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Comment by Someone1234 | Hacker News Reader

They're giving away Windows 10 for free. So they're copying Apple's strategy and instead of back-porting, just get everyone onto the latest version.

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Getting people to the latest version is the problem. People are still reportedly using IE7! Upgrading isn't about purchase cost, it's about labor cost and general know-how.

I honestly thought IE11 would be the last major IE release, guess I was wrong. This new one looks no better.

It's easier to 'sell' people free updates without a lot of perceived upsides for the end-user than to 'sell' them that they also have to pay for the update :)

Unless I'm going crazy, I don't think your comment makes grammatical sense. Both of those options are made to sound bad (without upsides, also have to pay?)

In any case, I'm not doubting that it's easier to pitch an update if it's free. All I'm saying is that purchase cost isn't the main or only barrier to Microsoft software updates.

Sorry about the weird phrasing. What I wanted to convey is that sometimes from the user's point of view it is not easy to see/perceive any upside from upgrading (even though technically there might be lots). => hence a free upgrade is way easier to say yes to.

We still don't know how that is going to work yet. Will they cut off updates at some point. Do users have to pay for Windows 10.1? Will all future versions of Windows forever be free for those who bought Windows 7/8? etc

It's hard to say, but Apple has definitely learned that people don't like paying for minor-ish OS upgrades. I hope Microsoft has learned from that.

I would definitely pay Apple for an upgrade of snow leopard.

Unfortunately, Apple doesn't give you the option of voting with your money anymore.

I know :(

Serious I think I am not alone in wanting to be able to run snow leopard on recent hardware. Apple please make software as good as your hardware.

Free for one year.

Incorrect. Free upgrades for one year, with free updates after that for device lifetime. [1] 1. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/about (Under Free upgrade offer)

That's what I mean; if you don't upgrade within the year, you don't get it for free. I was answering the last question.

What is Microsoft's business model then? Bing ads? Kinect + ??? = Profit? (I know I'm phrasing this like a joke, but I'm genuinely curious what revenue driver(s) justify a near $400B valuation)

They're giving away free upgrades to Windows 10, for the first year. That's all.

* http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows-10/about

> What is Microsoft's business model then?

New Windows licenses, licensing on lots of other software, MSDN, enterprise support, and all the things that aren't upgrades of existing Windows licenses.

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