# Lifestyles & Discussion > Privacy & Data Security >  Windows 10 is a free upgrade for all 7 and 8.1 users

## Suzanimal

> Wondering how much Windows 10 will set you back? In most cases, nothing. Microsoft has announced that the new operating system will be a free upgrade in the first year for everyone using Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows Phone 8.1. The company sees Windows as a service rather than a product, Terry Myerson explains. Yes, Microsoft is partly following in Apple's footsteps (OS X upgrades have been free since Mavericks), but it's hard to complain about getting a big update for free.
> 
> Update: During a Q&A session after the event, Myerson promised that Windows RT users would get an upgrade to 10 as well. Your Surface 2 won't be left high and dry!


http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/21/w...=rss_truncated

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## Natural Citizen

Anyone ever hear anything else about that keylogger that reported your strokes thingamabob that was said to be a default kind of thing built into Windows 10? "To serve us better", I think it was...

I'll say this, though, reckless consumers who always seem to need "helping" with everything have been the biggest enabler for a lot of the crap that the country faces these days.

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## jmdrake

I think I'll upgrade my Windows 8 computer to Linux.

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## dannno

They couldn't pay me.. 

But ya, MacOS did the same thing with their latest version Yosemite (I primarily run linux)

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## Natural Citizen

Here is the other thread where that keylogger thing was mentioned... Windows 10 Will Be Free for Personal Users‏

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## Natural Citizen

> I think I'll upgrade my Windows 8 computer to Linux.


I was considering that but from what I've read it seems like a pain in the rear end. Beyond not being supported in many instances.

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## torchbearer

> I think I'll upgrade my Windows 8 computer to Linux.



recommended: Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon x64 http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=172

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## torchbearer

> I was considering that but from what I've read it seems like a pain the rear end. Beyond not being supported in many instances.



not true. most main distros have support forums like our forum here. Most questions you'll have is easily searchable in google. I do a lot of terminal. But I also do a lot of google to. Its a learning process. The Latest Mint is very easy to handle, and requires no terminal knowledge to use.
and with the advancement of WINE, I can also play any window based game I want. Though, because of Valve most games are now Debian fork compatible. (they list it as SteamOS, but that is really just debian)

You also need to know that LTS stands for Long Term Support. Meaning, if you are using that version, it is in the linux safe and stable zone, and has plenty of online support.

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## torchbearer

and once you get into Linux, this website will be a fun place to visit: http://distrowatch.com/

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## torchbearer

oh, speaking of SteamOS, I see a new beta is out: http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=08767
It really is meant as a console type install. So I don't recommend it for desktop PC use.

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## heavenlyboy34

This reminds me that I need to try running Linux from a CD or thumbdrive again.  Couldn't make it work last year. :/

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## jmdrake

> I was considering that but from what I've read it seems like a pain in the rear end. Beyond not being supported in many instances.


What's a pain in the rear end is the new bios that makes dual booting difficult.  I figured out how to do that once then got distracted.  But as a software developer I chaff under Windows.  I've got to bite the bullet at some point.

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## heavenlyboy34

> What's a pain in the rear end is the new bios that makes dual booting difficult.  I figured out how to do that once then got distracted.  But as a software developer I chaff under Windows.  I've got to bite the bullet at some point.


I tried setting this here win8 do-hicky to dual boot with win7, to no avail.  The best answer I've gotten is that the firmware doesn't allow dual boots anymore.  :'(

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## Natural Citizen

> What's a pain in the rear end is the new bios that makes dual booting difficult.  I figured out how to do that once then got distracted.  But as a software developer I chaff under Windows.  I've got to bite the bullet at some point.


I think that if I ever did try Linux that I'd probably just go buy a blank hard drive and install only Linux on it.  Seems like the best way.

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## brushfire

> I think that if I ever did *try Linux* that I'd probably just go buy a blank hard drive and install only Linux on it.  Seems like the best way.



Most flavors have live distros.   Just grab a live disc and you'll be using linux in as long as it takes to boot.  You can try it out without installing, so its pretty noncommittal.  Put it on a thumb drive and you can take it almost anywhere.

I'm so busy these days that I seldom have to work on the computers of friends and family, but I still carry around a bootable thumb drive with a lightweight linux distro and many useful utilities.  I should probably update it (~2008) but that's a handy thing to have sometimes.

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## CPUd

> Anyone ever hear anything else about that keylogger that reported your strokes thingamabob that was said to be a default kind of thing built into Windows 10? "To serve us better", I think it was...
> 
> I'll say this, though, reckless consumers who always seem to need "helping" with everything have been the biggest enabler for a lot of the crap that the country faces these days.


That was a limited release for researchers only.

