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The Windows 10 upgrade was officially free for a year to encourage people to upgrade, which they wouldn't normally do. Microsoft made Windows 10 exactly the same as Mac OS, iOS or Android: you pay for it when you buy the hardware and the OS upgrades are free for the life of the device.

Also, Microsoft is not currently monetizing users, except via Bing. Microsoft does almost no ad selling (it farmed ad sales out to AOL), and it's the opposite of Google. There's roughly a 95/5 split, but with Microsoft, it's more like 5% ad revenues.

Unlike Google, Microsoft doesn't read any of your content (eg emails) for advertising purposes.

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My problem is that they are coupling security updates and user-interface updates. The fact that they were offering the switch to Windows 10 didn't make it something that I wanted.

I can't stand the trend toward flat design. It was stupid with Windows 8, and I held out on Windows 7, hoping that 10 would bring some sense back to the interface. Instead, they doubled-down on the poor design, and I'm finding just how little I need to use Windows on a day-to-day basis, when Linux is becoming more and more user-friendly.

Unfortunately, it does mean that I only have until 2020 to finish up my backlog of Windows-only video games, before the long-term support of Windows 7 runs out.

This.

The UI in Windows 10 is inconsistent and ever changing. Do you have to do something in the flat design portion or in the older Win7 style? It's akin to having to attempt to plug a USB2.0 cable into your computer three times.

I'm so sick of the inconsistency of the GUI that I just pop open PowerShell and gwmi things I want to manipulate.

One example is networking. I have a Windows 8 based tablet that I upgraded to 10. The networking is very iffy when rebooting and I often have to disable it and then re-enable the device in "Network and Sharing Center-->Change Adapter Settings". Trying to do this in the flat design way never works. Now what if I want to manage the list of WiFi networks or prioritize them? There use to be a link in the Network and Sharing Center in the bottom left. Once upon a time you could also click on the icon on your current active network which would then give you an option to manage.) That doesn't work for me anymore. I now have to do that in the flat design "Settings".

I also had to go into the registry to get a full pop-up keyboard. The option to enable it was just greyed out. And upgrading to the Anniversary edition on this 32GB tablet required a full reinstall and very carefully timed insertions/removals of a USB hub. Upgrading to Win10 from Win8 actually shortened the OS support lifetime for many of the 32GB tablets. Continued Win10 support requires updating of Win10...

Combine that with the Metro apps that I've paid money for just disappearing for good from my library, and I wonder why anyone puts up with this?

It was actually easier to do the 32 bit Linux UEFI workaround than reinstalling the Win10 Anniversary update.

> I can't stand the trend toward flat design.

You're not gonna like 2017 Linux then. The superflat, super-trendy themes have the most users and are pretty much the only ones that see regular updates. Which are required because tl;dr GTK3.

Vertex and -- honest to God! -- a Win 3.x lookalike are virtually the only decent alternatives that work for more than six months.

GTK3's Adwaita (default theme) is not flat. Sure, you can download misc flat themes, but the default is not.

It's also needlessly frickin' huge. It's worse than Industrial (oh, the memories...). It's like it was designed for touch screens and tablets, not monitors and real computers.

Someone built a "smaller" version a while ago, but it hasn't been updated, so it no longer works on recent GTK versions.

> when Linux is becoming more and more user-friendly

I used Linux on the desktop from 2004 to 2008; I cannot stand it today.

I don't know why you are being downvoted. I used Ubuntu as my main OS in 11-12 and tried it again a month ago and am regretting it (the UI has a lot of weird bugs; heck I couldn't believe I would have missed Windows Explorer).

Just install MATE or Xfce.

Because?

> My problem is that they are coupling security updates and user-interface updates.

Welcome to data-driven software development. Good luck turning back that tide....

You only need that luck if you get your software from people who think coupling security updates and UI updates is a good thing. Fortunately, not everyone does.

Obviously Microsoft itself realises this, because Windows 10 Enterprise is essentially a different product. In the spirit of sharing good luck, I wish you luck in finding any large corporate IT department that will adopt an OS as their standard platform without the ability to control exactly what gets updated and when.

The trick Microsoft seems to be trying to pull with Windows 10 is getting everyone else to be the beta testers for its enterprise customers. Commercially, I imagine that makes a lot of sense if you can do it, since surely those enterprise customers are far more valuable to you.

Other customers, who can choose from ever more alternatives for activities that used to use a Windows PC by default, might not be so keen. Casual home users rely more on alternative devices like phones, tablets, and consoles these days. "Prosumers" and small businesses can work with Apple gear or Linux, either on their own merits or simply because if a lot of the services you use are available online then it doesn't much matter what OS you're running locally anyway. With Windows 10 Pro being such an odd beast, I wonder how much longevity Microsoft's apparent strategy actually has.

Every website you use -- especially every Google and Facebook site -- is doing data-driven development where security and UI updates are made on a continuous basis. So are a lot of other programs, including browsers.

