Microsoft aims to reboot connections with Windows 10

Maybe, just maybe, they'll get it right this time.

I'm on the insider track and using it since last year on 2 PCs. Can't complain. Waiting for the update today for W7 and W8 PCs. It's 10 in the morning and nothing is on. Maybe they run that on US time. Will see.

I've booked my upgrade time today too.

Win 8.1 has been fine for me. I have trouble understanding the criticisms about it, since nearly all the critics don't actually use it.

I'm thinking the IT guys at work are going to wait until Microsoft stops supporting Windows 7 before they'll upgrade, just like they did for XP.

Microsoft is making a major new version of Windows available free as an upgrade to anyone using either of the prior two generations of the system. cloud services is great for our Microsoft’s platforms. It is a great news for us..

I have been burned by Windows updates before, so I will have nothing to do with W 10 unless and until I absolutely have to.

Win 8.1 has been fine for me. I have trouble understanding the criticisms about it, since nearly all the critics don't actually use it.

I tried it, complete garbage. 10 on the other hand, is easier to navigate and is what the successor to 7 should have been.

Sounds like Microsoft may be continuing their 'every other version is good' pattern. Windows 7 - good. Windows 8 - crap. Windows 10 - good?

At least MS is doing right with their Insider Program, thousands of testers to listen to, months before releasing something to the rest of the public.

I'll probably give it a whirl, but with reservations:

I thought XP was excellent and generally completely trouble-free;

some years back I got a new laptop with Vista - an absolutely grotesque and awful operating system; why this mess was ever launched escapes me!

as a result of my disgust with Vista, I decided not not buy a laptop equipped with 7 launched soon after, but various friends and my own experience with it on their machines seem to show it was a good and pretty reliable system;

at this stage XP was still available, but only on pretty limited new netbooks (great, but with small RAM) and this is basically what I have been relying on for donkey-work since, my Vista machine having been turfed into outer darkness!

largely as a result of my positive impressions of 7 (by then it was no longer available on new laptops) I got a new 8 machine a year or so ago, worked fine until I "upgraded" on-line to 8.1 - complete disaster, as I couldn't get online using my preferred browser Chrome (I have always loathed IE and the new 'apps' in 8 I find awful). Luckily a techie friend got it working again, but with added intrusive programmes so I have not switched this machine on for over 6 months.

I'll probably try to upgrade my current 6GB 1TB machine from 8.1 to 10 in the next few weeks (as its been lying used for over 6 months now I've got nothing to lose) and if that works reasonably well I'll be happy (and somewhat surprised, I must admit). If not I will make the reluctant decision to move to an alternative operating system completely, which really leaves a choice of Apple or perhaps a dedicated Chrome machine (I had Linux machines for a few years but their limitations in respect of available software don't really make it a very practical choice any more I think, except for specialised users.

Microsoft seem over the past 7 or so years to have lost the plot and lost sight of what their large base of users want; many of us have stuck with them through sheer inertia and misplaced loyalty (rather as many mainframe users stuck with IBM for far too long in earlier years).

For my smartphones (I have two, with SIMs for 2 different countries) I use android-based Samsung units, I also have an 8-inch iPad mini, all excellent in their way, but with limitations.

if this latest Windows 10 does marry different platforms seamlessly as they claim, maybe Microsoft is onto a winner, but my impression is they have alienated so many people (including me) over the past several years that they have probably missed the boat. Sad and harsh, but that's what the free market is all about. No-one uses a "Hoover" any more, we all use "Dyson" until the next real innovation comes along. Seems to me that Microsoft may be facing the same market reality.

"many of us have stuck with them through sheer inertia and misplaced loyalty"

I have stuck with them after hearing horror stories from my Mac-using colleagues. Just yesterday, a friend's mini-mac melted down in the summer heat after 2 years' use. Two iMac using friends have had meltdowns as well fairly recently.

No warning, no clues, nothing, The only option for Mac users is to fork out more big cash to Apple Corp.

My 8-year old tower PC, which is used every day, from morning til night, has needed a fan and a PSU and I've upgraded RAM and HDD. No drama, just pick up new part at Yodobashi for 2,000 to 8,000 yen. Fixed in 20 minutes with a screwdriver at home.

I have stuck with them after hearing horror stories from my Mac-using colleagues. Just yesterday, a friend's mini-mac melted down in the summer heat after 2 years' use. Two iMac using friends have had meltdowns as well fairly recently.

Because anecdotes a fact do make, correct?

Can't say I've ever heard of Macs 'melting down', but the nice thing about Macs that I didn't find with Windows is time machine, where you plug in a HD and it backs up any changes to your system every hour or so. If your Mac does die, installing from the backup is very easy. It also makes it extremely easy to install your system on a new Mac when you buy one (as I do every year).

Well I've been using 10 as an insider on my 5k iMac through bootcamp. Must say I like both 10 and Yosemite OS. Microsoft finally got it right after 8.1

Microsoft wants to know everything about you, including your location, browsing history, exactly what you type, and your contacts. Windows 10 is a huge privacy violation: https://jonathan.porta.codes/2015/07/30/windows-10-seems-to-have-some-scary-privacy-defaults/

"“The dramatic idea is that this is Windows as an ongoing service experience that evolves with you,” the Forrester analyst said." - article

10 is the window of opportunity to sell incrementally smoothing the revenue stream and reaching wide platform identity. Problem? Security. 10 is promising high security but that conflicts with developer access. So, does 10 put security first or sales?

Microsoft wants to know everything about you, including your location, browsing history, exactly what you type, and your contacts. Windows 10 is a huge privacy violation: https://jonathan.porta.codes/2015/07/30/windows-10-seems-to-have-some-scary-privacy-defaults/

Unfortunately, the major companies all do privacy violations now, even the latest OSX and Linux flavors sigh

http://www.techadvisor.co.uk/opinion/security/fightback-against-apple-on-privacy-is-just-beginning/