What do you mean by eventually paying for it? I thought the upgrade was free.

Otherwise you'll have to pay for it if you're building a new machine.

But this is how it's always been. Having a free upgrade is an improvement over all prior versions MS has ever released to my knowledge. Otherwise you have a year to build a new PC and install an old version of Win7/8 to get Win10 for free and then do a clean install using that newly generated license/key.

Otherwise you have a year to build a new PC and install an old version of Win7/8 to get Win10 for free and then do a clean install using that newly generated license/key.

There are some caveats to this improvement in the Microsoft's upgrade policies. Big corps just can't help but make things complicated.

If you have an OEM key for Win7/8, you cannot transfer that OEM key to a new computer. You can only install the free Win10 on that computer. The Win7/8 key basically goes *poof* as the key cannot be used to validate Win7/8 on another computer.

If you have a retail key for Win7/8, you CAN transfer that retail key to a new computer and get the free Win10 update on the new computer. Like the OEM key, the retail Win7/8 key basically goes *poof* as it is somehow incorporated into your Win10 key. The old computer will need a new Win7/8/10 key, old XP key, or GNU-Linux/BSD.

How do you know which type of key you have? That's a toughie. If your computer came with Win7/8 preinstalled, it is up to the manufacturer of the computer whether you got an OEM or retail key. If you bought Win7/8 separately, then you have to check if you bought an OEM or a retail key. Newegg, for example, sells both keys.

Also, a "new computer" means a change in motherboard or CPU as Win Vista/7/8/10 keys are locked your combination of motherboard AND CPU.

But this is how it's always been. Having a free upgrade is an improvement over all prior versions MS has ever released to my knowledge. Otherwise you have a year to build a new PC and install an old version of Win7/8 to get Win10 for free and then do a clean install using that newly generated license/key.

Right, that wasn't the complaint. If they had this sort of policy with Windows 8, then I think it would probably have higher than something like a 15% market share. The complaint was that it will likely continue to do all of the data harvesting that it does by default, ON TOP of the fact that you'll eventually have to pay for it.

GMail does the same sort of stuff, but GMail is also free. I'd have more of a problem with it if GMail cost $100. I don't expect Outlook for example to read all of my emails to deliver a "better ad experience."

Windows market share per version has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the OS though. I might be misunderstanding you though.

Sure. What I meant was, I think a lot of people looked at Win 8, and saw no reason to pay for the upgrade. If MS had given it away to Vista and Win 7 users instead of charging for it from day one, they might've gotten a lot more people to try it.