Welcome to the modern world.

> Windows 10 Enterprise is essentially a different product.

Windows 10 Enterprise is essentially the same product. The timing is slightly different.

> I wish you luck in finding any large corporate IT department that will adopt an OS as their standard platform without the ability to control exactly what gets updated and when.

Try the US Defense Department, Accenture, and Bank of America.

Adaptiva Names Surge in Windows 10 Adoption Among Major Enterprise IT Industry Predictions for 2017 http://www.adaptiva.com/blog/2016/adaptiva-names-surge-windo...

100% Windows 10 Adoption Rate by 2019; 50% by 2017, Say Gartner and Citrix http://1reddrop.com/2017/01/05/100-percent-windows-10-adopti...

Every website you use -- especially every Google and Facebook site -- is doing data-driven development where security and UI updates are made on a continuous basis.

That doesn't make it a good thing, though. Getting to our usual dashboard now takes about half a minute on Google Analytics instead of about two seconds, thanks to their latest UI update. Facebook have lost a small fortune in advertising revenue from my businesses because of all the times that they've changed their management pages so they simply didn't work when we were going to run ads.

So are a lot of other programs, including browsers.

And with my professional web development hat on, "evergreen" browsers that update every six weeks are among the worst things that have ever happened to the industry. It's the same culture that also brings us a new JS framework every five minutes and a new half-baked, non-standardised CSS feature every ten. None of this is good unless it actually helps people to do more online, and all too often the reverse is true.

Welcome to the modern world.

Thanks, but I'll keep my old school systems where things like stability and reliability matter more than this week's shiny new UI chrome. That's why we still run Win7, we run Linux servers, our web sites and apps only rely on standardised, well-established features, and so on.

Try the US Defense Department, Accenture, and Bank of America.

Are you seriously claiming that the US DOD and major financial institutions let Microsoft install arbitrary updates and reboot their systems whenever they feel like it? I find that impossible to believe.

As I said, Windows 10 Enterprise is essentially a different product.

> Are you seriously claiming that the US DOD and major financial institutions let Microsoft install arbitrary updates and reboot their systems whenever they feel like it? I find that impossible to believe.

They are among the organizations moving to Windows 10. In fact, most organizations are moving to Windows 10.

DoD-Wide Windows 10 Rapid Deployment to Boost Cybersecurity https://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/688721/dod-wide...

But the question under discussion wasn't who was moving to Windows 10, it was whether bundling of security and UI updates was the way things were going and whether giving up control over the update process is acceptable to everyone. My argument throughout has been that not everyone is willing to hand over that level of external control of their systems, and that Microsoft recognises this by having a very different upgrade regime for Windows 10 Enterprise.

> whether bundling of security and UI updates was the way things were going

Clearly, it is...

> and whether giving up control over the update process is acceptable to everyone

Clearly, it's not. But the adoption rates for Windows 10 show that it's acceptable to the vast majority of people.

> by having a very different upgrade regime for Windows 10 Enterprise

Really? How is it "very different".

Clearly, it is...

It isn't clear at all that bundling security and UI updates is the way things are going. That may be true if you look at very narrow parts of the market, but for example all of our servers and pretty much every piece of software we run on them get separate, individually installable security updates that very deliberately don't change any other functionality (and with extremely high reliability, don't break anything in the process either).

But the adoption rates for Windows 10 show that it's acceptable to the vast majority of people.

That's still a stretch. Nearly two years after release, even with very aggressive promotion including literally giving it away to home users for one of those years, it looks like Windows 10 still has far less market share than Windows 7. I don't know see you can get to "vast majority of people" from there.

As for businesses, large enterprises may be moving towards 10, though I note that the citations you gave earlier were invariably future predictions by analysts rather than actual adoption numbers. However, as I keep saying, large enterprises are getting a version that is very different, because it doesn't suffer from problems like having mandatory updates (or telemetry etc.) that have been widely criticised in other editions.

In contrast, and in complete opposition to your earlier claim that most organisations are moving to Windows 10, I mostly work with smaller tech businesses, where approximately none are currently moving to Windows 10 as their standard platform and several are actively looking into alternatives. If that experience is even remotely representative of the wider customer base, the nerfing of the Pro edition is going to hurt Microsoft if they don't fix it before the 2020 deadline. These companies don't have "IT departments" and they don't want "enterprise licensing deals". They want to buy new PCs that they can use to do their work, and for the less technical businesses, they usually want those PCs to be something Bob from Customer Support can set up because he knows a bit about how the office network works and has a list of which software they usually install for new starters. Getting away from all the other hassle is a big part of why cloud-based services are so popular.

> it looks like Windows 10 still has far less market share than Windows 7.

On Statcounter numbers, Windows 10 has more usage than Windows 7 in the USA and the UK. That's unheard of for a new Microsoft OS, where most people don't update until they buy a new PC.

