News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Introducing Surface Laptop. Parent comment

Re:Introducing Surface Laptop by SoapSeller on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @02:06PM (#14248899)
The Windows Store page[0] state that "Prefer to run non-Store apps? Easily switch to Windows 10 Pro for free until Dec 31, 2017".

[0] https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/product...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Introducing Surface Laptop by canadaj on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @04:19PM (#14250188)
Why don't they just ship it with W10 Pro already installed?

Are there hardware issues, or do they hope a percentage of the population will pay for the upgrade in 2018?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Introducing Surface Laptop by int_19h on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @04:47PM (#14250414)
I would expect this to be a way to pressure software providers to publish to the store. With opt-in model, even if it's free, you can assume that there will be a sizeable chunk of the market that will not opt-in to upgrade to Pro.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Introducing Surface Laptop by sinaa on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @06:12PM (#14251104)
This in my opinion is the exact reason.

Either they get $50 from users and let them go buy/install off-market, or make the money in the long run from paid app developers who are pressured now to put their applications on the store.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Introducing Surface Laptop by _pmf_ on Wednesday May 03, 2017 @03:47AM (#14253780)
> I would expect this to be a way to pressure software providers to publish to the store.

Holy backfiring shit, what a desperate bunch of clueless clowns! This is a nice machine, and there's a opening now that Apple has somewhat fallen out of favor, and they think they are in any position to play stupid games?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Introducing Surface Laptop by polyomino on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @04:28PM (#14250265)
They don't want you to upgrade. They can make more from you over time by locking you into the store.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Introducing Surface Laptop by Maarten88 on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @09:04PM (#14252214)
That is the negative explanation. I think they want to compete on safety and simplicity against Chromebook.

Store apps will not make the laptop slow, they won't have viruses, they will ask the user for permissions, can be uninstalled safely, they will scale well on hi-res screens, etc.

This type of safety is, imo, the most compelling feature of chromebook, and one that Windows Pro doesn't offer.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Introducing Surface Laptop by hackuser on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @04:56PM (#14250498)
> Why don't they just ship it with W10 Pro already installed?

Are you sure they don't? In the past, many Windows edition upgrades (e.g., Home to Pro) were just a matter of enabling features that were already installed.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Introducing Surface Laptop by UnoriginalGuy on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @05:29PM (#14250795)
This is me being pedantic; when you upgrade from Home to Pro it does actually install several missing features. You'll see the this[0], takes about 30 minutes on an SSD.

[0] https://www.technorms.com/assets/20151012_133129.jpg

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Introducing Surface Laptop by hackuser on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @05:39PM (#14250875)
Thanks. Not pedantic at all - it's useful to know.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Introducing Surface Laptop by jtnews on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @05:30PM (#14250801)
The demo showed 10S faster than Pro, so I guess that's one advantage? Did they mention the speed increase coming to Pro at anytime?
[ Parent | on HN ]