Image via Brad Sams
Microsoft announced today at its Windows 10 briefing that it will make the next major version of its operating system free for consumers. Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for for the first year for Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 users. Users who upgrade will continue to have access to the latest versions for free when using the same device. For comparison, Apple has offered updates to each of its software updates, including major operating system versions, for free since 2013 with the release of OS X 10.9 Mavericks for the Mac.
In addition to announcing Windows 10 pricing details, Microsoft demoed early builds of its virtual assistant, Cortana, running on desktop computers with early builds of the next Windows update. While Apple beat Microsoft to the free desktop software update game by a long shot, OS X 10.10 Yosemite is behind these early builds of Windows 10 in regards to featuring a voice assistant as Siri is currently limited to devices running iOS like the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
In the past, Microsoft has relied on the differences between Siri and Cortana to promote phones running their Windows Phone operating system (while the Surface has also been heavily compared to the MacBook and iPad), so expect to see this play out in future ads as well until Apple brings Siri to the Mac.
Microsoft also announced a new web browser aside from Internet Explorer dubbed Project Spartan with the company’s Cortana voice assistant baked in. Much like Safari, though, the Project Spartan browser introduces a queue for reading articles from the web including offline—aptly named Reading List.
Windows 10 to be free? That would be newsy.
— Seth Weintraub (@llsethj) January 21, 2015
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That’s actually quite clever: if WX turns out to be just another annoyance people can’t be complaining about it because it was free. Smart move MS (I think it’s your first)
Just like OS X? Are you kidding me? What about “for the first year”?
I think that means they are purposely stating that it will be free for a year to get everyone to upgrade in that timeframe. Then, it really becomes a case of “free in perpetuity as you have it in your system or will come with a new machine”
It’s their way to see how many people they can get to upgrade since about 90% of their install base uses older (3+ years) OS. I doubt they are going to get a majority of those users to upgrade. I think it’s a crap shoot hail mary pass.
Copy cats.
Considering how crappy Windows is, they should have done that starting with Windows ME.
I’m sure there will be a catch, such as free for basic Windows. networking features will be extra, Media Center features also extra, etc.
The only catch is that you have to upgrade within a year of the release to get it free.
What choice do they have with Android, iOS and now OS X being free?
Free for one year! Not for more!
Is it free in perpetuity or will it become a subscription service like Office?
When is the launch?
You ApplePhags kill me! Apple release a fkn patch and you sheep jump up and down like it’s a revolution in technology. Nothing important runs on OSx, just fruit-loops job-hunting at Starbucks
Wow, what an angry little man with angry little problems.
What important stuff is running on Windows?.. lol
FreeCell!
Every single program used in every major company, from warehousing to pharmaceuticals to IT.
The entire Office suite, which Apple “copied” as Numbers, Pages e.t.c.
Microsoft made this suite back in the Macintosh days for the Mac and PC, before Steve got fired and left Apple.
Back under your rock – or we’ll start thinking you’re Herb, with a different handle and a different “SugarDaddy” paying your freight!
Wow, how uninformed and ignorant you are…
Here’s a picture of scientists at mission control at NASA:
https://macdailynews.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/120806_nasa_macs.jpg
Here’s a bunch of scientists at CERN using their Macs:
https://sugoru.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/cern2-1.png?w=651
LOL, thanks for playing…
Similar to how nothing runs on Windows Mobile?
…Pretty sure having an Apple product doesn’t make you a homosexual. Having sexual relations with the same sex, now THAT makes you a homosexual.
I love how I’m now a Windows, Android , iOS and most recently OS X user. I like to think I have a broad perspective on the different systems. I’m a bit Apple fag, bit Windows queer and a smidgen Android dick sucker. Anyway, iSheep are fun to tease. Each platform has it’s uses but worshiping one makes no sense…
OS…X. Windows…X. Get it?
Isn’t their a file extension in the Microsoft world that is .exe? X.. get it?! : )
Pretty sure they’re not calling it “Windows X”. Nobody is clever in calling it that.
WindOS X!
They are turning it into a “service” just like Adobe did with monthly subscriptions. Enjoy your free year.
You just don’t know what you’re talking about… W10, for one year, will be free for upgrade, but after this year, PC upgraded will keep W10 for free.
I actually agree. They didn’t specifically say its free ‘forever’ once you upgrade. They said its ‘free for 1 year’. which could mean they’ll charge subscription fees OR they’ll charge for upgrades to existing win 8.1/win 7 if they upgrade after 1 year of release date.
they just let it hang in air to see customer response/feedback IMO
If it were going to be free forever, then why add the “*for one year.” caveat? That kind of tag line can only be negative, so it would only be added if it weren’t going to be free forever.
It is possible that they included this to give them a way out if they change their minds…. or it could be the first step to a subscription style plan.
Or…. it could just be a way to confuse people. Lord knows this has been a goal of theirs over the years with different versions and letters. “If we can’t confuse them with versions, lets confuse them with FREE!”
Are you people handicapped? What Microsoft is doing is saying if you have Windows 7 or 8.1, for the first year that Windows 10 comes out, you can upgrade for free. If you don’t do it in the first year, you have to pay the upgrade fee. There’s nothing about subscriptions or anything of the sort.
They might get away with that in the States, but unless they stipulate very clearly right off the bat that they will charge a subscription for continued use after a year, they may well get sued by the EC again.
Microsoft will give away Windows 10 … just like OS X. Unlike OS X… it’s still Microsoft Windows 10.
With “Monthly Patch Thursdays” – have to make people forget all those “35 Patches – 298MB download waiting” . . . . 6 months out of the year!
MicroSlop – Not Even For Free!
