And I thought we had freedom of choice!! Yeah, free to choose whatever Micro$oft will allow us to have. Gggggrrrrrrrrrrr

OEM copies of 7-8 pro are still going to be available while supplies last,
Scoop up an oem home premium now while they still last

From a end user view I would say I'm an average user and I don't see any difference on the surface (no pun intended) from the 2d 8... and 10 so far
Borders are still gone
Start menu has Bing as a default search Everywhere foolishness
Kindergarten colors without glass
It's still 8 for the most part and nothing special in my eyes

Would I upgrade from 8... probably I have an unused copy now,
Would I "upgrade" from 7 narrrr
I've got a oem for a near future build and that will take me for a while if I'll need to use third party browsers.... and turn off ie and uninstall mse well I can live without either I'm sure of that
Cheers.

I have an unused OEM and retail Windows 7 (SP1). I know that general support is supposed to end January 2015 but with security updates supported until much later (2020). A question is if you install a new license W7 in say mid 2015 would you get all the update downloads? If not then I guess you'd need some SP1+ update ISO that just needs the activation key.

BYW I could still buy Windows 7 Home Premium OEM from a reputable supplier.

Generally ALL existing downloads will still be available through Windows Update until at least the full end-of-life - and for a long time after (I haven't checked lately, but last time I tried, WU still worked for Win ME!). Mostly the only updates that get pulled are ones which are known to cause problems in terms of security or copyright.

Not to be concerned. Windows computers with Windows 7 HP and Professional will still be avaiable for years to come. The extended product support life cycle is January 2020.

I believe as many others do, that Windows 7 will follow the same path Windows XP did. Corporations will demand that Microsoft continue to support Windows 7 beyond the "end of support period". W8 and W10 are a flop for productive PC users both in the Consumer and Corporate world.

Granted, W10 Preview is better than W8 but again, M$ is putting way too many UI changes into it to keep the system "user friendly". I have used W10 for a month, learned it, tweaked it and that's the latest consumer build. It's still bogus with tiles. Get rid of the tiles, put back the links on the Start Menu to the Control Panel etc. and keep the new Right Click on the Start Menu filled with choices (that's new in W10 and useful).

SuperTweaker said:

Granted, W10 Preview is better than W8 but again, M$ is putting way too many UI changes into it to keep the system "user friendly".

The problem with W10 is MS is following the pattern they established with the W8 series (DP, CP ,RP).
Each release has been worse than the previous one(i.e. W8 DP was the best W8 release).

W10 TP has been going "two steps backward, one step forward".

W10 TP b9841 was basically perfect on my machine.
W10 TP b9860 and b9879 are both worse than b9841.

MS are still obsessed with cramming incompatible-device operating systems and GUIs into the one product.

IMO, the first W10 TP was so good, if MS had stripped out the useless phone/tablet stuff, they could have started selling it to desktop users.
As an added bonus it probably would have run much faster (without the Metro stuff "gunking it up").

After b9841, I was giving serious consideration to installing W10 Final.
After the last two "upgrades" my enthusiasm has waned.

lehnerus2000 said:

MS are still obsessed with cramming incompatible-device operating systems and GUIs into the one product.

I concur. They (R&D) need to stop trying to improve the mouse trap!