I've been wanting a 27" iMac for a couple of years, and even the missus is onboard. Then when the 5k came out, I wanted it even more. Unfortunately, my current workstation is running too well for me to justify the expense.

It's not outside of the realm of possibilities, but I think that's pretty unlikely. More likely are tactics like "upgrade now for free, because next month we are going to charge you" (they've already been saying "free is a limited time offer" for a while). Another certainty is that eventually they'll stop supporting Win 7, so no more patches, fixes, etc.... They do that from time to time anyway, and I wouldn't expect that to be too soon, because there are too many corporate entities that I don't think they want to piss off by doing that.

I would suspect those are the 2 most drastic and likely scenarios.

I upgraded my system at home to Win 10 and no problems except for all the insane bloat-ware Microsoft installs. Win 10 was designed for some Millennial with a laptop and a mobile phone that plays a lot of games is all I can guess. After killing off the Xbox, and Skype and the other near endless list of stupid "apps" the system works fine.

We upgraded one system here at work that was a new computer and we were starting from scratch on a system I built. Again after removing the useless crap, it has been great.

We have three computers that run Win 7 pro. They have software that flat will not work under other operating systems. Heck we have several computers still running Win XP pro for the same reason. We have two computers running Win 2000. Guess why, they are not used a lot, they have old legacy programs we don't want to go back to, BUT several times per year we pull up an old project extract some data from data formats that are not supported by modern software and convert that part of a project to an interchange format and bring that one valuable part of the data into the 21st century. It is time consuming and we charge the client for that and make money off of it without having to re-invent the wheel.

Uninstalling some of the programs that are not simple to uninstall

How to Uninstall Windows 10’s Built-in Apps (and How to Reinstall Them)

Skype is not a stupid app.

Has all but replaced my multi line phone system.

I do easily 80% of my client calls, conferencing, and quick interaction via Skype.

However since being bought by MSFT it is sadly turning into a turd.

The concept is still valid, it's MSFT's "enhancements" that are the issue.

"It's easier to beg forgiveness than obtain permission". Words to live by. ;)

Just go get it - you'll be happy. Even if sleeping on the couch.

It is a fine program for people that have a laptop with a built in camera and microphone and speakers and a NEED to communicate with others remotely.

It is a 100% waste of electrons on a dedicated workstation with no camera, no microphone and a speaker that only indicates error beep tones. We try hard to not put programs that are not NEEDED to make the maps. It is a workstation with a dual 12 core CPUs, 128 gig of RAM and dual striped SSD drives and two very expensive video cards all designed to churn through a lot of data. There will never be a camera, games, or a need for an address book of contacts or social media of any sort.

I can get Office 365 for free, just would rather not have to deal with re-licensing every year; hate the concept as a matter of principle. My employer is switching to Win10 in the very near future, so I've been debating whether or not to upgrade my laptop so I can start playing with it before I have to work with it...My wife's computer has 10, and it doesn't seem all that bad. Win 8 was an absolute POS, on the other hand.

Agreed, but just because it'll never be used for a specific hardware application just makes it unnecessary, not stupid.

Extended support ends in Jan 2020, which means no more updates of any kind. Much like with XP. That means no more security updates, no more support for new hardware, etc. Expect more and more security flaws to be found and not fixed.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/search/default.aspx?alpha=windows%207

2020 is when they would like to stop supporting it. But if they still have a ton of users using it, support will likely be extended.

But your right, ultimately, support will end some day. Maybe Linux will be more user friendly by then.

You can remove it and most of the other unused programs

Yea, we removed the bloatware. I just wish there were some setup options or a smarter installation routine. It has to look at the hardware resources. With no camera or microphone and the computer that only Andre the Giant would call a laptop why put Skype or X-Box or games on it in the first place?

Oh well the day Microsoft really cares about the end user is the day the world has ended.

Why, because of what we've practiced and preached for years, you can't make a living off the hardcore user.

Software and especially operating systems are built for the masses.

While I agree with you on the benefit to people like us that a smarter installation routine might bring the reality is we don't represent a large enough user base to expend the effort on functionality that could result in more problems than it solves.

There is no financial upside, plain and simple.

Obviously the lack of a smarter installation routine has not motivated you to seek out an alternate OS right.

And FWIW, 90% of my Skype use is through the instant messaging portion, typing on a keyboard, and quick file transfers.

The camera and mic only extend Skypes functionality, they are not required for the app to provide it's primary function which is to facilitate communication and productivity.

My main workstation runs skype 24/7, no mic or camera on that box.

It would probably think that is a gaming computer and you would end up with even more crap on it for the X-Box streaming and such.

I have often wondered how a game would play on that beast. I suspect if we put a good set of speakers on it and some sort of game controller it would be a killer game computer. We will never find out. I have not played a computer game since I moved from a Commodore 64 to my first DOS system back in the early 1980s. We had some relatives visit at home recently and they brought their two boys who were bored. They asked me where my game station was and they were astonished we did not have one at all.

Meh, I haven't had a console since I left home. I have had and played a few PC games over the years, but none in probably the past 10 years at least, maybe more.

Probably the only thing that I would like to play, but don't want to deal with the hassle of the wheel and pedals would be NFS - Porsche Unleashed and GPL. I would play them so rarely though, it doesn't make sense to bother. I could probably muddle by on NFS - PU with a keyboard.

the stats sound like it would make quite a gaming computer and the camera and microphone could be USB and not plugged in. Can you imagine if they didn't install it, how much the other 95% of the population would complain that it wasn't automatically installed?

There should be an advanced option where you can go in and individually choose all of your options like there were in Windows installs in the past. Maybe there is with this new one, I don't know because I haven't ever installed it.