How is MS going to make money? Just off of Office subscriptions? Apple can do this because they make nearly all their money on hardware. I can’t imagine MS could sell enough Surfaces to stay healthy.
I noted in my post that it certainly won’t be “Free” to OEMs, as their licensing fees are the only revenue stream (besides Office) of the entire company.
Microsoft makes most of its money off of it’s enterprise and business divisions… It’s been this way for the last 5 or 6 years. It used to be a 50/50 split back in the Windows XP days, now it’s closer to 70/30.
The will also still sell Windows 10 to OEMs so it’s not like they will lose out on that much revenue.
Sorry for the typos, typing from an iPhone :/
They’re still losing a lot of revenue from consumer upgrades. Even if the majority of their licensing upgrades come from OEMs there’s no denying that a significant chunk of money from users upgrading their current systems will be gone.
Over the course of the next 5 to 10 years that could mean billions in lost revenue.
I’m glad the days of “Windows XP Basic, Home, Premium, Ultimate and Business” are gone but Microsoft split up the versions on purpose to make more money. By moving to a free model Microsoft must be banking on selling lots and lots of Surface tablets/laptops.
I think this will push MS to make MS brand PCs
That’s still too expensive.
Its not Free.
Its not Free unless I can go to MS.com and download an ISO of it, that doesn’t need a product key, for Free. A Free upgrade to people who already purchased Win7/Win8 is not Free anything.
I’m assuming it won’t make their licensing to OEM’s “Free” either…since that and office are literally the only positive revenue streams for the entire company.
Voice assistant on the PC is just throwing shit at the wall in absence of anything useful to throw. Apple could have put Siri on the Mac at any point in the last 4 years. They haven’t, because its not particularly necessary. They HAVE however had the same dictation engine on board, something that can be occasionally useful.
But there isn’t any reason for me to use my Mac to ask Siri to create a reminder for me, when I just as easily call it out to my iPhone on the desk.
Some engineers at Apple actually ask “WHY” before they do things….unlike any other tech company in the industry.
Mac OS isn’t really free either because I have to buy a Mac to get OS X, just like you have to buy a PC to get Windows (Yes you can build a Windows box but you still buy the OS).
It is a free upgrade nothing more, same as OS X.
Hmm, its no where near OS X, but thanks for playing.
If I knew someone with Windows 7, I couldn’t create a disc from a free iso and upgrade them to Windows 8 (or 10) without a hassle.
Unlike if I know someone with ANY Mac that supports 10.10, regardless of what OS they are on, I can get them up to date for Free, and legal.
And how is Microsoft going to make money now? Charge for bug fixes and security updates? I’ll bet their shareholders are fuming right now. or is Microsoft turning into a non profit company?
They charge business customers as part of Software assurance along with OEM’s paying for the licences they bundle with the computers they build. Add to the fact that all the bundled applications are being replaced with ModernUI so there will be a single operating system that scales from top to bottom with very little in the way of code differences which should at least in theory mean it costs a lot less to maintain and develop so their revenue might decline but their costs will reduce so the bottom line pretty much stays unaffected.
Microsoft has a completely different business model than Apple. Apple makes sales on their hardware, while Microsoft makes it on software. What this article sounds like? That awesome person that always posts “FIRST!!!!1111 lawlpants”. Apple did a lot of things first, just like Microsoft has.
What about the Vista and XP users? Do they not consider them Windows users?
What ever happened to Windows 9?
From what I’ve read the rationale was they didn’t want this version to be confused with Windows 95 or 98 so they skipped to 10 (or X in Apple language).
What will be interesting is if they follow Apple’s lead and remain at version 10 with all subsequent updates being point updates even though they could/should be classified as a major update. Yosemite is a big enough change that it should be 11 but for whatever reason Apple doesn’t feel the need to let go of 10.
Actually if you look at Apple marketing it’s all about the name and not the version number. Only hardcore geeks and IT are really concerned about the number. For everyone else the name of the version is more relevant.
No. Not like Apple. Read the fine print… “For the first year”. After it’s release you will have to buy it. Sorry, but that’s nothing like Apple’s approach were even after year one, OS X is still free.
When you hear the first time that the Windows 10 will be free you don’t believe.
However it makes sense, if the statement and thinking of changing for a service base system, for Windows, emerge in the conversation.
And if you think about you it: Windows 10, as a cross platform device software; The people stuck in windows 7/8.1 are desirable to belong to 10, for microsoft implement a plan of unify the software that runs in most of the devices. They probably end making more money and aggregate more user (and satisfaction) this way.
both for users, and for Microsoft employees who start to work more on one thing only (reducing costs and focussing on more relevant content to boost the brand).
I watched the keynote and like to see the ideas Surface Hub (for teams/ groups in enterprises in example), and the all new product and idea of Holo Lens (holographic lens). I will see the results from there to future.
For one time is possible seeing a will for strong marketing. And Microsoft try to instigate the ‘Love of Windows brand’ and the feelings that people have when they think of associated products and the software(Windows) utility.
Take easy…
I suspect Win 10 is only being offered to Win 7 onwards users due to hardware limitations (ie try running OSX Yosemite on a G5 Mac etc, etc …). I use OSX Linux and Windows and can’t understand the blind hatred displayed by some users towards others who don’t have the same OS – GROW UP !
I don’t think Vista users would have a problem, but the XP users that haven’t upgraded would be much better off buying a new computer anyway.
They should make if free for PC s with XP on them that is the group that needs to upgrade most. Apple makes a upgrade for those who haven’t upgraded for a while, saving time and money for those who have lagged behind a couple of upgrades.
If they haven’t upgraded their Windows XP machine by now, I highly doubt they even support Windows 10. Microsoft wants those customers to upgrade to a computer made within the last decade lol