Windows 10 is not as free as you first thought

[WYP]

Windows 10 is not as free as you first thought, with certain Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 users being left out.

Read more on Windows 10 not being a free upgrade to certain users here.

 

[Merxe]

Not surprising. You get money from home users and companies but you build your PR mainly on the first.

 

[Warchild]

I expected this from the start, and it was confirmed by our IT department. While giving it to consumers for free is a great way to get others to move on and leave the old OS behind aka Win7, for businesses there is money to be made especially when you start to consider mass licenses.

 

[barnsley]

Was it just me or did I presume that the upgrade would only be free for home users? Atleast they let people with windows 7 basic upgrade. If anyone excluding my mum still has that POS.

 

[Warchild]

Was it just me or did I presume that the upgrade would only be free for home users? Atleast they let people with windows 7 basic upgrade. If anyone excluding my mum still has that POS.

SMB use windows home/pro too.

 

[SPS]

Meh, doesn't affect me!

 

[barnsley]

SMB use windows home/pro too.

Companies shouldn't really use home as it has some features locked out that would be pretty useful. I know businesses also use professional as well (as that is what I use at work). I presumed if you bought it as a bulk usage licence (or whatever the official name is) that it wouldn't be able to upgrade to 10.

 

[Dawelio]

Meh, doesn't affect me!

Why not mod?

 

[Warchild]

Companies shouldn't really use home as it has some features locked out that would be pretty useful. I know businesses also use professional as well (as that is what I use at work). I presumed if you bought it as a bulk usage licence (or whatever the official name is) that it wouldn't be able to upgrade to 10.

Correct. But when don't forget SMB means Small businesses as well as medium. Those small guys just starting out etc. Often involves working from home and so on. As you say, any form of multiple license will involve a nice fee to upgrade to this. I wouldn't be surprised if businesses will hold off upgrading anyway to eliminate bugs and issues.

 

[NeverBackDown]

I use W7 Ultimate.. i still get the free update right? It's only businesses that don't get it?

 

[WYP]

I use W7 Ultimate.. i still get the free update right? It's only businesses that don't get it?

Yeah you will still get an upgrade

 

[NeverBackDown]

Yeah you will still get an upgrade

Ah sweet.. had me worried

 

[SPS]

Why not mod?

Because I don't use Win8 Enterprise? lol

 

[jimma47]

Makes sense - we didn't upgrade from XP until about 3 years ago. So many legacy products to support that for most larger businesses are so customised and expensive you really have to take it slow. The lead in and development times are massive, plus you plan your budgets only so far in advance. We'd like to put money away for the future needs but in this climate we have to fight for every cent. Unless there's an absolutely compelling business case we don't upgrade. A product consultant costs upwards of $AUD 2k per day....

This + security means I'll be seeing the w7 enterprise logon screen every morning for quite a while yet.

Still I'm happy to be getting it at home (that's what she said) although to be honest I've never had an issue with W7 there either. I guess for MS it's a case of trading off 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' and 'build it and they will come'

Getting the majority of home users on the same platform regardless of where they came from (w7/8.1 etc) makes a lot of sense as far as saving cross development and legacy support/fixes. They only just retired XP.