W8.1 free maybe?

Surprised this hasn't been discussed, at least on the first page here. Whad ya think?

 

you get what you pay for.

it' s bundled with Bing so M$ will make some money off the advertising.
and it' s supposedly only for Win 7 users.

nothing earth shattering here.

 

More here.

 

No.....thanks MS,,i'll stay with Windows 7

 

I think that if MS was willing to respond to the objections people have about Windows 8 it wouldn't be necessary for them to try to give it away.

 

Does this freebie mean you'll have to run IE exclusively? And maybe you can't run any programs that don't come from the Windows store?

 

Too right!

 

i would have targeted XP users for a special promotion instead of Win 7 users if i were M$.

since XP will reach end of life next month.

 

This is a great idea. Also, the BING aspects can be easily disabled, like everything else.

Windows 8.1 is a fabulous operating system, and has resulted improvements in all aspects of our computers. I even installed 8.1 on my wifes older Laptop, which makes it feel like it got a hardware upgrade - even faster than when I had Ubuntu on it.

I always disable extra features though, and install Classic-Shell. That way I get the advantages of 8.1 speed, lightness, security, without the extra junk. I even disable One-Drive through registry tweaks, and make it all 'go away', leaving a core OS that's very fast!

12-17 second boots, 1 second shutdowns, less game stuttering is all win.

 

I would think that a large majority of XP users are running it on old hardware that wouldn't run Win8 effectively (if at all).

 

They've found that not even pirates want that and now they're trying the free thing. And I'm serious. If you go to kickasstorrents and search for windows, an XP version has more seeds than W8.

 

right you are.

i did not think about that.

 

It runs fast on an 8 year old laptop I own.

 

Nobody is buying it. Might as well give it away.

Win8 is a terrible OS. Its a cobbled up OS because M$ is to lazy to put together a decent OS for PC's, cell phones, and tablets. Its their way of making 1 OS for all and its terrible.

On side note I read an article the other day about Win8 being the most insecure OS ever created due to flash being automatically built into it.

 

i just use Chrome.

i do use IE to check my Hotmail and pay bills and online transactions.

as for insecure, i have been using Win 8 since the beginning.
never had a problem with security.

and i don't use anti-virus programs and the like.

 

Just because you dont have issues doesnt mean the majority of users dont when their is statistical evidence to prove it does happen.

 

Could you please post a link to statistical evidence that Windows 8 is the most insecure OS because of flash integration? I couldn't find it. Thanks.

hqsec

 

Maybe this , though it says most vulnerable so this might not be the right article: http://www.neowin.net/news/windows-8-is-the-most-vulnerable-windows-os-you-can-thank-flash-for-that

 

As long as it doesn't have the major restrictions that were in Windows 7 Starter Edition, I would definitely consider it.

 

OK thanks for link. We know that flash is insecure. But is Windows 8 any less secure than let's say Windows 7 with flash installed separately?

hqsec

 

Well if they say free then I would upgrade my netbook from Windows 7. Just to get the boost in speed.
Otherwise Im not paying for it at least no more than $30.

 

That is basically the article I read. Not sure who original published it though. Got it from Pulse news app.

 

Looks like it was from Secunia's Vulnerability Review 2014:

http://secunia.com/?action=fetch&filename=secunia_vulnerability_review_2014.pdf

 

A few issues. This article seems to be mostly heresay. In addition it doesn't cover 8.1, and additional security features in 8.1... Also, I don't consider Neowin a viable source of news. Stardock 'quietly' purchased Neowin in 2005 (never revealing that purchase until 2012), and that purchase was done to largely 'control' the news coming off the site, and to boost Stardocks ability to influence MS due to the nature of their products (and not wanting those products to be rendered useless) So with all of that out there, I am not really a believer of Win8.1 being the most vulnerable OS, especially when properly configured.

But that's all my opinion.

 

Good thing the data is from Secunia, a well respected security vulnerability company especially around Wilders.