Does Naim plan to support Win 10 on release?

I understand that if Win 8 works OK for you & your system, then Win 10 will work the same.

I've got Win 8.1 & no probs, the only exception is the Naim app which would be nice to have once Win 10 becomes the standard OS across the MS mobile & PC range

I think that it is the other way round. Have Microsoft broken USB audio with Windows 10?

+1 for Windows App.

Not to detract from the OP, but is a more relevant question whether to upgrade to Windows 10? I'm running 8.1 and just got an offer from Microsoft to reserve a free upgrade to 10. I don't stream, but if I did, I'd wonder why do the upgrade to 10 if it might cause problems with my current streaming capabilities?

I tried an early release of 10 on a PC owned by an IT guy.  After my 8.1 it was just fine, very similar & totally intuitive.  I'm going for it ASAP.

Keep in mind that once 10 is released & has the required levels of customer satisfaction, then support for the old OS's will be withdrawn - hence MS giving Win 10 away for free to all Vista, 7 & 8 users & why we will get future upgrades for free as from Win 10.

Again a plea to Naim for a Windows 10 app

So, playing the cynical Devil's Advocate for a moment, what's in it for Microsoft with all the freebies?

Upgraders to Windows 10 become beta users/testers for Microsoft's latest release.

"Windows as a service" comes to mind.  Which I suppose will be like Office 365 - it doesn't reside on your computer, it resides 'in the cloud' (i.e on Microsoft's computers).

Once software moves off your computer into 'the cloud', Microsoft can start RENTING it to you (like Office 365, but it's not called renting any more, that was so sixties).

So the day will arrive when Windows10 no longer sits on your PC or laptop, you simply 'log on' to windows when your computer fires up... and in order to log on to the big Microsoft computer in the cloud, you'll be paying a £fee.  It's what we used to call 'thin client technology' in the 80's... but in those days the big server computer was in house because the UK network infrastructure (internet) wasn't anywhere as big as it is now.

So don't be fooled folks... there's no such thing as a FREE lunch !   We'll be paying for it somehow, sometime 

(Oh, that's unless Microsoft converts itself into a CHARITY)

I had a feeling it might be something like that.

I am interested because I will be rebuilding my PC around the time of Win10's release and have been debating whether to use it or stick with 7.

rjstaines,

Interesting perspective, but I'm still running Windows XP successfully on my >10 year old desk top and get security upgrades from MS despite it being "unsupported" for the last year or longer. Logistically, I wonder how MS could possibly support all their future converts to 10 on a cloud-based operating system? As you say, paying rent could be the factor, but it seems like an overwhelming infrastructure to support

What a load of nonsense.

Apple seem to give updates to their OS away for free.

Google seem to give their OS away for free.

Many free Linux distributions.

Microsoft haven't said that Windows 10 will be free. They have simply said that Windows 7 and 8.1 users can upgrade for free in the first year and that all updates will be free. They will still charge for the OS with new devices.

How are you going to access the cloud without an OS?

( Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation )

Sounds a lot like all these subscription streaming services which so many are begging Naim to support.

Exactly.

There is a fairly long thread on the Microsoft Win 10 Insider Forum (14 pages so far) regarding incorporation of native support for UAC2. My non expert understanding is that whilst FLAC codecs are included within the build UAC2 support is not confirmed - probably not at the beginning but possibly later if enough demand.

As it happens, Bananahead, it's not as much nonsense as you seem to assume.

Microsoft are testing Windows 10 as a service, so that WILL happen (and it won't be free).

And the technology whereby you access the cloud is called (as I said) 'thin client'.  As you rightly say there IS an operating system that enables you to access the cloud, but the thing is that's ALL it allows you to do... there's no other capability in the thin client other than the ability to log onto the 'thick client'..in the cloud.  As I mentioned, it's 80's tech - it exists, it works... and we all are going to be exposed to it, sooner or later. 

BTW - Apple never gave anything away in their lives, nor did Google, and Linux is an Open Source (i.e. free) system.

Varying replies with gobs of information from many perspectives.  Thoroughly appreciated.

I am still on the fence myself as to upgrade or not mess with my current Win 7 streaming experience, that for several years has remained rock solid and stable.

Perhaps Naim will chime in at some point to reassure us of its support plans or offer some words of confidence

Keep the replies coming guys......its great to hear as many perspectives as possible.

By definition an OS for a client computer cannot be "in the cloud" it HAS to reside locally as it has to access the PC hardware.  The question is what applications does it support running locally.

It's possible to write an OS that runs locally, but restricted so that the only application it supports is a virtualisation client that accesses a virtual machine at the vendors data centre.  The problem here is that it can't be used to do anything off-line; not such a problem for desktops, but useless for a laptop.  To all intents and purposes this looks as though the OS is in the cloud, but that's an illusion; in reality there is an OS locally (for the client computer) and another one in the vendor's data centre (not the cloud, they'll require you to use their data centre).

As the virtual machine running the OS in which the applications are installed is running in the vendor's data centre, you can expect them to

1  control the list of applications they'll let you install

2  require that you agree to them reading your data (e.g. ostensibly for 'backup' purposes)

Alternatively you can always use Ethernet and UPnP streaming, then the OS of your computer is irrelevant.

Care to back this up with a link or three?

I suspect that you are simply referring to Azure.

As Huge says, the OS has to be installed locally but it would be possible that you have to login to your account online to enable services. Hardly thin client.

And while we are there, would you please explain how much Apple are charging for the updates to their OS.

There's some overlap here of the OS architecture (thin client/cloud vs. client-side install) and what will Microsoft's charging model for Win 10 will be. At least for the immediate future, Win 10 will remain a client-side OS, but it does look like Microsoft is moving to a subscription-based model rather than a perpetual license. There's nothing incompatible with thick client and subscription, this is exactly what Adobe is now doing with Creative Cloud. All the apps are installed locally, but your access to software via the cloud is controlled by your subscription.

Because of course Microsoft never broke anything or created unintended incompatibilities via the release of a major OS update, have they? 

Personally I would wait for six months before upgrading.  This means that others are on the bleeding edge and can suffer these problems and the time and effort (research) in figuring out how to address.  The early adopters do all the tricky stuff for everyone else meaning that within six months or so the platform should be pretty stable and a relatively pain free upgrade process.

Bear in mind that Windows XP was available under extended support for many years despite subsequent availability of Vista and Windows 7.

Large enterprises are unable to migrate quickly, partly due to the required effort and partly due to the cost.

Even if you eliminate the latter, a rapid end of life of earlier Windows OSes seems unlikely.  Even though like all software vendors I'm sure they would love to do it.

So if I understand this correctly, if the v1 is connected when you boot your machine it hangs and the "fix" for this is to disconnect it before boot?

I don't think I'd describe that as "works fine"!

Actually less frequently than Apple, Linux or most Unices!

The only major lack of compatibility occurred when 16 bit windows applications could not be supported on 32 and 64 bit windows OSs; and there was a good reason for this.  To have supported them would have created a huge flaw in the system security.

So long as they don't directly access the hardware or otherwise violate security, even DOS 2.11 applications are almost always supported by Win7!

I think that that is going to be a bios setting. It is seeing the USB device as a boot device so it contacts asking for the OS to load - but it should time out after a while. I get a boot slowdown sometimes if I have a CF card in my USB card reader. 

That sounds like a driver issue rather than a OS issue, but without using an ICE on the driver I can't be sure.

A CF card is a mass storage device, so is a candidate boot device.

If the driver for the V1 declares it to be in the Mass Storage device class, than the driver is at fault.

Bananahead, if you set the boot order in the BIOS, you should be able to avoid this issue.