you bought your computer within the last year or so when it came out. Windows 8.1 is free. I don't think an OS would make it as Subscription. They've been trending to the free and cheap side. Including windows with bing which is 100% free. I think there goal is to get most people on the newest OS, they aren't so worried about getting money from the OS as they are getting people on it to make marketing numbers look good and push the sales of their SaaS stuff (office 365 etc) that's where there money is these days.
-
@Breffni-Potter said:
- What is the subscription license cost they are planning on bringing after year 1
Where did this come from?
-
@scottalanmiller said:
Where did this come from?
From the Microsoft demo of Windows 10 at Spiceworld London. They specifically said
"It will be a subscription based model after the first year, security updates will be completely free BUT if you want feature updates, you need to have a subscription"
-
@Breffni-Potter said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Where did this come from?
From the Microsoft demo of Windows 10 at Spiceworld London. They specifically said
"It will be a subscription based model after the first year, security updates will be completely free BUT if you want feature updates, you need to have a subscription"
Ah okay, that's the first that I have heard them say that anywhere.
-
@scottalanmiller said:
@Breffni-Potter said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Where did this come from?
From the Microsoft demo of Windows 10 at Spiceworld London. They specifically said
"It will be a subscription based model after the first year, security updates will be completely free BUT if you want feature updates, you need to have a subscription"
Ah okay, that's the first that I have heard them say that anywhere.
Same. I know there where paid feature updates as windows will essentially be windows 10 for now on. and feature changes will replace upgrades but, last I hard you could pay for them as a on time thing. businesses with VLKs will of course be required to pay with SA.
-
@thecreativeone91 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Breffni-Potter said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Where did this come from?
From the Microsoft demo of Windows 10 at Spiceworld London. They specifically said
"It will be a subscription based model after the first year, security updates will be completely free BUT if you want feature updates, you need to have a subscription"
Ah okay, that's the first that I have heard them say that anywhere.
Same. I know there where paid feature updates as windows will essentially be windows 10 for now on. and feature changes will replace upgrades but, last I hard you could pay for them as a on time thing. businesses with VLKs will of course be required to pay with SA.
Where did you see that coming from Microsoft? Sure there are tons of articles that THINK that's what's going to happen, but there are no announcements to that end that I know of.
