Microsoft Announces... Windows 10 With A Start Menu

[jan1024188]

7, 8, 8.1, 8.1.1, 10

Being this consistent...

[somini]

7, 8, 8.1, 8.1.1, 10

Being this consistent...

8+1+1=10

Also, HL3 confirmed.

[TheSoulz]

Free upgrade only applies to retail copies (not OEM) - which nobody buys, since every computer comes with an OEM copy anyway. These people are probably outnumbered by Debian/kFreeBSD users.

sorry but your wrong, i know by first hand that your are :P
same was for win8 to win8.1, you go to a website and you enter a serial provided by the oem (usualy under the base or the side of desktop) and they give you the upgrade.

[schmidtbag]

Reading about multiple desktops sure made me smile.

Considering they're proud of it, it is a little amusing. Considering Windows users are going to act like they're so great because of it makes me frown.

[emblemparade]

Ugh, this is not great news for free software.

I was really hoping Ubuntu would be the first to achieve true convergence, but obviously most users and enterprises will prefer Windows if it's already available.

I think the community wasted effort to get eveything working on ARM. But, we really underestimated what Intel would do with the Atom platform. You can get 7" quad-core x86 tablets for $99 that run true Windows 8.1 right now. Connect them to a keyboard/monitor, and you get a perfectly decent computing experience. That's a killer feature for many users and enterprises: more productivity for less money.

And x86 phones are also OK -- there's not a lot of variety right now only because x86 Android isn't a good desktop experience. But a phone running real Windows 10 with a convergent experience? I hate to say it, but even I would find that so much more useful than our current mobile devices, and I do everything with free software. But convergence is simply a game changer.

There are still no Ubuntu Touch devices out, and when they do come out in the next few months, they will not yet have convergence.

Have we missed this train? Please someone here post something to encourage me.

[NothingMuchHereToSay]

Ugh, this is not great news for free software.

I was really hoping Ubuntu would be the first to achieve true convergence, but obviously most users and enterprises will prefer Windows if it's already available.

I think the community wasted effort to get eveything working on ARM. But, we really underestimated what Intel would do with the Atom platform. You can get 7" quad-core x86 tablets for $99 that run true Windows 8.1 right now. Connect them to a keyboard/monitor, and you get a perfectly decent computing experience. That's a killer feature for many users and enterprises: more productivity for less money.

And x86 phones are also OK -- there's not a lot of variety right now only because x86 Android isn't a good desktop experience. But a phone running real Windows 10 with a convergent experience? I hate to say it, but even I would find that so much more useful than our current mobile devices, and I do everything with free software. But convergence is simply a game changer.

There are still no Ubuntu Touch devices out, and when they do come out in the next few months, they will not yet have convergence.

Have we missed this train? Please someone here post something to encourage me.

There's one problem with Windows on tablets though.. They ditched the Modern UI for the Modern Start menu. So.. Microsoft's doing a complete 180 on its tablet interface. And how exactly DOES the x86 tablet function under Windows? Does it have heating problems? Do people expect to run super high end photoshop or Office products on those things? From what I know, MS already failed on the ARM tablet, while it's only a matter of time before Intel actually gets their shit together with their godawful Atom processors that run barely equivalent to ARM chips, I'm not holding my breath because Intel just cannot go beyond laptops and some tablets at all.

As far as I know, x86 phones are nonexistent because of how small the phone's form factor is. Microsoft WILL still fail in the "convergent phone" business, all because of x86. Microsoft has legacy programs that people have expectations to run as soon as they see the words "Microsoft" and "Windows" on a phone. They will assume their expectation that "Oh, I can do anything I want with Windows on a phone!" or something like that, which in the case of an Atom x86 processor on a phone, it will either overheat or fail to meet the expectations and run like a Pentium 3 with a fully updated (bloated) Windows XP.

