Windows 8

I had that, did research and some people associate it with some malware that got removed but not fully- others it is some broken update- neither did I manage to get resolved before I scrapped and rebuilt that computer and moved to new hardware lol.

What's the realistic ETA on Win 9? I really have paid no attention to MS OS dev cycles in forever. Just trying to decide if I should invest in a tablet device now or just wait for Win 9. I have no great love of Win 8 despite the fact that it works pretty well on a tablet and I'm not truly enamored with anything (Dell Venue Pro 11 is probably the closest to my 'ideal') out right now anyway but both my personal laptop and my netbook are ancient now.

Win 9 official announcement will be Sep 30th with a Tech Preview. There's been rumors of the actual release in April 2015.

You could just buy now if you want to and upgrade the OS later.

It will be interesting to see what Microsoft does with Windows 9 and PCs/laptops compared to Tablets. Tablet/Phone customers are used to getting free upgrades to new versions of their OS, but people will throw a fit if Surface tablet users get a free upgrade from 8 to 9 while PC and Laptop users have to pay for it as usual.

I know rumors are floating around that it will be a free upgrade for all, but I'll believe it when I see it, that has not historically been Microsofts M.O.

Palum_sl said:

What's the realistic ETA on Win 9? I really have paid no attention to MS OS dev cycles in forever. Just trying to decide if I should invest in a tablet device now or just wait for Win 9. I have no great love of Win 8 despite the fact that it works pretty well on a tablet and I'm not truly enamored with anything (Dell Venue Pro 11 is probably the closest to my 'ideal') out right now anyway but both my personal laptop and my netbook are ancient now.

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If you have the money the surfaces are really the best, their win8.1 is actually optimized for the surface specifically and it runs really really nice

joeboo_sl said:

It will be interesting to see what Microsoft does with Windows 9 and PCs/laptops compared to Tablets. Tablet/Phone customers are used to getting free upgrades to new versions of their OS, but people will throw a fit if Surface tablet users get a free upgrade from 8 to 9 while PC and Laptop users have to pay for it as usual.

I know rumors are floating around that it will be a free upgrade for all, but I'll believe it when I see it, that has not historically been Microsofts M.O.

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I thought it was freebutyou had to subscribe for specific features like O365 type of a deal? I guess MS is really trying to bring the SA model to consumers...

My interest in Win9 hinges heavily on whether or not that rumor about it being subscription based turn out to be true.

Skanda_sl said:

My interest in Win9 hinges heavily on whether or not that rumor about it being subscription based turn out to be true.

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I dunno, I went through this at work needing Office Pro Plus licenses where the best option was O365 subs. My first reaction was anger at not being able to purchase OV licenses at a reasonable price, ostensibly because they wanted to force you to subscribe. Then I considered the price, even 365 E4 is roughly the same as buying one Pro Plus license every 2-3 years, which has been about their release cycle.

I guess in the end, I was happy with Office 2013 overall so I rationalized myself out of blind hatred of the new model and actually figured it was a great way to get around the annual software assurance discussion internally.

Thinking on that now with Windows and looking at the bigger picture, I'm not sure I could remain so ambivalent about the 'forced' sub model after the piece of shit desktop OS that was Win8. Maybe if it had released with Win7 we would all have been amiable enough to drink the Kool-Aid. I just don't see that being a big hit with Win9 being a villain no matter what. To those who hated Win8, Win9 will undoubtedly face huge scrutiny and skepticism. To those who liked Win8, the necessary 'regression' (in their mind, but more accurately 'hey where tha shiny tiles gooo???') will also seem like an offensive change.

I'm just not sure how a sub model for Win9 is going to be received when it's impossible to count how many middle fingers Win8 has earned after replacing Win7. First taste is free... well when Win8 is the 'next gen' first taste and it ended up tasting like Sulfur Dioxide, I don't see how they can rely on 'repeat customers'. Granted, there's no other real options. That doesn't mean it won't be yet another massive failure if most enterprise and consumer customers still want to downgrade to 7 for a second time. I don't think they will be able to pull a moonlight on Win7 like they did WinXP if they have two commercial failures in a row, even if Win9 is a technical success.

Skanda_sl said:

My interest in Win9 hinges heavily on whether or not that rumor about it being subscription based turn out to be true.

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There's been a rumor circling Windows 9 that it may be free though it will come with ads.

Mist_sl said:

I hope they don't actually force people to log in with Microsoft accounts for Windows 9.

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Yea, pretty much this. I hate that bullshit.

Araxen_sl said:

There's been a rumor circling Windows 9 that it may be free though it will come with ads.

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I'd go full time Linux before I let them start directly piping ads to my desktop.

I dunno, I said the same thing about the Kindle subsidy thing but it doesn't bother me in practice because it's done well. Of course that's for an obvious price reduction for a piece of hardware. Not sure I hold out hope MS will do it in a subtle way or actually 'save' you money instead of trying to confuse you with wizardry about some sweet new content service for 'free' that also delivers a shit ton of paid content.

Araxen_sl said:

There's been a rumor circling Windows 9 that it may be free though it will come with aids.

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This is how I misread this.