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## torchbearer

> This reminds me that I need to try running Linux from a CD or thumbdrive again.  Couldn't make it work last year. :/


For USB live os try either TAILS Linux or Porteus

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## Chester Copperpot

the main reason I dont use Linux is because I need to use Microsoft FoxPro and I dont think theres any linux compatible version.. that and Windows 8 now plays the old Axi & Allies CD from 1998.. lol...

Of course Id prefer to NOT use windows for privacy reasons.

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## Chester Copperpot

um screw this upgrade.. sounds like its free for the first year then its going to cost money every year... sorry.. for me an OS is NOT a service.. its a product.. and i only buy it one time

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## pcosmar

> the main reason I dont use Linux is because I need to use Microsoft FoxPro and I dont think theres any linux compatible version..





> In late 2002, it was demonstrated that Visual FoxPro can run on Linux under the Wine Windows compatibility suite. In 2003, this led to complaints by Microsoft: it was claimed that the deployment of runtime FoxPro code on non-Windows machines violates the End User License Agreement


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_FoxPro
It hasn't been updated since 2005.

and windoze EULA is one of the reasons that I hate windoze.

And though is is not something I use or am familiar with,, here is an alternative you might look at.
http://www.openxava.org/ate/foxpro-alternative

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## tangent4ronpaul

> I think I'll upgrade my Windows 8 computer to Linux.


Have fun with the BIOS

-t

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## squarepusher

Linux is ok, but a lot of the features/usability/interface design are about 8 years behind Windows.  It does have some advantages compared to Windows for a certain group of people. but definitely not mainstream I think.

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## pcosmar

> Linux is ok, but a lot of the features/usability/interface design are about 8 years behind Windows.  It does have some advantages compared to Windows for a certain group of people. but definitely not mainstream I think.


Did you just step out of 2002 ?

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## fisharmor

> Did you just step out of 2002 ?


No kidding.
There is no one feature/usability/interface design in linux.  Everything is grab-bag.
That's its inherent blessing and also curse.  It's a blessing because if something doesn't work the way you like, in most cases _you actually have options._
It's a curse if you're the type of person who LIKES being spoon-fed the one interface. You actually have to do some homework.

Distrowatch isn't the site for after you get into it: it's the starting point.  HB, go there and pick 3 or 4 different distros and try each of them.
Some of them won't recognize your wifi card.  Most of them will.  If you get one of the ones that didn't, don't attribute this to a Linux problem - move on to the next distro.
They're all identical under the hood - the only difference is stuff like the tires.

There's a reason why everyone who gets into Linux eventually learns the command line interface: it's the one interface that's relatively consistent across every version.




> Windows 8 now plays the old Axi & Allies CD from 1998..



I was just playing XCOM on DOSBox running on Linux Mint last night.  




> But as a software developer I chaff under Windows.



You haven't really coded until you've coded in vim.
No mouse intervention whatsoever.  You can copy an entire function from one file and paste it in another without using the mouse, and it's actually faster.
26 different named buffers.  Picture being able to ctrl-c and then ctrl-c something else and having them separate for you.
Regular expressions built into all search and replace functions.

Man, I miss it.....

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## Ronin Truth

Is Windows 10 service pack 2 scheduled yet?

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## pcosmar

Windo$e giving anything away free makes me suspicious. I'm not interested.

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## torchbearer

> Linux is ok, but a lot of the features/usability/interface design are about 8 years behind Windows.  It does have some advantages compared to Windows for a certain group of people. but definitely not mainstream I think.



Way off. Linux has made leaps.
That statement could be made about 8 years ago, but now, there is little i can't do in linux. 
in fact, my themes, eye candy, gaming, multimedia, media serving etc, all handled by linux now.
I am proof of concept. I bring a laptop around to demo to customers, as they pay my company a huge amount of money to clean virus from their windows machines, as they sit there unable to send or recieve email because they were blacklisted by mx exchanges list because their windows farm became a spam bot farm.
At that moment, when AT&T notifies them that these bots only infect windows machines, so if you don't use windows machines, you may have someone unauthorized on their wifi.
I laugh.

If I build a windows network, its inside VMWARE and I give the image a douche daily.

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## westkyle

> the main reason I dont use Linux is because I need to use Microsoft FoxPro and I dont think theres any linux compatible version.. that and Windows 8 now plays the old Axi & Allies CD from 1998.. lol...
> 
> Of course Id prefer to NOT use windows for privacy reasons.


hell yeah!  loved axis and allies.  I have my laptop able to triple boot.  Ubuntu, Windows, and Kali

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## VIDEODROME

I think Linux lags behind mostly in gaming, but it's always catching up.  Valve offering Steam helps.  

Otherwise, I've enjoyed using Linux or BSD.  The trade off is worth it for stability and being virtually Virus Free.  I'm interning now at a PC Shop where people bring in their Windows disaster machines and it reminds me all the time of the bull$#@! I don't have to deal with.  

