"Once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device—at no additional charge."

What does that mean, if motherboard or cpu fails, or hdd is changed for larger/faster hdd, is the lifetime over?

Good question. Hopefully more details will be made available soon.

A very interesting statement, this machine started life as a 486dx2-66 with 4 meg of ram, 1/4 meg video card and windows 3.11. that was back in 1994.

It has had a few upgrades since then, and none of the original parts remain, but there is still a 3 1/2" floppy drive (disconected) sitting in the front of the case.

I did have problems after one upgrade (CPU Motherboard memory) when Vista thought it was being used on a different machine.

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Kevin

A blog post from Terry Myerson clears up what "Windows as a service" means, though the duration of "the supported lifetime of the device" is still foggy. "This is more than a one-time upgrade," writes Myerson. "Once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device—at no additional charge."

I haven't followed up on that blog post you mention. I just came to the subscription conclusion because every news article explaining Windows 10 mentioned over and over ... "Windows as a service" Sounds like a typical software license to me. I have to pay up $hundred$ each year to keep my software licenses working or they go kaput and you have to re-purchase the whole package again with no discount.

Keith

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

... [Edit] http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/01/21/the-next-generation-of-windows-windows-10/

A blog post from Terry Myerson clears up what "Windows as a service" means, though the duration of "the supported lifetime of the device" is still foggy. "This is more than a one-time upgrade," writes Myerson. "Once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device—at no additional charge."

There has just got to be some catch or some sneaky gotcha!

Really?... Microsoft giving away their OS for no cost?


Even if 'free-of-cost', what other "tie-ins" are there?

IT is what we allow it to be!
Martin

At this point, I think the only gotcha, if you can call it that, is the bragging rights about the popularity of their new OS. I also think, given the new update model, that this will encourage most of the more adventurous early adopters to try the OS risk-free.

I think really, the goal is to make Windows 10 as successful as Windows 7.

Win 7 is very good. If Win 10 proves to be better, Then good for MS. I will read the reviews after others try it first before I jump to another ship.

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[/quote]

Old James

Just my 2 cents....
I have my daily driver on 7. All my other 8 crunchers are on XP, 2 on x64.
I still vastly prefer XP for dealing with the nuts and bolts of things.

Maybe it's because I have more years under my belt with XP than with 7.
Maybe it's because this old kitty fart hates change, especially when XP still works so well...especially for a crunch-only rig.

As far as going from 7 to 10, even for free? Meh, I think not.
As Hendricks put it...if 6 turned out to be 9....I don't mind. I don't mind.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

And what about the old CRT monitors that I still have to use due to my low income?

Since you won't be installing Windows 10 on the CRT itself, it won't be considered as part of the device's lifetime. The device will be the computer, tablet, laptop, or phone that you install the OS onto.

Listed "devices" quite different. What is "computer" device? I keep same case more then 10 years already, replaced almost all inside. Is it same "computer" or different one?...

"Once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device—at no additional charge."

What does that mean, if motherboard or cpu fails, or hdd is changed for larger/faster hdd, is the lifetime over?

Good question. Hopefully more details will be made available soon.

A very interesting statement, this machine started life as a 486dx2-66 with 4 meg of ram, 1/4 meg video card and windows 3.11. that was back in 1994.

It has had a few upgrades since then, and none of the original parts remain, but there is still a 3 1/2" floppy drive (disconected) sitting in the front of the case.

I did have problems after one upgrade (CPU Motherboard memory) when Vista thought it was being used on a different machine.

In most cases, a device isn't simply what resides inside the case.

And what about the old CRT monitors that I still have to use due to my low income?

Since you won't be installing Windows 10 on the CRT itself, it won't be considered as part of the device's lifetime. The device will be the computer, tablet, laptop, or phone that you install the OS onto.

Listed "devices" quite different. What is "computer" device? I keep same case more then 10 years already, replaced almost all inside. Is it same "computer" or different one?...

What resides inside the case is not the device. Otherwise you're essentially defining the device as the case itself, regardless of internals. We both know that's not true.

