Windows 7 Licensing Scenario Question

[exTPfan]

By default Windows 8 does try to share more of your information than previous versions of Windows, but privacy settings can be easily changed manually.

This is not true --- Windows 8 makes it difficult to sign on initially without using a Microsoft account. Once you do that you are stuck with it, and your privacy is shot.

[pianowizard]

I'd also state that while there are many people who push their systems to the limits trying to achieve the best scores imaginable, there are even more users who want their systems to be dead stable

From my experience, Windows 8 is dead stable (just like Vista and 2000), whereas Windows 7 is not (just like XP and 98). Thus, 8 beats 7 from all angles as far as I am concerned.

This is not true --- Windows 8 makes it difficult to sign on initially without using a Microsoft account. Once you do that you are stuck with it, and your privacy is shot.

I did use my Hotmail account while installing, though I have read somewhere that it's quite easy to skip that step. And why am I "stuck with it"? What have I compromised permanently by entering my Hotmail address? I haven't gotten even one piece of junk email from Microsoft, and it has been over 1.5 years since I installed Win 8 on two computers (I have a third Win 8 computer, but it was preinstalled). Also, as soon as I finished installing Win 8, I changed my "PC settings" so that I would never need to sign in using my Hotmail acct again; I have been signing in locally ever since. Thus, I am not "stuck with it".

[ajkula66]

From my experience, Windows 8 is dead stable (just like Vista and 2000), whereas Windows 7 is not (just like XP and 98). Thus, 8 beats 7 from all angles as far as I am concerned.

I can't make such a comparison, since I don't support - and likely never will - any W8 systems, but all of the W7 ones that are under my care have been nothing short of spectacularly stable, apart from hardware failures.

To each their own.

[exTPfan]

I haven't gotten even one piece of junk email from Microsoft

That's not the point. When you have a Microsoft account on your computer, Microsoft can link your activity on the computer to the account on their computer. For example, by default it records all your local searches (purely on your own computer) and uses it for advertising purposes.

[pianowizard]

all of the W7 ones that are under my care have been nothing short of spectacularly stable, apart from hardware failures.

I have no doubt that you are better at maintaining your computers better than I. This makes the superiority of Win 8 all the more remarkable -- it runs perfectly even when the user isn't very good at maintaining computers.

When you have a Microsoft account on your computer, Microsoft can link your activity on the computer to the account on their computer. For example, by default it records all your local searches (purely on your own computer) and uses it for advertising purposes.

You mean, this still happens when I no longer log in through a Microsoft account? Like I said, I have deleted my MS acct from my Win 8 computers, but have instead been logging in as a local user, just like for all previous versions of Windows. If Microsoft is still collecting info from me, "PC Settings" seems to have an option to block that, under the "Manage my Microsoft advertising and other personalization info" option.

[Rockrz]

By default Windows 8 does try to share more of your information than previous versions of Windows, but privacy settings can be easily changed manually

Uh huh, and those settings in Win 8 can and will be changed during future Windows updates back to the default settings so be sure and continually go back and double check your settings. I noticed this on many smart phone now... you turn something off, and it doesn't stay off.

This is why I'm no fan of Win 8 or anything Bill puts out going forward. By the time Win 7 is no longer supported, there should be enough good quality programs available to run on Linux so one can do as much on that OS as can be done with Bill's stuff.

Between now and then I know I'll be tinkering with Linux to see what all is available to run on that OS... That just may be me though. In case anyone hasn't noticed, everything everywhere is tracking any and everything you do... I'd at least like to have my computer doing what I tell it to do!