Windows 10 has been official announced and presented in a long presentation from Microsoft. The presentation detailed some of the new features and how the platform will be changing. Mark James and I share some of our thoughts about Windows 10, with a security twist.
The start menu is coming back with a few facelifts. Cortana, Microsoft’s version of Seri, will make her debut on desktop. Plus, Microsoft are unifying their platform across PC, phone and Xbox.Microsoft announced a myriad of new features that will theoretically launch with Windows 10.
I am quite excited for it, particularly after the disappointment of Windows 8, but what does Mark James think?
“Take the early plunge…”
“Windows 10 at first glance seems a very nice operating system. It looks like Microsoft may have finally produced an operating system that works both on a desktop pc with keyboard/mouse and a tablet.
“Sadly their first foray in this field (windows 8) was not great and may have done a lot of damage. Users are very unforgiving when it comes to Microsoft operating systems and far too many do not upgrade to the latest more secure systems as early as they should.”
Considering that some companies still use the now unsupported XP and a final cut-off date has now been announced for Windows 7, providing an OS which is worth the hassle of upgrading (for business and home users) is crucial.
“With the news that Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for anyone running W7, W8 or W8.1 it will hopefully encourage more to take the early plunge.”
The opinions of early adopters often shape the early life of a product and “cost is often a big factor in upgrading and in today’s industry you don’t often get anything for free!”
“Bear in mind though you only have 1 year from release to get your free upgrade, after that time it will be paid-for just like all the other upgrades before it.” Mark warns.
Unified branding
I also asked Mark what he thought about Windows 10 becoming the main OS for Xbox and windows phones, as well as desktops.
“It’s interesting to see their approach to a unified platform. Trying to get it to work on all those devices will be a challenge but users like things to be the same and will take on new hardware much easier if they recognise the interface.
“The security implications may be another matter, protecting all that data across insecure platforms will be a challenge but one I think Microsoft will embrace and understand the importance of doing just that.”
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What do you think of Windows 10 so far? Will you be upgrading as soon as possible?