Windows 10 - free upgrade to those with PC using Windows 7 or 8

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I do. How else would I get high quality lossless music?

Buy FLAC's at prices costing up to €1,50 or so a piece, which are ripped with who knows which codec and from which CD-edition, and that probably have all the metadata wrong?

No, thank you very much.

I just rip MP3s to 320 kbps, but a lot of the music I like simply isn't available in digital form. I have to find CDs (usually old ones) if I want this music in my digital collection.

[kennyc]

Hmmm.....

"Microsoft yanks Windows 10 November upgrade from download site"

http://www.computerworld.com/article...load-site.html

[Katsunami]

I just don't onderstand why MS is offering less and less ISO downloads, and if they do so, they do it through something like the Media Creation Tool.

Do they really WANT people who have three computers (as I do; desktop, laptop, and a stick pc) to download everything three times, as opposed to once and then using their own network/usb/cd to install such a large update?

Installing Windows XP SP3 was a nightmare in 2013; You'd have to get... what... 10 years of updates. Microsoft plans to support Windows 10 "during the life of the device it is installed on"; in my case, that could be 25 years, as I don't plan to sell this computer.

First, I can't believe MS to support Windows 10 on such old systems for so long a time, and second, I can't believe that I'd have to download 25 years of updates, should I decide to reinstall this computer in 2040, for old time's sake.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I just don't onderstand why MS is offering less and less ISO downloads, and if they do so, they do it through something like the Media Creation Tool.

Do they really WANT people who have three computers (as I do; desktop, laptop, and a stick pc) to download everything three times, as opposed to once and then using their own network/usb/cd to install such a large update?

Installing Windows XP SP3 was a nightmare in 2013; You'd have to get... what... 10 years of updates. Microsoft plans to support Windows 10 "during the life of the device it is installed on"; in my case, that could be 25 years, as I don't plan to sell this computer.

First, I can't believe MS to support Windows 10 on such old systems for so long a time, and second, I can't believe that I'd have to download 25 years of updates, should I decide to reinstall this computer in 2040, for old time's sake.

I had to reinstall XPpro (Dell SP1 dist) last year. I had the SP3 CD. It still took 12 HOURS with a fast DSL with al the updates (and 40 bazillion reboots )
I pity those on a metered Satellite feed.
IMHO the ISO is the way to go (and you have a backup if you need to reinstall)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

First, I can't believe MS to support Windows 10 on such old systems for so long a time, and second, I can't believe that I'd have to download 25 years of updates, should I decide to reinstall this computer in 2040, for old time's sake.

It wouldn't download 25 years of updates; it would download the most recent "baseline build" (which is what the "1511" version is) and the updates since that. I would imagine there'll be at least one baseline a year, if not more.

[AnotherCat]

As far as I am aware all Windows 10 updates, those being for its own functionality and fixes, are cumulative (there may have been exceptions but I have not paid enough attention to be sure that has not always been the case in the past).

If that is so then one gets just one Windows update, plus the latest security update.

[theducks]

Some of my W10pro updates have pass 250MB

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

(And I still haven't seen a decent alternative for Foobar, and CD-ripping software. That stuff is just much better under Windows.)

Foobar2000 is a very good music player. But there are much better programs for ripping CDs and tagging.

Extract Audio Copy is the best there is on any platform for ripping CDs. http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

MP3Tag is the best there is for Windows. http://www.mp3tag.de/en/index.html

Those are two things I will not use Foobar2000 for as these two programs do it so much better.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

TechRepublic would like to point out that Haiku (open-source BeOS) is a viable alternative to Windows 10.


http://www.techrepublic.com/pictures...-disappoint/6/

Viable alternative with no programs? Forget it. There is no viable alternative to Windows. Linux isn't all the viable when the programs you want to run don't work without Windows. OS X isn't a viable alternative as you need to dump the computer you already own and buy some flavor MAC. That's not viable nor cost effective. Basically the only thing on the list that's a viable alternative to Windows 10 is Windows 7.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

There is are only two options, Mac and Linux (something like Ubuntu or Mint).

For me the Mac is not an option, IMHO. Apple throws backward compatibility overboard much more quickly than Microsoft does. They just drop features and/or support of some versions of OSX and then blatantly state that you'll just have to buy a new Mac to get the new OSX version. Their entire 'We are the only one worth using'-aura isn't for me.

As for OS X, NEVER EVER update OS X unless you are 100% sure that all the programs you use are going to work or there is a version for the new OS. If you are not sure, do not upgrade as you could very well screw yourself out of running some important piece of software that has no alternative.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Viable alternative with no programs? Forget it. There is no viable alternative to Windows. Linux isn't all the viable when the programs you want to run don't work without Windows. OS X isn't a viable alternative as you need to dump the computer you already own and buy some flavor MAC. That's not viable nor cost effective. Basically the only thing on the list that's a viable alternative to Windows 10 is Windows 7.

Well yeah, that's kinda what I was saying.
Minus the "linux isn't at all viable" bit, because many things are available and it might be viable...
... although the killer feature for Windows is still the unparalleled app availability.


But my point regarding Haiku was entirely different.
Seriously fringe OSes with considerable lack of polish and comparatively little support for common hardware aren't even an option to be quickly dismissed.

Even sticking to Open-Source, which makes linux viable, isn't going to make some of those OSes viable. Most Open-Source end-user applications aren't designed to run on anything other than Windows/linux/OSX.
I believe it is considered a minor-though-not-insurmountable struggle just to get linux software to compile on *BSD. Anything more exotic is pretty iffy if you ask me.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Well yeah, that's kinda what I was saying.
Minus the "linux isn't at all viable" bit, because many things are available and it might be viable...
... although the killer feature for Windows is still the unparalleled app availability.


But my point regarding Haiku was entirely different.
Seriously fringe OSes with considerable lack of polish and comparatively little support for common hardware aren't even an option to be quickly dismissed.

Even sticking to Open-Source, which makes linux viable, isn't going to make some of those OSes viable. Most Open-Source end-user applications aren't designed to run on anything other than Windows/linux/OSX.
I believe it is considered a minor-though-not-insurmountable struggle just to get linux software to compile on *BSD. Anything more exotic is pretty iffy if you ask me.

My feeling is that if you do want to run Linux, dual-boot with Windows because eventually you very well might come across some software you need and/or want to run and will need Windows to do so.

As for these other fringe OSes, I agree to forget they even exist.

[dickloraine]

I'm a Windows user myself and every time I try Linux it disappointed me, but some of that comes from my inexperience in it (seriously, if you always used strg-c, you don't get used to press shift in addition).

That said, depending on your usage, Linux could be all you need. Internet, writing, coding, media consumption is all there. For specialist tasks chances are good some tool exists. But that is often only usable through the terminal. This is the case in windows too sometimes (like python scripts etc), but there are more alternatives with a gui. I shouldn't be ranting about this, as all these are free and often open programs, but seriously, why do that many open source projects do tremendous work, putting houndreds of hours in a project but then do not write a decent documentation or add a simple gui?

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

My feeling is that if you do want to run Linux, dual-boot with Windows because eventually you very well might come across some software you need and/or want to run and will need Windows to do so.

In fact, I do.

But it has been over a year since I booted it.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

In fact, I do.

But it has been over a year since I booted it.

Wouldn't a VM do instead of dual booting? Don't mean Wine, but a real VM running a full version of W10. Does W10 even run in a VM?