I’ll upgrade when the price of the next windows product is under $30.
Windows 8 and 8.1 failed because it forced people to learn the quirky Modern tiled interface, which almost everyone hated because it was just too different than the interface of earlier Windows versions. As such, Windows 10 on desktop and "conventional" laptops default back to the Desktop user interface, which means people used to the interface of Windows XP, Vista and 7 can upgrade to Windows 10 far more easily.
Saw an article the other day for building a high end set-top box using an Intel NUC. It suggested Win7 because of Windows Media Player.
Upgrading to windows 10 from 7 or 8 is free, so its a bit early to say that people will remain with 7 or 8. Maybe people are grabbing cheap copies of 7 in preparation for the free upgrade to windows 10
Windows 10 is little more than Windows 8.10, and the primary purpose of Windows 8.10 has almost nothing to do with the needs of actual PC users, but again, just like Windows 8.x, is all about what Microsoft wants in an OS, which appears (once again) to be oriented towards mobile, a market Microsoft lost years ago and will never gain back, given that their current worldwide smartphone share is less than 3% and shrinking.
Just as with Windows 8.x, almost no enterprise, SMB, government or industrial users will abandon Windows 7, many of whom just converted from Windows XP.
And just like Windows 8.x, mostly it will be hapless consumers who buy their PCs at retail stores like Best Buy who will be stuck with Windows 8.10. That is, those few consumer Windows PC users who haven’t already permanently fled Microsoft because of Windows 8.x.
No one in industry, manufacturing, government, military, business, or the enterprise will care one whit about Windows 10 unless it’s a more productive operating system for the vast majority of their PC users.
That really will be the sole metric of the success of Windows 10: is it compatible with the hundreds of millions of current PC applications and users, and is it substantially more productive than Windows 7? If not, then there’s no business case for “upgrading” from Windows 7 as there will be no positive return on investment.
PC productivity should have been Microsoft’s primary focus for Windows 10. However, Microsoft has persisted in making an operating system that meets Microsoft’s needs and not the needs of its industrial and business users. As a consequence, Windows 10 will be another flop like Windows 8, and never before has Microsoft had two major OS flops in a row. Now that Microsoft has all but lost the war for mobile, they can’t afford to lose their one remaining monopoly.
The bottom line is that Microsoft is facing a headwind of skepticism (and alternatives) like never before in their history of introducing new operating systems, and I wonder if they know that Windows 10 is not just another OS to be introduced to a naive and adoring audience with their typically lame publicity barrage, but may be in fact be the last OS they ever introduce that anyone will actually give a hoot about if turns out to be as bad a bomb as Windows 8.xxx.
Microsoft’s top task should be maintaining it’s near-monopoly on the desktop in the enterprise world, and windows 10 is no more capable of doing that than windows 8 was. Microsoft’s exclusive focus with W10 has been on mobile, a war it already lost nearly a decade ago when it didn’t even know it was in a battle.
Therefore there is no compelling reason to change from W7 TO W10 on PCs, and W10 won’t significantly advance Microsoft’s currently 3% and shrinking worldwide smartphone market share.
I’m just now converting the majority of my business clients from XP to W7. I’ll keep them on W7 if/until MS produces something that is compatible with the hundreds of millions of current PC applications and user interfaces, and is substantially more productive for their users than Windows 7. Should that case not arise from MS, then there’s no business case for “upgrading” from Windows 7, even if it is “free”, as there will be no positive investment return from the costs of the change.
And based on working extensively with W10 TP releases, I can tell you W10 is NOT better than W7. W10 is nothing but a gussied up W8.x with nothing new in it that’s needed on enterprise or SMB PCs. There’s nothing new in W10 that’s not being put there solely to foster MS’s vain hope of growing their currently shrinking 3% worldwide smartphone market share. Cortana, Spartan, APIs for universal device applications, slightly improved (but still bereft) MS App Store, integrated MS cloud, integrated MS Bing, and all the rest are things for cell phones and/or things MS wants to try to trick people into paying extra money for. And not a single one of these things is truly useful for enterprise and SMB PCs.
Fundamentally, W10 is what Microsoft management is selling to its ignorant board of directors as the great mobile savior that will make Microsoft relevant in mobile. The problem is that Microsoft will never be relevant in mobile. That war was fought and lost years ago before Microsoft even understood they were in a battle, much less in a war for survival. W10’s sole purpose is really to keep the post-Ballmerites in their jobs for the few years that it will take the board to realize that the post-Ballmerites are equally as clueless and impotent as the recently departed Ballmerites.
Before it was released to the public, I predicted W8.x was going to be a massive disaster for both Microsoft and the entire PC industry, and I predict that W10 will be little better. W10 is going to be almost as big a bomb on the PC for MS as was W8.x.
Still running XP SP3. Still satisfied. Am slowly going towards 7.
Will skip 8 and go straight to 10 in 2018 :)
Our large company is in the process of replacing all our Windows XP computers with Windows 7 PCs. Could be part of the trend.
I struggled with the decision to upgrade from 7 to 8.1, but really glad I did. The bootup time is so much faster and it is very stable. With the classic shell installed, I have no complaints at all.
MS should have updated XP. The redesign with ribbon menues (gosh-awful) and similar cutzie features made Win7-8 less productive.
I finally got a Win 7 laptop and desktop about 3 years ago. Took a while, but I got most of it to act and look like XP.
I did lose some software — no Win7 equivalents. I did jerry-rig some XP programs to get them to work in Win7. I did lose a laser printer that had no Win7 64-bit driver.
Many people wanted/needed productivity OS. Win8 was more of a kiddy program for tablets and smartphones, etc.
MS needs to listen to customers. Many of them still want/need productivity over cutzie.