Windows 10 - Heavy Xbox Integration

[ImpulsE69]

Really? I can't see how anyone would support that model. It is essentially DLC and/or season pass equivalent only much more of an issue if they package things in a particular manner. Especially if they force upgrades that break things which obviously they do now and will continue to do.

The #1 reason people stick with older OS's is to keep things working. I'd be very hesitant to upgrade from 7 to 10. I absolutely HATE 8. 7 works just fine, never had an issue with it. 8 has been nothing but headaches, and while I'm sure it's great they go out of their way to change things they just shouldn't change.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Really? I can't see how anyone would support that model. Especially if they force upgrades that break things which obviously they do now and will continue to do.

The #1 reason people stick with older OS's is to keep things working. I'd be very hesitant to upgrade from 7 to 10. I absolutely HATE 8. 7 works just fine, never had an issue with it. 8 has been nothing but headaches, and while I'm sure it's great they go out of their way to change things they just shouldn't change.

So you don't patch your copy of Windows 7?

They won't upgrade the operating system. You pay a sub for that version and MS have said they will continue to support that version for its lifetime. Just like any other version of Windows. THey won't just force an upgrade on you.

Not sure why MS gets such a hard time with this crap to be honest. They are ridiculously excellent with backwards compatibility. Hell I run games from the 90s on Windows 8.1. With Apple you can't even run most apps from a couple of years ago.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I have one computer running win 7 and a tablet and laptop running Win 8.1.

Not sure I would bother for anything except the win 7 desktop (may gaming machine) for DX12.

Will be interesting to see what kind of video card support we get for DX12. Will it be backwards compatible, or will it require a new card?

Not sure how I feel about a subscription service. If the price is 25 to 30 dollars per year, I could live with it. I am not a big fan of one drive though. I have a couple of one drive accounts and also the free Bitcasa, and I prefer Bitcasa. Seems a bit easier to manage than one drive. Maybe it is just me, but the synching of one drive does not seem to give enough custom user options. It just tries to synch everything or nothing.

 

[StinkyPinky]

I have one computer running win 7 and a tablet and laptop running Win 8.1.

Not sure I would bother for anything except the win 7 desktop (may gaming machine) for DX12.

Will be interesting to see what kind of video card support we get for DX12. Will it be backwards compatible, or will it require a new card?

Not sure how I feel about a subscription service. If the price is 25 to 30 dollars per year, I could live with it. I am not a big fan of one drive though. I have a couple of one drive accounts and also the free Bitcasa, and I prefer Bitcasa. Seems a bit easier to manage than one drive. Maybe it is just me, but the synching of one drive does not seem to give enough custom user options. It just tries to synch everything or nothing.

One Drive certainly does let you pick and choose what you can sync. Even the mac client for it does (I use that feature at work, I don't want to sync all 21 gigs of data)

Anyway, I was just using that as an example. I'm guessing they will have tiers of subscription. One just for Windows 10, one for Windows 10/OFfice 365 etc etc.

 

[Dankk]

So much confusion in this thread. Windows 10 will NOT use a subscription-based payment model. (If it does, I will eat my hat.)

People are reading the part where it says Win7/Win8 users can upgrade to Win10 for free for a year, and they think that it means it will cost money after that. Uh, no. I'm pretty sure they meant that you'll have 1 year after the release of Win10 to upgrade for free without actually having to buy it. They never said anything about a subscription.

 

[Kev]

It's not "free", it's "free for a year". I guess they are going subscription model which makes sense as they probably want people to get the Windows 10/OFfice 365 combo/ One Drive combo. Which I'm happy to do as they are all good products.

How do people keep getting this wrong?

 

[sweenish]

They see what they want.

Facts just get in the way.

 

[BurnItDwn]

what I have read and interpreted ...

Not subscription based.

If you have 7 or 8, you can upgrade to 10 for no added fee if you do it during the first year. (Early adopters/beta testers get the upgrade for free)

After that year is over, you will no longer have the free upgrade on the table. If you want 10 after that point, then you will have to pay for it.

It does not mean "its free for a year".

It means "the offer for the free upgrade exists for a year" If you take them up on the offer, then you do not have to pay.


