Tech people like you and me love to nitpick. It's quite "logical", measurable, and it generalizes complex issues into nicely formatted bullet points.
What you call "an enormous technology event" I call a disaster, showing perfect "we don't care for the current users" attitude, even after the public demonstrated what it thinks about the "improvements" in Windows 8. The commenters here rightly point that the returned Start menu is even worse than it was during the tech preview. And I have actually paid for my copies of Ultimate and Pro with Media Center versions and I actually need the features I note are now quietly removed. It's your right that you don't need them, but I do need them and the people who consider installing 10 should know about it too.
Don't upgrade. You paid $0 for Windows 10, had absolutely no expectations about it when you apparently bought Windows 7, and now it's a "disaster" because an unused feature was openly and clearly removed. Give me a break.
This sort of "take a shit on everything" attitude is one of the worst facets of HN, and your comments in particular exemplify them. Don't upgrade. Move on.
The few DVDs which malfunction are typically published by Disney in the last few years and contain DRM specifically designed to break unlicensed players. VLC have been very active in fixing these issues, and have in many cases.
But if people plan on using VLC just be aware that the rare DVD won't work well or at all. Still the best DVD playing software I've used, including paid software.
Don't upgrade to 10 and keep your old functionality.
inversionOf is making some valid points here, there is no need to attack him.
Because I question the importance of DVD playing ability relative to an enormous, free release? Give me a break.
I suppose this mean that you and acqq must work for Apple or Google or some other competitor that is trying to undermine Microsoft. By your logic, that is just as, if not more, rational.
Windows 8.1 had no built in DVD player. Nor did Windows 7 Starter or Basic. Further, I suspect it's a feature that the vast majority of people have never used, exactly why Microsoft decided that they wouldn't subsidize the licensing for no reason. This is a very 2002 discussion.
Not that your point isn't valid -- at least for those users who ever actually tried playing a video DVD, and who had a supporting version of Windows -- it's just pretty odd that such a comment sits at the very top of an enormous technology event.
The Tesla doesn't come with a holder for my buggy whip.