Today I had the honor of sharing new information about Windows 10, the new generation of Windows.
Our team shared more Windows 10 experiences and how Windows 10 will inspire new scenarios across the broadest range of devices, from big screens to small screens to no screens at all. You can catch the video on-demand presentation here.
Windows 10 is the first step to an era of more personal computing. This vision framed our work on Windows 10, where we are moving Windows from its heritage of enabling a single device – the PC – to a world that is more mobile, natural and grounded in trust. We believe your experiences should be mobile – not just your devices. Technology should be out of the way and your apps, services and content should move with you across devices, seamlessly and easily. In our connected and transparent world, we know that people care deeply about privacy – and so do we. That’s why everything we do puts you in control – because you are our customer, not our product. We also believe that interacting with technology should be as natural as interacting with people – using voice, pen, gestures and even gaze for the right interaction, in the right way, at the right time. These concepts led our development and you saw them come to life today.
[h=3]Delivering Windows as a Service and a Free Upgrade to Windows 10[/h]Today was a monumental day for us on the Windows team because we shared our desire to redefine the relationship we have with you – our customers. We announced that a free upgrade for Windows 10 will be made available to customers running Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 who upgrade in the first year after launch.*
This is more than a one-time upgrade: once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device – at no cost. With Windows 10, the experience will evolve and get even better over time. We’ll deliver new features when they’re ready, not waiting for the next major release. We think of Windows as a Service – in fact, one could reasonably think of Windows in the next couple of years as one of the largest Internet services on the planet.
And just like any Internet service, the idea of asking “What version are you on?” will cease to make sense – which is great news for our Windows developers. With universal Windows apps that work across the entire device family, developers can build one app that targets the broadest range of devices – including the PC, tablet, phone, Xbox, the Internet of Things, and more.
For our enterprise customers, we’ll continue to support the way many of them work today, with long-term servicing for their mission critical environments. With Windows 10, a best practice we recommend for many enterprise devices is to connect to Windows Update and be kept up-to-date with the latest security and productivity improvements as soon as they are available. You can learn more about our commitment to enterprises here, with much more to come in the following months.
Everything about Windows 10 – the experiences, delivering it as a service and the free upgrade – means ongoing value to all our customers. The new generation of Windows is a commitment—a commitment to liberate people from technology and enable them to do great things.
10, 11, 12.......... ?
Lousy, rainy, cold morning, second coffee, third piece of apple pie (fighting with 2 cats for it) good tennis an very live desktop PC.
Thanks guys. It's Sunday morning here in Germany, I'm drinking my pot of coffee, listening to Sleepy John Estes, checking out the threads from last night, and just got a good laugh.
LTS
LTS is an abbreviation for “Long Term Support”.
We produce a new Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Server release every six months [diagram below]. That means you'll always have the latest and greatest applications that the open source world has to offer. Ubuntu is designed with security in mind. You get free security updates for at least 9 months on the desktop and server.
A new LTS version is released every 2 years. In previous releases, a Long Term Support (LTS) version had 3 years support on Ubuntu (Desktop) and 5 years on Ubuntu Server. Starting with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, both versions will receive 5 years support. There is no extra fee for the LTS version; we make our very best work available to everyone on the same free terms. Upgrades to new versions of Ubuntu are and always will be free of charge.
The LTS designation applies only to specific subsets of the Ubuntu archive. The LTS may not apply to all flavors and remixes of Ubuntu. For example, for 8.04 LTS, Kubuntu chose to move to KDE 4.0 and didn't issue an LTS release. In 10.04, the Netbook Edition was not an LTS. The project will decide which flavors will be LTS and the support duration for each, early in the LTS development cycle.
Some of the latest support windows are illustrated below:
[h=2]Release Plan Details[/h]
- We start stabilizing the release early by significantly limiting the number of new features. We will choose which features we package into the LTS release, versus which ones we leave out and allow for users to optionally download and use from a separate archive.
- Avoid structural changes as far as possible, such as changing the default set of applications, lots of library transitions, or system layer changes (example: introducing KMS or hal → DeviceKit would not have been appropriate changes in a LTS).
Furthermore, we define the LTS to be:
- Enterprise Focused: We are targeting server and multiple desktop installations, where the average user is moderately risk averse.
- Compatible with New Hardware: We will make point releases throughout the development cycle to provide functional support for new server and desktop hardware.
- More Tested: We will shorten the development window and extend the Beta cycle to allow for more testing and bug fixing
and clearly state that it is not:
A Feature-Based Release: We will focus on hardening functionality of existing features, versus introducing new ones[SUP]1[/SUP], except for in the areas of Online Services and Desktop Experience[SUP]2[/SUP].
- 1. Exceptions for priority projects will be documented.
2. Because these two areas of development are relatively new, they still require new features to satisfy the original reasons for their creation
Cutting Edge: Starting with the 14.04 LTS development cycle, automatic full package import is performed from Debian unstable[SUP]1[/SUP]
- 1. This is due to deploying ProposedMigration in the Ubuntu archive.
Looks like it's good for the life of your device you upgrade from W7 or W8.1 during first year of W10.
I think this is debatable, there has been no official word that I know of, on how MS would handle re-installs should your OS becomes unstable. It is not known if you can use your same 7,8,8.1 keys to unlock after the 1st year. Nor is it known if they will provide a install disc..