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Woman wins $10k judgment against Microsoft for forced Windows 10 upgrade

extremetech.com

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Re: Woman wins $10k judgment against Microsoft for forced Windows 10 upgrade

#211

Post by mulletbum »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #166
Someone1234 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sympathetic both ways on this one. I think Microsoft went "too far" but I also agree that we don't want another "XP situation" with Windows 7. Effectively having 20%+ of the market on a super old OS holding back the industry and less secure. Microsoft claim they're planning to avoid this in the future by no longer releasing named new OS's, and instead just update Windows 10 for "free" forever. Basically the same…

The "XP situation" happened because Win7 sucked. You do not get to release an awful, backwards "update" to your software and then expect that people pay you for it on the grounds that you also can't be bothered to keep updating the old, good version. We have lost sight of the fact that software, operating systems included, is supposed to serve the consumer. Users choose to upgrade because there is a better version av…

The "XP situation" was not because Win7 sucked. Win7 has always been considered a successful and better upgrade to WinXP. I think you are thinking of Vista.

Re: Woman wins $10k judgment against Microsoft for forced Windows 10 upgrade

#212

Post by profeta »

Someone1234 wrote: post #54
themartorana wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have mixed feelings about this. I'm with you 100% on having the explicit opportunity to opt out of updates like this. That said, a large swath of Windows users are not nearly as technically literate as you and your mother are, and automatically helping people forward (if for nothing else, security fixes and ongoing support) is a Good Thing in my book (so long as it's free, and it is). There is no doubt there are co…

I'm sympathetic both ways on this one. I think Microsoft went "too far" but I also agree that we don't want another "XP situation" with Windows 7. Effectively having 20%+ of the market on a super old OS holding back the industry and less secure. Microsoft claim they're planning to avoid this in the future by no longer releasing named new OS's, and instead just update Windows 10 for "free" forever. Basically the same…

it is self serving on both ways.

There's tons of ways they can make windows 7 continue to be safe. But pushing out w10 is easier/cheaper/more profitable for them.

Re: Woman wins $10k judgment against Microsoft for forced Windows 10 upgrade

#213

Post by randiantech »

I dont see mandatory updates as a bad thing per se. I think ideally it would be a way to allow users that wants to use older versions to pay a fee to do that (Basically to cover the maintenance service due to keep patching legacy versions). I think its understandable that MS dont want to keep investing in phased out software.

Re: Woman wins $10k judgment against Microsoft for forced Windows 10 upgrade

#214

Post by Tloewald »

themartorana wrote: post #42
Guest98123 wrote: post #19

A few days ago I was visiting family, and my Mom was online Skyping relatives on her Windows 7 PC. She comes running into the other room and says her PC just restarted while she was talking, and now it says something about configuring Windows 10, even though she was always careful to opt-out of the constant requests to upgrade. So, we had to wait for it to install the OS, then decline the terms of service, then wait…

I have mixed feelings about this. I'm with you 100% on having the explicit opportunity to opt out of updates like this. That said, a large swath of Windows users are not nearly as technically literate as you and your mother are, and automatically helping people forward (if for nothing else, security fixes and ongoing support) is a Good Thing in my book (so long as it's free, and it is). There is no doubt there are co…

I'm in favor of automatic updates for users if it's competently executed, explicit, and stoppable. So it's not the principle, it's the execution.

Re: Woman wins $10k judgment against Microsoft for forced Windows 10 upgrade

#215

Post by greenshackle »

vitd wrote: post #154
turnip1979 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something very similar happened to me + my old father (not tech savy). My parents have carefully written down steps on how to accomplish various functions (seems very unnatural to me but that is the only way they get things done on PCs). I went to his place yesterday and as part of the usual tech support, he said he couldn't open his email and was confused why. Turns out, his machine had upgraded to Windows 10. What…

>He refuses MacOs because of the stupid touchpad. Huh? You can hook a mouse up to any Mac. Also, in what way are Mac touchpads different from Windows touchpads?

