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[Pinnacle-Project]

you can install 10 clean using your windows 7 key. it will activate fine. just an FYI

Thanks. I did not know that.

[slgrieb]

The Win10 upgrade seems to be a lot smoother when run from a pendrive or DVD rather than the download. When I upgraded my primary office computer from Win8.1 to 10, it took 15 or 20 minutes. The upgrade from Win7 will take about 2 hours if you choose to download and install the available updates as part of the installation. So, depending on the software you need to install, a clean installation may even be faster than the upgrade. A clean installation of Win10 takes about as long as a clean installation of Win7. Hardware support in Win10 is very good, but doing an upgrade installation sometimes results in some weird issues, mostly with older printers.

For example, I have a client who has an older Brother multifunction device, and it prints fine under Win10, but the network scan pukes up. Brother support says that the Win8.1 driver works fine with 10, with the caveat that the Win7 driver has to be uninstalled before the Win10 upgrade and the Win8.1 driver can be installed and works fine. Now Brother has a Win10 driver that will remove previous driver versions.

Not to run the topic into the ground, but a clean installation makes life much easier if you are moving from Win7.

[slgrieb]

I think MS will get everyone on the free upgrade to 7. Then at some future point, make it a subscription. Charging yearly to use it.

I think that may be the plan, but I'm not sure that it will fly. OK, yes I have an Office 365 subscription for my business, and I think I get good value for my money, but I have to say that I thought about it pretty hard. Libre Office looked like a pretty good alternative; I install it for a lot of clients and it works well for most of them. If MS decides they want to sell me Windows as a subscription, I may just tell them to sit on it and spin.

[slgrieb]

Having posted that, I just read an article on ZDNet (yes, I go there about 3 times a week still) by Ed Bott which makes a pretty good case for the fact that Microsoft's revenue has shifted enough that Windows is a decreasing revenue source, and at some point, MS is likely to find that they can make more money by giving free Windows updates, and keeping users in the MS ecosystem. That is to say, Microsoft's hardware business, gaming business, and cloud services are rapidly becoming their dominanat revenue streams.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/windows...ing-heres-why/

[Mobile PC]

You make a good point. But I think a year and a half from now, MS can say you have 45 days to pay us for the next upgrade, or severely limited functionality. 50 bucks. 20 in the other countries that upgraded all the pirated previous versions. Linux is not for most, and neither is Apple. I'm not saying this will happen on an enterprise level, but I really think it will happen.

[edball]

I have a VS ultimate + MSDN subscription paid by the company. Some levels aren't cheap at all and have a huge first-time cost (think 10k+) but there may be other levels.

The one thing I miss after retiring, my MSDN subscription...

[Larommi]

If MS decides they want to sell me Windows as a subscription, I may just tell them to sit on it and spin.

I always figured Office365 was a beta for Windows subscription

[Larommi]

. Libre Office looked like a pretty good alternative; I install it for a lot of clients and it works well for most of them.

I like it.

It came default with my linux distro so I took it for a spin, and for a home user with some small office needs, it works well. The only thing I need Windblows for is gaming and I have been shifting back to console gaming. I rarely boot any of my machines to Windows anymore. Server admin for my gaming clan so I get on the servers is about it.