And what about the old CRT monitors that I still have to use due to my low income?

Since you won't be installing Windows 10 on the CRT itself, it won't be considered as part of the device's lifetime. The device will be the computer, tablet, laptop, or phone that you install the OS onto.

Listed "devices" quite different. What is "computer" device? I keep same case more then 10 years already, replaced almost all inside. Is it same "computer" or different one?...

What resides inside the case is the device. Otherwise you're essentially defining the device as the case itself, regardless of internals. We both know that's not true.

It's more complex too. Devices are mobo, CPU, memory sticks, any separate entity is device. And computer is compound device. And since WinXP M$ has some obscure policy when to treat compound device as another device.
Sometimes XP worked after mobo change, sometimes not.
So, the real question what exact policy will be with Windows 10, not what is "device" per se.

And what about the old CRT monitors that I still have to use due to my low income?

Since you won't be installing Windows 10 on the CRT itself, it won't be considered as part of the device's lifetime. The device will be the computer, tablet, laptop, or phone that you install the OS onto.

Listed "devices" quite different. What is "computer" device? I keep same case more then 10 years already, replaced almost all inside. Is it same "computer" or different one?...

What resides inside the case is the device. Otherwise you're essentially defining the device as the case itself, regardless of internals. We both know that's not true.

It's more complex too. Devices are mobo, CPU, memory sticks, any separate entity is device. And computer is compound device. And since WinXP M$ has some obscure policy when to treat compound device as another device.
Sometimes XP worked after mobo change, sometimes not.
So, the real question what exact policy will be with Windows 10, not what is "device" per se.

For clarity, please see my edit (i.e. the case is not the device). But I do agree that we need a better definition from Microsoft on what a device is.

A blog post from Terry Myerson clears up what "Windows as a service" means, though the duration of "the supported lifetime of the device" is still foggy. "This is more than a one-time upgrade," writes Myerson. "Once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device—at no additional charge."

I haven't followed up on that blog post you mention. I just came to the subscription conclusion because every news article explaining Windows 10 mentioned over and over ... "Windows as a service" Sounds like a typical software license to me. I have to pay up $hundred$ each year to keep my software licenses working or they go kaput and you have to re-purchase the whole package again with no discount.

Keith

Fair enough. And you're not the only one to come to that conclusion. I had to clarify to some coworkers as well who made the same mistake. At least discussing the topic is better than remaining confused.

Fair enough. And you're not the only one to come to that conclusion. I had to clarify to some coworkers as well who made the same mistake. At least discussing the topic is better than remaining confused.

Currently one can pay for own copy of OS and use it until hardware will die, if one doesn't want any new features/bloats M$ brings with new OS.
There is no any required month/year fee.
Will "OS as service" change this policy?

And another interesting question: will users of preinstalled OEM Win7 be eligible for free upgrade too?

And another interesting question: will users of preinstalled OEM Win7 be eligible for free upgrade too?

Yes.

Fair enough. And you're not the only one to come to that conclusion. I had to clarify to some coworkers as well who made the same mistake. At least discussing the topic is better than remaining confused.

Currently one can pay for own copy of OS and use it until hardware will die, if one doesn't want any new features/bloats M$ brings with new OS.
There is no any required month/year fee.

This is exactly the case with Windows 10. Nothing has changed.

Will "OS as service" change this policy?

What remains to be seen is what "OS as a service" actually is, and what Microsoft defines as a "device".

There have been rumors for a few years that MS would switch to a free OS model. Like Apple has done with OS X & also how mobile devices are now. Companies have found that people are more willing to shell out $10-50 here and there for some software than they are to spend $100-500 for an OS. So the OS has become a more of a platform to install applications. Given the number of options for a OS that are free or basically free charging large sums for an application platform isn't a good business model.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

Fair enough. And you're not the only one to come to that conclusion. I had to clarify to some coworkers as well who made the same mistake. At least discussing the topic is better than remaining confused.

