June started with Microsoft announcing that Windows 10 will launch on July 29th (so by imminent I meant two months). Be that as it may, many may wonder if Windows 10 is worth the upgrade and I would say it is. I know many may be shocked to hear me say that as I have been a long time advocate for Windows 7 and a long time opponent of *the dismal* Windows 8; but I have my reasons. Windows 10 does appear to have some of the Windows 8 look-and-feel, but Microsoft was (finally) smarter about how it was implemented for those of us that don’t always use touch-enabled devices.
I would recommend you upgrade, for starters, because Windows 10 will be free (probably Microsoft’s way of saying “Sorry we made you waste your money on Windows 8”). I haven’t looked again, yet, but the last thing I heard was that Microsoft will be offering Windows 10 for free for one year if you are currently using Windows 7 and it will be free indefinitely if you are using Windows 8. A few folks have told me that might have changed, but I haven’t seen that printed anywhere yet (if you know this has changed, please leave a comment).
If you are running Windows 7, it might behoove you to upgrade because mainstream support for Windows 7 ended January 13th of this year. This basically means Microsoft will stop providing security updates and you are on your own to protect yourself from viruses and malware. Windows 7 does have extended support for another 5 years but I don’t really know what all that entails (my theory is bug fixes and minor tweaks).
I have had the Tech Preview of Windows 10 installed in a VM on a work laptop for a few months, so I’ve gotten to play around with it off-and-on. If you have been using Windows 7 then, from a usability perspective, Windows 10 won’t be a huge shift for you. It’s basically Windows 7 with some tiles in the start menu. There are some other features that may improve your experience, but all the primary functionality should still be pretty familiar (there is just more color, ostentatious design does make things feel new and shiny). Perhaps after Windows 10 officially launches I can do a write up of some of the other features you didn’t know about that you might find useful (ex: multiple desktops – of course if you have used a Mac, this is a feature that has been around for several years).
NOTE: If you do plan to upgrade to Windows 10, you can reserve your upgrade now. If your Windows 7/8.1 environments are up-to-date with all service packs and updates, you should see a Windows icon in the lower right section of your taskbar.
/cheers
(P.S. In not-so-related news, Microsoft is re-branding Windows 8.1 and will reveal the “new look” in a special Vanity Wired issue subtitled “Call Me C8L1N”)
Issue 116: Greetings Gamers! I bet you all were starting to think that I had fallen off the wagon again and forgot to post another MMO Times. Actually the delay is primarily because there wasn’t much to talk about and, again, I didn’t want to post “Little Tommy’s Fanboi Blog Site” as legitimate and interesting MMO news.
Oh freddled gruntbuggly,
First it was Vampires – post-Buffy vampires. Television networks and production studios became obsessed with vampires (thanks to 
I could get so much more accomplished if I only had minions!
Issue 115: The MMO Times is coming back. The gaming news just seemed to come to an abrupt halt where there just wasn’t anything interesting to share. I didn’t want to try to dig up menial stories that have little to no credibility just to keep providing a new post/email. I’m not interested in filling up your inboxes with junk. Of course then various real life events quickly exacerbated that hiatus; but hopefully we are back in full swing for a while. It has been about 6 weeks as the last MMO Times post was back when we lost our beloved Mr. Spock. 