Windows 10 will be free upgrade, even for pirated versions

ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Apparently the "free to pirated versions" is aimed at China where a majority of Windows systems are alleged to be pirated. Apparently Microsoft think that giving away Windows 10 for free to pirate users they will bring them back into the Microsoft fold. I think the jury is still out on that one!
 
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mrducking

Bright Spark
actually, as outlandish as this sounds, i think it makes a lot of sense from a business perspective, remember that with windows 10 they are changing their business model
supposedly now they plan to generate income from the windows store instead of trying to properly monetize the windows 10, a system quite similar (if not the same) as the one used for phones (android, windows phone, iphone...), and for this business model to work what you need is a lot of people to own and use a properly legal copy of windows 10 so they can use the store
based on all this i think what they are doing makes A LOT of sense, will it work? we will see :)
 
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Wozza63

Biblical Poster
As mrducking said, Microsoft are aiming to make their profit from the Windows Store selling apps. However at the current quality of the store I wouldn't expect people to pay for much. Currently most apps have a better non-metro alternative. For example Facebook and Twitter are still far better than in the browser other than the ability to receive notifications to your desktop and not just that page.

I bet they end up releasing some DLC for Windows 10 as well xD
 
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SlimCini

KC and the Sunshine BANNED
Wozza365 said:
As mrducking said, Microsoft are aiming to make their profit from the Windows Store selling apps. However at the current quality of the store I wouldn't expect people to pay for much. Currently most apps have a better non-metro alternative. For example Facebook and Twitter are still far better than in the browser other than the ability to receive notifications to your desktop and not just that page.

I bet they end up releasing some DLC for Windows 10 as well xD
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Will there be a season pass? Or any mulitplayer do you think? PVP Windows 10 multitasking...
 
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mdwh

Enthusiast
That applications aren't worth much or are just inferior website wrapper apps - or people aren't prepared to pay much - is something true of mobile OSs I would say (e.g., compare typical cost of game to PC games). Though it all adds up if you can take a 30% cut of everything (including IAP). Also imagine this isn't just Windows Store, but other things such as One Drive, Office.

History of computing has shown that computers get more numerous, smaller and cheaper, a trend which is continuing. If we've gone from a household typically having one computer that costs hundreds, to each person owning multiple devices which may end up costing less than a hundred each, it's much harder to command a licence fee of ~£100 on every device for the OS. In the past they've tried to hack around this (e.g., Windows 7 Starter cut down version for netbooks; or now they've waived the licence fee for devices with screens smaller than 10" IIRC). This seems a bold move forward, to switch from making money through services rather than the operating system.

Also see how they've recently been releasing loads of good stuff on Android (One Drive, One Note, Office), all for free. This is not too disimilar to the way Google works, giving away things for free, even cross-platform, in order to get more people using its products.
 
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Wozza63

Biblical Poster
mdwh makes some very good points and I agree that they are going more into a services business.

One thing I want to add is that Microsoft has never been too bothered about piracy of their software. People pirating the software for personal use means they become used to that software rather than a free alternative. This will then force businesses to pay for multiple licenses for it rather than a free alternative because it would cause disruption in the workflow. For example they would rather you use a pirated copy of MS Word than LibreOffice because if they used LibreOffice at home then the company they work for will convert to it. MS makes most of their money from large businesses rather than personal purchases anyway.

However I'm somewhat surprised that they have gone this far as to give pirated copies a free upgrade.
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
What does this mean for volume licenses? I guess we'll have to upgrade via a reinstall rather than downloading an update as usual? Volume licenses won't carry over to win 10?
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
SpyderTracks said:
What does this mean for volume licenses? I guess we'll have to upgrade via a reinstall rather than downloading an update as usual? Volume licenses won't carry over to win 10?
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I wouldn't have though so, business volume licensing is where Microsoft make money.
 
Androcles

Androcles

Rising Star
The latest out of Microsoft about this is that it's not really a free copy of windows as such, it's just that they haven't disabled the upgrade option for unlicensed copies, this means that they will get be able to install Win10 and critical updates, but it will still only work under the unlicensed system so license specific stuff like updates for things like Windows Defender etc will not install. So while yes it is free, they're only getting the bare bones, effectively a permanent demo of windows 10.
 
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Spuff

Expert
Microsoft have clarified the pirated copy situation. They have said people running pirated versions will not be getting a valid Windows license in the upgrade, but if you are running a suitable pirated version it will upgrade to 10.
Microsoft refer to PCs running pirated Windows as 'non-Genuine PCs', which seems a bit rich.
 
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ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Spuff said:
Microsoft have clarified the pirated copy situation. They have said people running pirated versions will not be getting a valid Windows license in the upgrade, but if you are running a suitable pirated version it will upgrade to 10 in the same way it accepts normal Windows updates.
Microsoft refer to PCs running pirated Windows as 'non-Genuine PCs', which seems a bit rich.
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Ahh. So what they really mean is that they haven't found a way to stop pirated versions of Win 7/8/8.1 benefiting from the free upgrade! Isn't spin wonderful?
 
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