+1 I’d take a ThinkPad over just about anything else out there.
Ubuntu is one of the most “bloated” versions you can get, by the way. It amazes me that Microsoft is able to fill up so much space on a hard drive. What are they putting in there?
I've been using OSX since 2002 along with Windows. I love both for different reasons. So I installed Windows 10 with my legal RETAIL activation code from Windows 7 on a brand new HD, it told me my code was no good. That did it for me!. This is after the upgrade failed 5 times on my original Windows 7 install. I'm so fed up right now I want to explode like a bad 18650!!!
I don’t know about retail licenses, where you have to type in the actual product key to activate, but many OEMs use BIOS activation where the unique product key isn’t ever used when restoring from factory images. I also haven’t read anything that mentioned MS will deactivate the key on the OS being upgraded from and they never have in the past, though that’s not to say they can’t change their minds.
KuoH
Irritating! Sounds like they only allow free upgrading, not fresh installs.
I want from 8.1 to 10 about 5 minutes ago, having tried it before for a few days with the windows insider program. Feels good and familiar, I don’t get the hate here in this forum. No, we should not be using old, unsafe and antequated software just because “it was better back then”. When Linux will support my whole 200 game Steam library sure, I’ll give it a chance. Until then Windows is the OS.
Sb, they allow for fresh install after you upgrade to 10.
That’s part of the reason the 7 to 8 transition was so difficult. There was such a drastic change in the interface design philosophy that made the learning curve rather steep for many, not to mention their decision to force Metro on everyone by default. Sure, you could install a third party app to bring back “most” of the familiarity of the Win 7 desktop, but MS should’ve included that by default to ease the transition. Now with Win 10, they’re seeing the error of that decision and making the desktop and start menu more Win 7 like. About the only thing I completely despise is the forced patching, given their past history of intermittently breaking working machines. Even some of the Win 10 TP patches rendered some machines unusable.
KuoH
I love 8.1 (i don’t use metro, lol) … I had thought about going to 10…. I’ll wait, thanks 
You forgot Windows 95b, Windows 95c and NT4.
Other than ignoring Windows 2000 (AKA NT5), why no love for Windows 2000. It took me a while to upgrade from 2000 to XP because I felt that it wasn’t broken.
I went from XP to 8.1 and like it a lot, I think the overwhelming opinion is that 10 is great, but I will wait a few month until I download it, to avoid the first month kinks.
We have a year, so there is no rush, so we might as well see if others have any glitches that need to be dealt with before we download it.
Win 10 looks minimal, just like a tablet and I don’t care for the look. I shouldn’t have to be forced into the new browser look if I don’t want to. Even with that, I might live with it, but I will not live with Microsoft recording every word I type into a browser, or right off the search window now, in the taskbar, so that they can sell that info to retailers, so that the advertisements are tailored to my search entries. If you or others don’t mind that, then that is fine and is absolutely your right, but I, for one, believe that it should be illegal and I also believe it is immoral. That is my right to believe that way. So, if you like the new Windows 10, then good on you. I am glad you like it and I hope you do good with it. I just do not believe that all the hidden information “sharing” is, or should be legal that’s all. I don’t believe in “social media” either, but there is just about no choice any more. I hate it with a passion and regret it every time I have to use it, but that doesn’t mean that everyone else shouldn’t use it, if they want to, or that it isn’t right, just not right in my eyes and that’s all.
I'm back on Win 8.1 now.
I don’t use the new browser or Cortana either, not because I don’t like them just that I’m too invested in the Google ecosystem with my bookmarks and all so I installed Chrome the second I upgraded to 10. As for your fears of Microsoft recording your words or whatever, Google, Facebook and others have been doing it for years, it’s status quo among the big companies. I think the only way you can avoid that is to unplug from the internet or use another OS as Linux. Every service these days comes with strings attached, it’s our choice in the end what we do.
None of that matters, after all we upgrade because of under the hood improvements, not because of some cute icon or resizable window.
I had the Windows 10 technical preview installed on my machine at work and my surface up until about a month ago. It worked ok…but nowhere near as good as Windows 8.1. I got tired of all of the freezing up and the problems with IE. I work in the IT department for a college and we have 8.1 on all faculty/staff machines and Multipoint server 2012 in mostly all of our computer labs. Everyone was crying about us installing Windows 8 on their machines when it first came out because of all of the negative press about the missing start button. After we put 8 on everyone’s machine, no one was able to tell the difference between it and Windows 7 because we used the classic she’ll start button and locked out the corners and Metro. It was comical.
Be sure to turn off the Wi-Fi Sense “feature”, enabled by default.
Forbes.com - Why Windows 10 Shares Your Wi-Fi Password And How To Stop It
I’m another full time linux user.
Thanks for posting this, how quickly they have forgotten recent events
Thats nuts, just goes to reinforce the reality that we do not own the software we buy
I'm curious about the resource usage compared to Win 7. Was hoping to upgrade a laptop that's unbearably slow (due to the underpowered CPU) to Win 10, as I hear it's more optimized than 7. I doubt it performs better than Debian with Xfce, though. Said laptop struggles with practically everything on Win 7 but is pretty snappy on Linux. I'll have to see for myself sometime.
I’ve been around since Dos days, working through nearly every version. I too loved Windows 2000. It was a very robust OS that didn’t require a reset when an App misbehaved. I used to get so frustrated on Windows ME for this reason. I’ve used PCs since the 80’s, with my first PC being an IBM compatible with 8088-2 running DOS2.1 on 360k floppy disks.
The only Windows OSs I’m yet to try out are Windows 8 and 10. I qualify for a free Win 10 upgrade on 3 of the PCs at home but will hold off until I see more of other people experience with the new OS. All of the qualifying PCs run Win 7 which I’m very happy with.
I’m hoping Win10 is no more resource hungry than Win 7, but I’ll find out soon via more reading of peoples experiences and various reviews.
Your experience betrays you? 
My approach at the moment is to “sit back and watch others”. Rather than take the plunge now and upgrade one of my PCs and go through some pain, I’ll hold off for a little while to see what people find of the new OS. I also am short of time at present so I can’t afford to mess up a PC as someone in the home will be unhappy. There may also be some early bugs which are found that I’d rather avoid. Years ago I jumped to load the pre-Release versions of Win 7 on my PC and it worked out well. As soon as the retail version appeared I purchased a copy and have been happy ever since. Also one of my PCs is a Netbook running Win7 starter. This is the one device that cannot afford an OS that is a memory hog nor more CPU overhead.
Notice how Microsoft sort of “skipped” past Windows 9? because 9 would have been a “good” OS. Microsoft has always been a Hit/Miss with Winblows consumer OS systems. As mentioned earlier:
Windows 3.1 - good
Windows 95a - BAD
Windows 95b - good
Windows 98 - BAD
Windows 98SE-Good
Windows ME -BAD! (last of the WIN 9x platform)
Windows XP - good
Windows Vista-BAD
Windows 7 -good
Windows 8 -BAD
Windows 9 ???
Windows 10 - BAD
Win NT4, 2000(NT5) , etc, were more oriented for Server & workstation use.