Post by Admin on May 25, 2016 5:51:09 GMT -9
The Free Windows 10 Update Is Ending: Now What Do You Do?
Win 10 is a good release, but is it better than Win 7? Let the debate flourish.
Robert McGarvey May 25, 2016 9:40 AM EDT
The unprecedented free Microsoft Windows operating system update offer - to Win 10 - is set to expire July 29. Best guesses are that maybe one in four Windows boxes in the U.S. are running Win 10 - which means maybe 75% are not. If you are in that latter category, you have a choice to make: to upgrade or not to upgrade?
The free upgrade is a Microsoft first. Historically the Redmond, Wash.-based colossus dinged upgraders upwards of $100 to jump from one version of Windows to the latest. Nobody knows exactly why Microsoft made the Win 10 upgrade free, but the prevailing theory is that the company wanted to spur adoption of the latest OS at a time when Microsoft has seen nibbling away at its OS dominance by Apple and also Google (Chrome OS).
It's hard to turn down free, but, frankly, there are reasons some might. OS upgrades always turn some peripherals (from printers to cameras) into junk. Sometimes too the newest Windows is buggy. Often, too, it has run slowly on older computers.
Know if you have been a holdout that there traditionally have been reasons to wait.
Microsoft also has swung a stick to stimulate upgrading. Namely, it has said that by 2020, it will end security updates to Windows 7; by far the most popular Windows version, Windows 7 runs on maybe one in every two computers. That's a long time away indeed, and, by then, the computers it runs on are probably door stoppers anyway. So that is not much of a stick.
So it comes down to this: will the end of "free" goad tens of millions of us into downloading now. Should you?
Listen to Lori Scribner, a PR consultant in San Diego. "I just upgraded late last week," Scribner said. "I had a lot of trepidation about upgrading, mainly because my Toshiba laptop is about 5 years young." She added: "I am happy to report that Win 10 is working well for me. I'm still getting used to it, but really, the UI change isn't all that dramatic. And, even on my older laptop it's working just fine...for now."
"All in all, Windows 10 upgrade is a great upgrade and we ourselves have upgraded to it," said Trave Harmon, CEO of managed IT provider Triton Technologies in Worcester, Mass. "Excellent platform with very little learning curve."
That is fact: if you have used Win 7 or 8, there is little to learn before flying in Win 10.
That is not to say Harmon has endorsed Win 10 for all his clients. He does not. He divides them into two groups. For those mainly running cloud-based apps, he would "highly recommend" upgrading, said Harmon.
For another group using mission critical software that resides on their computer, hold on, advised Harmon.
Win 10 is a good release, but is it better than Win 7? Let the debate flourish.
Robert McGarvey May 25, 2016 9:40 AM EDT
The unprecedented free Microsoft Windows operating system update offer - to Win 10 - is set to expire July 29. Best guesses are that maybe one in four Windows boxes in the U.S. are running Win 10 - which means maybe 75% are not. If you are in that latter category, you have a choice to make: to upgrade or not to upgrade?
The free upgrade is a Microsoft first. Historically the Redmond, Wash.-based colossus dinged upgraders upwards of $100 to jump from one version of Windows to the latest. Nobody knows exactly why Microsoft made the Win 10 upgrade free, but the prevailing theory is that the company wanted to spur adoption of the latest OS at a time when Microsoft has seen nibbling away at its OS dominance by Apple and also Google (Chrome OS).
It's hard to turn down free, but, frankly, there are reasons some might. OS upgrades always turn some peripherals (from printers to cameras) into junk. Sometimes too the newest Windows is buggy. Often, too, it has run slowly on older computers.
Know if you have been a holdout that there traditionally have been reasons to wait.
Microsoft also has swung a stick to stimulate upgrading. Namely, it has said that by 2020, it will end security updates to Windows 7; by far the most popular Windows version, Windows 7 runs on maybe one in every two computers. That's a long time away indeed, and, by then, the computers it runs on are probably door stoppers anyway. So that is not much of a stick.
So it comes down to this: will the end of "free" goad tens of millions of us into downloading now. Should you?
Listen to Lori Scribner, a PR consultant in San Diego. "I just upgraded late last week," Scribner said. "I had a lot of trepidation about upgrading, mainly because my Toshiba laptop is about 5 years young." She added: "I am happy to report that Win 10 is working well for me. I'm still getting used to it, but really, the UI change isn't all that dramatic. And, even on my older laptop it's working just fine...for now."
"All in all, Windows 10 upgrade is a great upgrade and we ourselves have upgraded to it," said Trave Harmon, CEO of managed IT provider Triton Technologies in Worcester, Mass. "Excellent platform with very little learning curve."
That is fact: if you have used Win 7 or 8, there is little to learn before flying in Win 10.
That is not to say Harmon has endorsed Win 10 for all his clients. He does not. He divides them into two groups. For those mainly running cloud-based apps, he would "highly recommend" upgrading, said Harmon.
For another group using mission critical software that resides on their computer, hold on, advised Harmon.