Windows 10

Microsoft Windows 10 is the latest edition of Microsoft Windows. The tech giant released '10' to the public August of 2015. It is the first release after the failed rollout of Windows 8, which was the first time Microsoft has offered a limited-offer free upgrade.

Most people that had a valid copy of Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 were eligible for a free upgrade for one-year following the release date, July 2016. Surface models such as RT are not eligible for the 10 upgrade. Enterprise editions of Windows 7 and 8 upgrades to Windows 10 were also not free.

Security and Privacy Concerns

The big three tech titans, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft essentially own all of many individuals' data. Microsoft takes it to the next level with sophisticated invasive feedback and advertising.

Windows 10 may have been a free upgrade for most current Windows users, but there are major security and privacy issues in the operating system itself. The End User License Agreement (EULA) states that Microsoft has access to not only the metadata of your files, but their full content, how often the user accesses them, for how long the user views them, and when, just for starters. There are techniques to disable obvious built-in spyware on part of Microsoft within the operating system, but as Windows is a closed-source operating system, no user no matter their skill at computing can be sure of their privacy protection. For those concerned about this, migrating to GNU/Linux is a viable and sensible option to protect one's rights to privacy and security on their personal and work computers.

"Final Release"

Microsoft has announced that Windows 10 will be its final release of the Windows operating system. This does not mean that Windows will no longer exist, but simply that from now on, they intend to release updates and patches to Windows 10 only. They intend to avoid any further systems that must be installed onto a blank partition.