Microsoft Removes the Option to Opt Out of Windows 10 Free Upgrade?

Re:Microsoft Removes the Option to Opt Out of Windows 10 Fre... by chrisseaton on Saturday October 17, 2015 @11:22AM (#10404647)

Would you still want to delay updating if Microsoft stopped all security updates for the previous version of Windows after releasing the new one? I think only supporting one version at a time has a lot of benefits like being able to focus on development and security for just one version. And I think we might all be better off collectively if everyone just upgraded straight away.

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Re:Microsoft Removes the Option to Opt Out of Windows 10 Fre... by AnthonyMouse on Saturday October 17, 2015 @12:04PM (#10404819)

Most people only want the security updates. You can tout the new features of Windows 10 all you like, but most people don't actually need them and the short-term value of the new features is less than the retraining cost of learning how to use them. Incurring that up-front retraining cost on a frequent basis causes you to never come out ahead. This is why everyone kept using Windows XP until it was completely unsupported and Windows 7 is the new Windows XP.

If anything what people want are less frequent releases with longer support periods. Or at least designate specific infrequent releases like Windows 7 for multi-decade long-term support -- if they would do that then they could reduce the support period for the non-LTS releases and end up supporting fewer versions at once.

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Re:Microsoft Removes the Option to Opt Out of Windows 10 Fre... by Silhouette on Saturday October 17, 2015 @09:11PM (#10406858)

If anything what people want are less frequent releases with longer support periods.

I wish the big name software vendors would understand this, but the hype train has a lot of momentum right now and it seems like everyone is trying to jump on board.

The reality is that stability and reliability in your software bring huge benefits. Big changes can bring big benefits too, but usually any improvements are more modest. And the kicker is that even quite small changes can make something work worse from the user's personal, subjective point of view, and this is actively bad.

My standard policy on our Win7 machines at work has been security updates only for quite a while now. I don't see anything pushing us to install Win10 on any of those machines right now. In fact this whole farcical exercise has been a great demonstration of why we shouldn't: the more Microsoft try to abuse the update process in older versions of Windows, the clearer it becomes that a version of Windows where updates are mandatory shouldn't be trusted.

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Re:Microsoft Removes the Option to Opt Out of Windows 10 Fre... by scrollaway on Saturday October 17, 2015 @11:27AM (#10404661)

I want to point out that this logic is based on the implication that newer is more secure, and that isn't always True, especially in closed source products. Many apps have gone from generally-good software to adware in a coupe of auto-updates. Similar things could happen to Windows - in fact, the privacy issues I pointed out in the post below are a facet of that.

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Re:Microsoft Removes the Option to Opt Out of Windows 10 Fre... by chrisseaton on Saturday October 17, 2015 @11:55AM (#10404784)

No that's not what I said. I didn't imply that newer is more secure. I said if Microsoft spent its efforts on securing just Windows 10, instead of Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista and XP all the same time the results might be better. That's not newness - it's resourcing. The same would be true if they put everyone onto Windows XP instead.

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