Currently one can pay for own copy of OS and use it until hardware will die, if one doesn't want any new features/bloats M$ brings with new OS.
There is no any required month/year fee.

This is exactly the case with Windows 10. Nothing has changed.

To my knowledge the "cannot be moved to new hardware" or "until hardware die" and other restrictions only apply to the OEM license, not the "full retail" license of Windows. One might have to call Microsoft Customer Service because the online activation may fail when installing a previously activated "full retail" license key on new hardware. The most important differences between "full retail" and OEM seem to be:

1) OEM is permanently bound to the first computer, it is installed on. It moves with the hardware.
2) "Full retail comes with an upgrade option and both, 32 and 64 bit versions. OEM can only do clean install in the architecture, purchased for.
3) OEM does not qualify for free Microsoft support. That must be provided by whoever installed the OS (usually the hardware manufacturer).

The way I understand that is that a "full retail" license is bound to an owner. It can be moved from one computer to another as long as the computer, it was previously activated for, is retired (or reinstalled with another license/OS). This also solves the "licensing" problems usually experienced with replacing individual components in a computer systems, like replacing the motherboard, CPU or graphics board. One may still experience technical difficulties doing so (BSOD), but that could be overcome by a clean reinstall, using the same license key. One can do none of that legally with an OEM copy.

Fair enough. And you're not the only one to come to that conclusion. I had to clarify to some coworkers as well who made the same mistake. At least discussing the topic is better than remaining confused.

Currently one can pay for own copy of OS and use it until hardware will die, if one doesn't want any new features/bloats M$ brings with new OS.
There is no any required month/year fee.

This is exactly the case with Windows 10. Nothing has changed.

To my knowledge the "cannot be moved to new hardware" or "until hardware die" and other restrictions only apply to the OEM license, not the "full retail" license of Windows. One might have to call Microsoft Customer Service because the online activation may fail when installing a previously activated "full retail" license key on new hardware. The most important differences between "full retail" and OEM seem to be:

1) OEM is permanently bound to the first computer, it is installed on. It moves with the hardware.
2) "Full retail comes with an upgrade option and both, 32 and 64 bit versions. OEM can only do clean install in the architecture, purchased for.
3) OEM does not qualify for free Microsoft support. That must be provided by whoever installed the OS (usually the hardware manufacturer).

The way I understand that is that a "full retail" license is bound to an owner. It can be moved from one computer to another as long as the computer, it was previously activated for, is retired (or reinstalled with another license/OS). This also solves the "licensing" problems usually experienced with replacing individual components in a computer systems, like replacing the motherboard, CPU or graphics board. One may still experience technical difficulties doing so (BSOD), but that could be overcome by a clean reinstall, using the same license key. One can do none of that legally with an OEM copy.

You are absolutely correct on all that. I think the idea is that the "device" is the system as it currently exists (not moving components from one motherboard/hard drive/cpu/memory to another). As long as the device is fully functional and running Windows 10, it will receive updates for it's entire life.

You are absolutely correct on all that. But the question was, does the Windows 7 OEM install qualify for the free upgrade to Windows 10, and the answer is yes.

Which I consider one of the smarter moves by Microsoft recently. Offering "free" upgrade to 10 during the first year after release, together with going back to a more "Desktop PC friendly" UI, may make Windows 10 more successful than 8*. Remember, 50% of all desktops still run 7 and 20% still XP while 8* hasn't broken the 10% mark yet. They seem desperate to do better this time.

The way I understand that is that a "full retail" license is bound to an owner. It can be moved from one computer to another as long as the computer, it was previously activated for, is retired (or reinstalled with another license/OS).

Is it your wishful thinking or did you try such transfers of license indeed?

The way I understand that is that a "full retail" license is bound to an owner. It can be moved from one computer to another as long as the computer, it was previously activated for, is retired (or reinstalled with another license/OS).

Is it your wishful thinking or did you try such transfers of license indeed?

I've used re-used my full retail Win 7 Pro Licence on my C2D T8100, it was used on my C2D E8500 in Windows 7 form previously before it's hardrive failed.

Claggy