Similar problems with the ARM Surface RT also occurred and bombed big time because of the major drastic change that Microsoft didn't know how to handle because they're already gigantic enough around the entire frickin' world. They didn't set people's expectations, and honestly, how would you think the marketing would've gone? "The Surface RT! Now coming only with Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer, because that's all you need!" or "Surface RT, because less is more" (in the form of 32GB of storage space that left you with only 8GB usable. I mean, goddamn, Microsoft, just die already, sheesh.

Ubuntu, has the advantage of being FOSS, ported over to ARM and other architectures, AND the best part is that people have NO expectations because they've never heard of "Ubuntu" or "Canonical". This also corelates to why Canonical only chose two hardware partners obscure from the USA and the mainstream audience in general. The risk takers and enthusiasts will try Ubuntu out, see what it's like, and honestly I have high hopes for Ubuntu.

[Apopas]

In 7 years from now, the only windows that will matter will be the remnant installations of windows 7.

[omer666]

Ugh, this is not great news for free software.

I was really hoping Ubuntu would be the first to achieve true convergence, but obviously most users and enterprises will prefer Windows if it's already available.

I think the community wasted effort to get eveything working on ARM. But, we really underestimated what Intel would do with the Atom platform. You can get 7" quad-core x86 tablets for $99 that run true Windows 8.1 right now. Connect them to a keyboard/monitor, and you get a perfectly decent computing experience. That's a killer feature for many users and enterprises: more productivity for less money.

And x86 phones are also OK -- there's not a lot of variety right now only because x86 Android isn't a good desktop experience. But a phone running real Windows 10 with a convergent experience? I hate to say it, but even I would find that so much more useful than our current mobile devices, and I do everything with free software. But convergence is simply a game changer.

There are still no Ubuntu Touch devices out, and when they do come out in the next few months, they will not yet have convergence.

Have we missed this train? Please someone here post something to encourage me.

I think the only reason why we missed is because it was Ubuntu behind this. I really don't see how phones could become more productive. My Android device is already fully synced with my GNOME 3 desktop, for documents, calendar etc. and I don't see myself using Metro on a phone. It has no appeal to me -- but all this is purely subjective.

[Detructor]

Ugh, this is not great news for free software.

I was really hoping Ubuntu would be the first to achieve true convergence, but obviously most users and enterprises will prefer Windows if it's already available.

I think the community wasted effort to get eveything working on ARM. But, we really underestimated what Intel would do with the Atom platform. You can get 7" quad-core x86 tablets for $99 that run true Windows 8.1 right now. Connect them to a keyboard/monitor, and you get a perfectly decent computing experience. That's a killer feature for many users and enterprises: more productivity for less money.

And x86 phones are also OK -- there's not a lot of variety right now only because x86 Android isn't a good desktop experience. But a phone running real Windows 10 with a convergent experience? I hate to say it, but even I would find that so much more useful than our current mobile devices, and I do everything with free software. But convergence is simply a game changer.

There are still no Ubuntu Touch devices out, and when they do come out in the next few months, they will not yet have convergence.

Have we missed this train? Please someone here post something to encourage me.

Well there once were two phones. They were called Neo Freerunner and the Nokia N900. I loved both of them. The N900 even more than the Freerunner. Even though it was cool issuing the GSM commands via echo, it's even better to have a hardware keyboard and an IR transmitter.

Man how I miss the time when those two were relevant (in terms of performance/usage).

I wish a big player would stand up and bring us a phone that would be just for geeks and nerds: detachable hardware keyboard (but sturdy), all standard sensors (temperature, pressure, accel*meter (no clue how that's spelled, sorry)...) plus all kinds of cool stuff. FM transmitter/receiver, IR transmitter/receiver and...other stuff with which you can 'play'. All packed in a nice sturdy design (read: none of those stupid 'as slim as possible' idiotic designs.). With free choice of operating system.

[Luke]

CheckMATE for Windows 8?

Makes me smile to hear of this just as I am rolling all my machines back to MATE-from Cinnamon, building a theme to look almost exactly the same on MATE's far lighter codepath, which is compiled rather than interpreted