It's true that there is a learning curve in Linux though.  I often have to jump through a few hoops to get Wireless Cards to work, but most mainstream Linux Distro have the community plus their Wiki Documentation.  My HP Mini 210 is now running Arch Linux with Broadcom 4312 wireless working thanks to the driver in the Arch User Repo.  (NOTE: I do not recommend Arch or Manjaro for beginners)

I recommend Live CDs or USBs or trying VirtualBox to test run Linux distros.  When I run these operating systems, I feel more like I take ownership of my computer without any EULA bull$#@!.

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## moostraks

> um screw this upgrade.. sounds like its free for the first year then its going to cost money every year... sorry.. for me an OS is NOT a service.. its a product.. and i only buy it one time


Thought I'd share since I looked this up after your comment:Microsoft: Windows 10 will not be sold as a subscription
http://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-win...-subscription/



> Myerson clarified that Windows 10 users will still get free updates and support for the lifetime of the OS, exactly like past versions of Windows (like XP and Windows 7's Service Packs, for example). There's no subscription model for updates or support or continuing to use the OS. Myerson's reference to Windows "as a service" simply meant that Microsoft plans to update the OS with smaller, more regular updates rather than the big, chunky updates of past Service Packs.
> A year after Windows 10 is first available, it will no longer be a free upgrade for Windows 7 and 8 users. Microsoft will then sell Windows 10 the same way it has sold past versions of Windows. MS hasn't set a specific price yet, but Myerson said the price will likely be comparable to past versions of Windows. Windows 8 costs $120 on Amazon, for instance.

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## jeffro97

I think I'll consider dual-booting Ubuntu or Mint on my new Dell in the future. I already run Ubuntu on my HP, and it (the OS) runs fine, but the computer itself is aged, and starting to die off a bit. I've lost some RAM space, and I'm on my 3rd hard drive (which has been salvaged from another old laptop that's long gone now and small). Still though, it gets the job done, and is nice and simple to use.

For those woried about Windows applications, there are some programs (such as WINE) that should allow you to run those programs on the linux interface. I've had some dealing with WINE before, but I'm certainly not the best with it, but it's worth me just putting this here if it helps.

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## VIDEODROME

> I think I'll consider dual-booting Ubuntu or Mint on my new Dell in the future.


That's how I started out.  I used a system called Wubi to help create my first Ubuntu/WinXP dual boot on my netbook.  Eventually, I decided to take the plunge and just dumped WinXP.

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## torchbearer

> I think Linux lags behind mostly in gaming, but it's always catching up.  Valve offering Steam helps.  
> 
> Otherwise, I've enjoyed using Linux or BSD.  The trade off is worth it for stability and being virtually Virus Free.  I'm interning now at a PC Shop where people bring in their Windows disaster machines and it reminds me all the time of the bull$#@! I don't have to deal with.  
> 
> It's true that there is a learning curve in Linux though.  I often have to jump through a few hoops to get Wireless Cards to work, but most mainstream Linux Distro have the community plus their Wiki Documentation.  My HP Mini 210 is now running Arch Linux with Broadcom 4312 wireless working thanks to the driver in the Arch User Repo.  (NOTE: I do not recommend Arch or Manjaro for beginners)
> 
> I recommend Live CDs or USBs or trying VirtualBox to test run Linux distros.  When I run these operating systems, I feel more like I take ownership of my computer without any EULA bull$#@!.



I feel the same way.

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## VIDEODROME



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## Mach

Did anyone here actually download Windows 10 and give it a try..... how is it? 

Should I bother?

---

Linux, I was a little too far ahead of my time, I bought a disk long ago to check out Linux in 2003, KNOPPIX (disk)..... it was cool to explore, but not very functional for me, it was toward the beginning of my computer days. 

Any personal recommendations for another test run (disk)?

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## VIDEODROME

> Did anyone here actually download Windows 10 and give it a try..... how is it? 
> 
> Should I bother?
> 
> ---
> 
> Linux, I was a little too far ahead of my time, I bought a disk long ago to check out Linux in 2003, KNOPPIX (disk)..... it was cool to explore, but not very functional for me, it was toward the beginning of my computer days. 
> 
> Any personal recommendations for another test run (disk)?


It depends on what you want to do and what kind of computer you have.  32 bit or 64 bit?  Laptop or Desktop?  

I have a 64 bit e-Machine desktop running Sabayon Linux and personally I like it.  Sabayon is based on Gentoo (NOTE:  Do not attempt to install plain Gentoo).  

Another one worth a look is MEPIS Linux which is based on Debian Stable.  By default, I think it comes with the KDE desktop and should be available still in 32 bit or 64 bit.

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## Mach

Thanks, I'll have to dig in soon and see how things flow, been saying that for a couple years but keep waiting for more _innovation_...... it's kind of like that one guy said....when you're standing in line, it's great to be next, it's almost better than going and doing whatever, because, your next.... I let people go ahead of me just so I can be next again and.......

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