The case against free upgrades for Windows 10
First, before I go further I want to be clear. I'm not JUST talking about the cost of the OS, but also treating it as an in-place upgrade. I think it would be a great thing if Windows 10 was JUST free with no BS or complexity.
At the same point, offering it as an update via the Windows Update system for free is INCREDIBLY dangerous/bad. Especially for anyone not running Windows 8. Windows 8 and Windows 10 will share a lot more in common than Windows 10 and Windows 7. Given the outrage experienced going from Windows 7 to Windows 8, what do you think the response would be for someone going from Windows 7 to Windows 10? The average user would be MORE enraged than those that bought a new computer with Windows 8. At least those who bought a new computer had to have some expectations that things would be different.
Those running Windows 7 however on current hardware won't be expecting to wake up one day and find a completely new OS on their machine. Even painting an upgrade in a favourable light and making it too easy would be bad. If the OS or upgrade are free for Windows 7 users, they should need to do that update via a separately downloaded tool. The OS shouldn't recommend or force the update on the users in any way.
Beyond the experience shock, the other notable problem is driver support. Even when a newer version of the OS will (with some cajoling) run drivers meant for older versions the OS doesn't do this by default. And, sometime the installers for the drivers will refuse to be run on the "wrong" OS. And, of course, not every driver, even if hacked to install will run properly. I've experienced it numerous times before.
This has long been what I see as a flaw in the MS upgrade process in my opinion. On a fresh install it can be excused. But when upgrading or refreshing an OS I should be given the option to keep existing compatible drivers. Dump all currently loaded drivers to a special partition/folder and load them back up if possible on re-installation. The OS should only go looking for new drivers if the hardware either had no driver, the drivers supplied didn't work in the upgraded OS or the user explicitly asked.
This practice is why I stopped using the Tech Preview for Windows 10 actually. My tablets WiFi driver was NEVER installed properly each time it updated the OS. And each time, the process to get it working again changed. It is annoyingly hard to fix an issue when you can't connect to the internet to download the files. I had started keeping multiple versions on a flash drive. BTW, this was a Windows 8 tablet, so it would be eligible to upgrade to Windows 10 free (supposedly). And even between these much more closely related OS's we see a major driver issue. If that tablet were someone's sole PC device they would be dead in the water. I have numerous computers, and the know-how to get such a problem solved. The same is not true of society at large.
At the same point, offering it as an update via the Windows Update system for free is INCREDIBLY dangerous/bad. Especially for anyone not running Windows 8. Windows 8 and Windows 10 will share a lot more in common than Windows 10 and Windows 7. Given the outrage experienced going from Windows 7 to Windows 8, what do you think the response would be for someone going from Windows 7 to Windows 10? The average user would be MORE enraged than those that bought a new computer with Windows 8. At least those who bought a new computer had to have some expectations that things would be different.
Those running Windows 7 however on current hardware won't be expecting to wake up one day and find a completely new OS on their machine. Even painting an upgrade in a favourable light and making it too easy would be bad. If the OS or upgrade are free for Windows 7 users, they should need to do that update via a separately downloaded tool. The OS shouldn't recommend or force the update on the users in any way.
Beyond the experience shock, the other notable problem is driver support. Even when a newer version of the OS will (with some cajoling) run drivers meant for older versions the OS doesn't do this by default. And, sometime the installers for the drivers will refuse to be run on the "wrong" OS. And, of course, not every driver, even if hacked to install will run properly. I've experienced it numerous times before.
This has long been what I see as a flaw in the MS upgrade process in my opinion. On a fresh install it can be excused. But when upgrading or refreshing an OS I should be given the option to keep existing compatible drivers. Dump all currently loaded drivers to a special partition/folder and load them back up if possible on re-installation. The OS should only go looking for new drivers if the hardware either had no driver, the drivers supplied didn't work in the upgraded OS or the user explicitly asked.
This practice is why I stopped using the Tech Preview for Windows 10 actually. My tablets WiFi driver was NEVER installed properly each time it updated the OS. And each time, the process to get it working again changed. It is annoyingly hard to fix an issue when you can't connect to the internet to download the files. I had started keeping multiple versions on a flash drive. BTW, this was a Windows 8 tablet, so it would be eligible to upgrade to Windows 10 free (supposedly). And even between these much more closely related OS's we see a major driver issue. If that tablet were someone's sole PC device they would be dead in the water. I have numerous computers, and the know-how to get such a problem solved. The same is not true of society at large.
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