Thats my interpretation form what I have read...

Sounds like a decent deal for the consumer, it also sounds like a smart plan for getting people interested in trying windows 10, and sound slike a good way to keep people on windows platform.

 

[ImpulsE69]

So you don't patch your copy of Windows 7?

They won't upgrade the operating system. You pay a sub for that version and MS have said they will continue to support that version for its lifetime. Just like any other version of Windows. THey won't just force an upgrade on you.

Not sure why MS gets such a hard time with this crap to be honest. They are ridiculously excellent with backwards compatibility. Hell I run games from the 90s on Windows 8.1. With Apple you can't even run most apps from a couple of years ago.

Well yes I do, but I also wait them out and pick and choose what I install. Most people do not do that...and that's a problem. Automated updates are forced whether intentionally or not.

As for compatibility I somewhat agree. The real issue is software devs not keeping up, but at the same time, anything like that is a forced upgrade. I have a large amount of software that will not run reliably on anything past XP, and it isn't cheap software I would just throw away and rebuy for the sake of an upgrade. That isn't even including the work to reinstall it etc.

Yes, I'm looking beyond 'games' and browser apps which is the real issue here. Businesses have the same issues.

About sub: I think most are speculating. Free for a year sounds pretty odd and while maybe they want to get their market share back by giving it away, there's always a catch.

 

[futurefields]

Free, or free for a year?

Windows going subscription?

 

[TheSlamma]

Free, or free for a year?

Windows going subscription?

Wow if they do that is going to be a textbook corporation empire collapse 101 for the late 21st century business degree.

Their XBone launch should have taught them a lesson about this kind of stuff.

 

[StinkyPinky]

They see what they want.

Facts just get in the way.

Do you have some inside knowledge because logically "Free for a year" suggest a sub to me. That's exactly what they do with their other money maker, Office , so I expect them to do the same here.

 

[TidusZ]

i'm still on 7. Will wait and see what the reaction is, but unless i can arrange things so i never see that starting screen of tiles i'll stay with 7 until support runs out.

yep

 

[artemicion]

Do you have some inside knowledge because logically "Free for a year" suggest a sub to me. That's exactly what they do with their other money maker, Office , so I expect them to do the same here.

If they were going subscription, they would have, you know, uttered the word "subscription" at least once during the presentation. They didn't. I don't think "subscription" was mentioned in any way, shape, or form at today's presentation.

Free for a year suggests that the OFFER for a free copy of Windows 10 is valid for a year. It's very similar to the discounted Windows 8 they offered for a year when it first came out. The concept of a subscription based model didn't even occur to me until I read this thread.

 

[artemicion]

I believe they said that streaming was from the X1 to PCs and tablets only. They specifically mentioned a Surface Pro, so I don't know if it's also only x86 tablets. Microsoft doesn't seem to care much about Windows RT (the ARM variant) anymore.

Damn that'd be a killer app if they enabled XB1 streaming to Windows 10 phones. I'm up for an upgrade soon and I'd seriously consider a Windows Phone if they announced something like that. Though I'm not too sure an XB1 controller can connect directly to a phone without an additional receiver. It's a proprietary wireless protocol (as opposed to bluetooth) right?

 

[futurefields]

They all want to go sub, they just dont know if they can get away.

Once the old gen is dead and theres nothing left but kids who've been raised on DLC everything will be sub based.

 

[tential]

Free, or free for a year?

Windows going subscription?

The whole internet is waiting for a CLEAR answer to this question. The fact that M$ most utililze the internet to some extent to run their business, and hasn't clarified this yet, leads people to be even more skeptical.

 

[StinkyPinky]

If they were going subscription, they would have, you know, uttered the word "subscription" at least once during the presentation. They didn't. I don't think "subscription" was mentioned in any way, shape, or form at today's presentation.

Free for a year suggests that the OFFER for a free copy of Windows 10 is valid for a year. It's very similar to the discounted Windows 8 they offered for a year when it first came out. The concept of a subscription based model didn't even occur to me until I read this thread.

So you have no inside knowledge.

