Windows 10 to launch 'this summer' with free upgrades even for pirated copies

[PoliticAverse]

Microsoft has inched closer to announcing an official release date for Windows 10. The new operating system, which is currently in a public preview release, "will launch in 190 countries and 111 languages around the world this summer," according to the company.

Executive Vice President Terry Meyerson, who runs the Windows division, made the announcement at the WinHEC conference in Shenzhen, China, yesterday.

In a separate interview, Meyerson told Reuters that the company plans to deliver free Windows 10 upgrades to all customers, even those running pirated versions of Windows. "We are upgrading all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10," Meyerson told Reuters.

Read the rest at: http://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-to-launch-this-summer-with-free-upgrades-for-pirated-copies/

[hobbit709]

1. After the fiasco of 8 it's going to take more than a free upgrade for me to consider it.

What I've seen and read so far it's just more eye candy than anything else.

I don't want or need more cloud based apps.

[Renew Deal]

2. I've been using the beta

It's very good. It's what Win 8 should have been. And it doesn't include key features like the new browser yet. I think people will like it.

[steve2470]

3. I like it so far also, beta tester also.

Once they get all the major bugs squashed and introduce Spartan, it will be good to go. One ultra-trivial complaint, they made the damn Recycle Bin look like it's 1992 all over again. I liked the glossy transparent one. Oh well.

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Wavefunction, Inc. has a whole business built around the Spartan brand name ...

why did MS choose this as a name for one of its products ?

[steve2470]

6. I think MS will change the name before final release, that's my understanding nt

[Earth Bound Misfit]

8. Spartan is just the project name...

They haven't actually decided on the name yet."Project Spartan" sounds very impressive, no? Guess what? It's actually a re-branded Internet Ex-PLODE-r 12.

Marketing gimmick.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

4. + 1. It adds multiple desktops

...which Linux and/or OS X has had for decades. The "new" start menu us butt-fugly and still too 8-ish looking... They're banking on "Cortana" Lot's of bread & circuses...

[Ron Obvious]

7. I'm going to hold off to see how it shakes out

I will hold off on upgrading my 8.1 system for a few months to hear others' experiences with it.

I don't want Cloud anything, no App store, no Metro-interface crap (it's a computer, not a tablet!), no login tied to my email address, and I want nothing subscription-based.

MS appear to be determined to ram all those things down my throat anyway, and I want to make sure I can avoid them like I still could with 8.1 (after-market start button, boot to desktop and reinstalled gadgets made 8.1 usable).