coverdell wrote As of what I have heard through Microsoft a few months ago, Windows 10 will be free but only to those that purchase a machine with Windows 7 or any version of 8 pre-installed.
It is suppose to be out around fall.
I opted in for the Tech preview and I find it to be just a mash up of Windows XP-7 with Windows 8. I am not impressed with it at all. They originally said it would be more along the lines of XP with pretty much the same functionality and a few improvement in security.
Well they mashed the windows 8 start window into the taskbar which takes most of your screen just to look through. Windows XP was nice and simple easy to navigate. I didn't like Windows 8 at first but I am now used to it.
Installation of windows 10 Tech preview wipes out everything on your drive.

One a side note it is not free for only a year it is free period as long as your unit has a pre-installed version of Windows 7 or 8. I can not say that it has changed to being free for those who have installed either Windows 7 or 8, since I have not seen anything about such lately, Personally I think they are going to p!ss off more people than they did with Windows 8.
Windows 10 is designed to be a more mobile system for mobile phones and tablets than it really is for desktop users.
Think of Windows ME & VISTA they were cross over systems. Windows ME mixed a pre introduced XP with 95/98 and VISTA followed by mixing XP with 7,
In mixing systems this takes more Hard drive space ect. What was once about 4GB is now up-to approx 15GB. And 10 is a hog of everything basically. I put it on my Windows 7 unit and the speed was extremely sluggish. Pentium V//V Duo core (oneof the first put out by Intel), 2.5GB RAM, 250HDD, Windows 10 consumes a lot of resources. I don't dare try it on my 2 year-old Windows 8 unit. It wiped out all the partitions on my Windows 7 unit. As annoying as Windows 8 is to navigate I'll personally stay with it.

Yeah, it's also free for anyone who installed Win7/8 on their own system as well as pre-built machines.

Anyone who has Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 will be allowed to upgrade to Windows 10, for free, for the duration of the first year.
After the first year is up, people who have already upgraded get to keep Windows 10 but all new people wanting to upgrade will have to pay for it.