> I note that the citations you gave earlier were invariably future predictions by analysts rather than actual adoption numbers.

Some are already doing roll-outs and pilots are at an all-time high. It normally takes corporates much longer to get to this stage.

> by having a very different upgrade regime for Windows 10 Enterprise

Really? How is it "very different".

On Statcounter numbers, Windows 10 has more usage than Windows 7 in the USA and the UK.

Here are a few more sources for you to consider:

StatCounter global[1]: Win7 47%, Win10 34% (of Windows desktops)

Wikimedia[2]: Win7 22%, Win10 9% (of all platforms)

USA government analytics[3]: Win7 25%, Win10 17% (of all platforms)

The only serious source I know that has consistently shown Win10 coming out ahead for a while is Steam, which is obviously looking specifically at the gaming market:

Steam survey[4]: Win10 49%, Win7 37% (of all platforms)

That's unheard of for a new Microsoft OS, where most people don't update until they buy a new PC.

It's also unheard of for a new Microsoft OS to be not just given away to home users for a year but promoted through a campaign that was widely accused of trying to trick people into upgrading even if they didn't want to.

Some are already doing roll-outs and pilots are at an all-time high.

There seem to be a lot more pilots than roll-outs, though, even in enterprise land. That in itself is quite telling.

Really? How is it "very different".

Enterprise users have full control over which updates to install and when. Home/prosumer/small business users do not.

[1] http://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/windows/de...

[2] https://analytics.wikimedia.org/dashboards/browsers/#all-sit...

[3] https://analytics.usa.gov/

[4] http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey

But they could log your keystrokes. Honestly, I would rather the UPS read my postcards than my contractor keeping a camera in my house "to help them build houses better"

>could But do they?

Haven't all the revelations from corporations and government agencies flipped your switch yet? At this point, how would you NOT assume that everyone who can access your data is not benefiting from its use and/or sale? I'd flip the question: is there any organization who has access to your data that isn't mining it to use against you (by targeting you for marketing purposes) and/or selling it to other parties? In fact, I'd go on to say that this activity is now the #2 gross domestic product of the US, right behind "convenience."

No idea, they don't detail what they send.

The difference is that I don't have a freeing of privacy on a cloud (and especially here it's an automated computer program that's doing the reading, it's not that engineers are reading my emails).

> Also, Microsoft is not currently monetizing users, except via Bing

I do not care if the ads in my file manager are free or paid for today. What reason do you have to believe the in-OS ad-delivery infrastructure that is currently operational will not be monetized? It's a reasonable extrapolation, especially given the following caption from the article "How can you tell this is an ad? The dollar sign is one clue."

"Microsoft made Windows 10 exactly the same as Mac OS, iOS or Android"

...which is precisely what a large portion of the userbase who chose Microsoft did not want.

In fact the upgrade is still free through the "assistive technologies" loophole, which while MS has officially said they would close "very soon"...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/4vmz19/regarding...

...that was 7 months ago and yet the page is still up and AFAICS lets you download the upgrade installer.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgra...

(I have not tried actually running the installer, because I have no intention to deliberately use Windows 10.)

Also, MS has posted the full ISOs for free download on their site, so if you're really desperate and know how, you could just download them and crack it yourself. That would be unheard of a few years ago. The general message seems to be louder than before, although it has been the same for many years: if you really don't want to pay for it, we still want you to use Windows 10.

> "Microsoft made Windows 10 exactly the same as Mac OS, iOS or Android" ...which is precisely what a large portion of the userbase who chose Microsoft did not want.

Do you have any evidence that it's a large proportion of the user base? Windows 10 already makes up the majority of PC usage share in the USA and the UK (on Statcounter), and Microsoft says corporate adoption is at unprecedented levels for a new version of Windows. (Mostly pilots at this stage, obviously.)

More people use Window 10 than have used all versions of Mac OS going back to 1984, and in its first month, it had more users than Linux got after 20-odd years.

There are always hold-outs: I gather some people still cling to OS/2 and maybe even Amigas. There used to be a cult that said you'd have to prize XP out of their cold dead hands.

However, the fact is that Windows 10 absolutely has to work for the US Defense Department (which is already switching to Windows 10), Bank of America and practically all the S&P500, so you can be confident that it will.

>if you really don't want to pay for it, we still want you to use Windows 10.

Hasn't that always been Microsoft's modus operandi? They could have cracked down on pirated versions of their software (Windows, Office), but they didn't because they knew that piracy helped in making their software the de-facto standard.

I'm no expert here but this is contrary to the prevailing narrative. Can you link to any sources? Thanks.

I should note that though I switched away from Windows back in 2001, I think they're definitely on the right track under Satya Nadella. I'm a big fan. It would have been very, very easy for Ballmer's successor to nail the lid shut on the coffin into which they were climbing. He's turning that around and winning fans along the way.

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