after trying out preview, it feels more like an upgrade for 8.1 users.
i don't see how making a half baked start menu could attract those stuck at 7.

"There are about 600 million PCs that are four years or older, and those systems are ripe for upgrades, said Renee James, president at Intel, at the Credit Suisse Technology Conference on Tuesday."

It's understandable that manufacturers are hoping Win 10 becomes a gold mine. But things are not like the old days.

For myself, when I was an avid gamer I upgraded often. If there were a new GPU interface I wanted in my system that meant a new motherboard, cpu, etc. The only game I play now is a three year old Dirt 3, and this five-year old i7 920 does just fine for that and everything else I need to do.

CPU speed was once a big thing especially when they were increasing in large increments down a pretty fast manufacturing pipeline. Today I don't see people in my neck of the woods upgrading to a new system very often; in times past it could be a worthwhile upgrade to go from a 600 MHz Pentium III to a 1.7 GHz Pentium IV a couple of years later. Now, a five year-old system can perform very well, especially with multiple cores, some of which are still not used for many programs and games. If it ain't broke why fix it?

That doesn't mean I won't consider upgrading to Win 10. But then this i7 920 will still run it just fine so unfortunately for the manufacturers I don't need to upgrade the hardware.

A Guy said:

Microsoft's Windows 10 is still in testing, but hardware makers can't wait for the day the OS replaces the controversial Windows 8.

Millions of PCs are aging, and those who have resisted Windows 8 will likely upgrade to computers with Windows 10. The initial reception to a test version of Windows 10 has been positive, as it resolves many usability issues affecting Windows 8.

There are about 600 million PCs that are four years or older, and those systems are ripe for upgrades, said Renee James, president at Intel, at the Credit Suisse Technology Conference on Tuesday.

Source

A Guy

My new laptop arrived earlier this week.

After familiarising myself with Win 8.1, I decided to skip that OS and ordered new machine with Win 7 Pro installed instead of win 8.1 Pro.

Now waiting for Win 10 to see what it has to offer over Win 7. If Microsoft have sorted system image backup and restored the Aero interface, then I might give Win 10 a go.

I think that W10 will be better than 8/8.1 and will upgrade from them if the opportunity arises. However, I will keep W7 for the foreseeable future.