THey don't mention subscription because they don't need to yet. It will be a subscription based model because that's where the industry is going towards, including microsoft with their own products

 

[cmdrdredd]

If they were going subscription, they would have, you know, uttered the word "subscription" at least once during the presentation. They didn't. I don't think "subscription" was mentioned in any way, shape, or form at today's presentation.

Free for a year suggests that the OFFER for a free copy of Windows 10 is valid for a year. It's very similar to the discounted Windows 8 they offered for a year when it first came out. The concept of a subscription based model didn't even occur to me until I read this thread.

Windows as a Service to me reads like Android or iOS. The OS just lets you do stuff, the stuff... they would like you to pay for. Skype, oneDrive, Office, games, etc. They would like you to buy into their various services. Not dissimilar from iTunes/App Store and Google Play services. The OS is available as a service to Microsoft customers and likely will be inexpensive to upgrade from Win7/8. They are no longer treating Windows as a product to sell. That's what I read into that anyway.

 

[destrekor]

Alright, let's clear this up, once and for all.

Straight out of the horse's mouth: it will be a free upgrade for those who choose to upgrade within a year of release. End of story. No additional fees, no subscription.
Sources:
http://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-windows-10-will-not-be-sold-as-a-subscription/
http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/01/21/the-next-generation-of-windows-windows-10/


It does sound like the Windows as a Service phrase is more applying to the idea that Windows 10 might comically follow the OS X route. There might be more point releases, or not even that. They will be releasing more features over time, not withholding for another Windows release. I don't know if they will keep Windows 10 around the typical 3 years and replace it then, or if they do plan to keep it around, without any such Windows 11, for a longer period of time.

That would be rather swell if they went that route: I think if they have the NT kernel and the universal app API at the point where it can and will run on any device, I don't foresee a need for them to go that much further with significant kernel restructuring. They typically had the kernel change fairly significantly every two or three OS versions. They are still on the same overall kernel stack as Windows Vista, so they were on to something from the start, and now it has really culminated in an incredibly stable and snappy OS. And now it sounds like it is equally capable of delivering a more bare-metal Direct3D API, so it's a rather modular and extensible kernel. Considering it is now also running on ARM, that's also significant. (Windows Phone 8 was a modified NT kernel, or may have been the same kernel).

 

[TheSlamma]

Alright, let's clear this up, once and for all.

Straight out of the horse's mouth: it will be a free upgrade for those who choose to upgrade within a year of release. End of story. No additional fees, no subscription.
Sources:
http://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-windows-10-will-not-be-sold-as-a-subscription/
http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/01/21/the-next-generation-of-windows-windows-10/

w00t

 

[cmdrdredd]

Makes perfect sense to me.

This is more than a one-time upgrade: 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 cost. With Windows 10, the experience will evolve and get even better over time. We’ll deliver new features when they’re ready, not waiting for the next major release. We think of Windows as a Service – in fact, one could reasonably think of Windows in the next couple of years as one of the largest Internet services on the planet.

And just like any Internet service, the idea of asking “What version are you on?” will cease to make sense – which is great news for our Windows developers. With universal Windows apps that work across the entire device family, developers can build one app that targets the broadest range of devices – including the PC, tablet, phone, Xbox, the Internet of Things, and more.

For our enterprise customers, we’ll continue to support the way many of them work today, with long-term servicing for their mission critical environments. With Windows 10, a best practice we recommend for many enterprise devices is to connect to Windows Update and be kept up-to-date with the latest security and productivity improvements as soon as they are available. You can learn more about our commitment to enterprises here, with much more to come in the following months.

 

[HitAnyKey]

Alright, let's clear this up, once and for all.

Thank you, sir.

 

[Nebor]

Can someone explain to me why I'd want to play an Xbox game, designed for the Xbox and a big screen TV, on my PC?

 

[cmdrdredd]

Can someone explain to me why I'd want to play an Xbox game, designed for the Xbox and a big screen TV, on my PC?

Because you can stream it to your Tablet running Windows 10. Potentially Windows Phone running Windows 10. Also don't underestimate the ability for women to hog the TV for their shows when it's time to go bust some skulls with friends online. It's basically the same reason streaming games from PS4 to Vita or from WiiU to the gamepad is a popular feature.