Scrolling direction?

Though I'm sure you can change that in the parameters somewhere.

Re: Woman wins $10k judgment against Microsoft for forced Windows 10 upgrade

#216

Post by eropple »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #157
WorldMaker wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The interesting thing here is that Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 all improved the Windows Update restart timing logic and made it more transparent. (There's a section that states "A restart is planned, Windows has determined the most likely idle time to try the restart is 3:43am" now, for instance.) In this case it's Windows 7's Restart logic that is old/bad (and long has been), not Windows 10, but Windows 10 of course is ge…

That's not an excuse. Microsoft can and has been pushing updates to 7 to enable the constant upgrade nagging. They've even been continually pushing new updates that get more and more naggy. There is nothing preventing them from including an update that makes 7's restart logic less sadistic, but they've chosen not to do that.

Can you explain to me why Microsoft should expend time and effort to encourage behavior (staying on Windows 7) that increases their costs and increases fragility in their ecosystem? I'm not sympathetic to the dark patterns they use to push people to upgrade, but I'm 100% onboard with not pushing improvements to an older operating system.

Re: Woman wins $10k judgment against Microsoft for forced Windows 10 upgrade

#217

Post by mark_l_watson »

If I called the shots at Microsoft I would handle things differently: run a series of advertisements warning people that after a certain date, no security updates would be available for old versions of Windows. I would then make it easy and free to update any computer, but I would not force automatic updates. I would explain to the public that for online security that everyone had to always be on the latest version.

This may sound harsh, but I think it would be for the most benefit for most people.

Re: Woman wins $10k judgment against Microsoft for forced Windows 10 upgrade

#218

Post by 24gttghh »

chipperyman573 wrote: post #75
vblord wrote: post #72

Ugh... I missed my opportunity. I upgraded the OS on my iPhone 3G and the thing ran soooo slow after that. It was so slow that it was almost impossible to use it. I should have sued Apple!!!

Why would you sue Apple for that? They didn't force you to upgrade and you could have researched any negative effects before you upgraded.

They stated iOS 9 would run on the 4S. It does, but quite painfully. They clearly knew this would happen as they have a very good understanding of the limitations of their own hardware.

Re: Woman wins $10k judgment against Microsoft for forced Windows 10 upgrade

#219

Post by PKop »

turnip1979 wrote: post #98
Guest98123 wrote: post #19

A few days ago I was visiting family, and my Mom was online Skyping relatives on her Windows 7 PC. She comes running into the other room and says her PC just restarted while she was talking, and now it says something about configuring Windows 10, even though she was always careful to opt-out of the constant requests to upgrade. So, we had to wait for it to install the OS, then decline the terms of service, then wait…

Something very similar happened to me + my old father (not tech savy). My parents have carefully written down steps on how to accomplish various functions (seems very unnatural to me but that is the only way they get things done on PCs). I went to his place yesterday and as part of the usual tech support, he said he couldn't open his email and was confused why. Turns out, his machine had upgraded to Windows 10. What…

ChromeOS. Easiest OS to use. It's just a browser. Does he have a real need for native applications? Can he get everything he needs accomplished inside a browser (Google Docs, email, etc)? How much of what he's doing now is in the browser anyways?

I switched my grandfather over to it this year and he loves it. No more notifications / nags for updates, adware, and such. All extraneous pain points from windows are stripped away.

Just works.

Re: Woman wins $10k judgment against Microsoft for forced Windows 10 upgrade

#220

Post by varjag »

Guest98123 wrote: post #19

A few days ago I was visiting family, and my Mom was online Skyping relatives on her Windows 7 PC. She comes running into the other room and says her PC just restarted while she was talking, and now it says something about configuring Windows 10, even though she was always careful to opt-out of the constant requests to upgrade. So, we had to wait for it to install the OS, then decline the terms of service, then wait…

Windows is just not ready for the desktop.
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