Just a quick question regarding win10. I am currently dual booting win 8.1 and slack 14.1 on a Thinkpad carbon 3

Any issues with allowing the upgrade as far as booting/bios etc?

On a different note... for those of us forced to use windows for something... are you planning to 'upgrade'? (I am always scared to upgrade windows b/c you never know what you will get)

I know this is a bit off topic but there are few places left on the internet where I trust opinions. If this is too far off just delete it.

thx

You may have to reinstall your bootloader. I can pretty much guarantee that will be the case.

As long as LILO or GRUB can handle booting 8, I can see no issue with 10. You'll likely have to re-install the bootloader. This usually is as simple as booting a rescue, live or possibly even install cd/usb, chroot into your existing install, and run the necessary commands.

Well, I am not forced to use Windows but I do have Windows 7 installed that I don't plan to upgrade.

A bit of advice however if you consider upgrading: wait and see.

Some googling brings a few not yet answered questions, like: upgrading is free under some conditions, but what if I change the hard disk on which Windows 10 has been installed; will I have to pay to get back Windows 10 because that becomes a "new" installation?

Most bootloaders that can detect Windows Vista or later BCD, will label it as Windows Vista Recovery or the such, but yes, 10 should work.

True, and this can become a problem, because as of yet it is unclear, what happens to your license for 7 or 8.1. Should they be invalidated, you could not even install 7 or 8.1 on another machine and do the upgrade to 10 there, again. You might be stuck to one hard disk or one system with 10, and may be forced to buy a new license in order to use it anywhere else.

However, I doubt that this is the direction Microsoft is heading to. I think, their business model is currently being transformed from classic license business to cloud offerings. Even private persons will be urged to use Office 360 etc., and a growing number of apps and a growing part of essential functionality of Windows 10 will make only sense or will only be available to subscribers. In order to drag people over to this new model it is in Microsoft's interest to keep hurdles for Windows 10 low and to avoid anything that could prevent potential subscribers to join the boat.

gargamel

Here you've got me wondering. My generic tablet gave me notification today to "reserve" my copy of Windows 10. Upon reading the fine print, it says I will not even be able to recover Windows in case of failure after the upgrade. I don't see why that should be the case if the recovery partition still exists, but nonetheless now I wonder if it has to do with the license.

As you state however, this would not be in Microsoft's best interest. Hopefully they sort this out in the next week.

BTW also in the fine print is that you have to download Windows 10 via the Windows 10 upgrade app, and it's a 3-4 gig download.

At the moment I have one Windows 7 box, four Slackware stations, and an OpenBSD box. My Win 7 box is working well. I have no plans to upgrade to 8.x or to 10. If it ain't broke, why fix it?

Thanks for the input. I think I will hold off for as long as I can...

I am still using Windows 2000. It is a decent OS that stays out of your way while you are using it. Windows XP is too user friendly. It is like the overly friendly guy who pats you on the shoulder and breathes down your neck while you are trying to work. I don't have a computer that is capable of running anything newer. Windows Vista never sounded like it was worth buying new hardware for, and the primary virtue of Windows 7 is that it isn't as bad as Vista. A lot of people hated Windows 8. Linux has been getting progressively better while Windows has been getting worse. Right now I have been having a lot of fun with Slacko 5.7 which is a cute little OS that doesn't require a lot of overhead. The computer I am using to post this message has a 900 Mhz. Athlon K7 "classic" CPU, and it is running Slackware 13.37 retrofitted with KDE 3.5. It works fine.