Sounds like sticking with Windows 7 is my best bet for now. I don't want to lose access to any of my games.

Thanks for the input on this, everyone.

Oh, I managed to overlook something I didn't answer before. Sorry.

As for Firefox on Windows 10, I basically don't like Firefox at all. If I want a third party browser, I'd get Chrome. Even that I use as a secondary with Internet Explorer 11 being the primary browser (but not the default, that's Edge). So I can't really help you on Firefox. But Chrome so far has been working well on Windows 10 and so is IE11.

Windows 10 is the way to go. Don't stick with outdated OS like some lunatics would do.

Those lunatics are either on 7 or 8.1 anyway, when they swore to stick with Windows 98/XP.

Go with Windows 10 even if it means you won't be able to use GOG content you paid good money for?

An interesting concept. I think I'm a lunatic, then.

Paid.

Are you expecting to use Wordstar on your Windows 20 machine later?

Technology comes and old one dies. It's inevitable.

Keep sticking to that old Windows? You'll upgrade sooner or later anyway.

Mark my words.

Resistance is futile, you WILL be assimilated, huh?

Not sure I agree with that. New companies come and old ones die.

Maybe it is time Microsoft died and let a newer company take over the market.

Just go back to XP to be sure.

Some of us even have several PCs, with different Windows versions.

Pretty hard nowadays to buy a new PC/laptop with Windows XP (or even Windows 7). That's how 99.9998% of PC users "update" to a new Windows versions anyway: it comes pre-loaded with the new PC they buy.

People like you who always go through the trouble of upgrading their current Windows version to a newer one are exceptions, geeks if you will. You'll die virgin, you know?

As said, most PC users don't upgrade their Windows version, but get a new Windows version/license preloaded with a new PC.

So yes, current Windows 7 users will probably use Windows 10... when it comes preloaded on their future PC they buy. MS is certainly trying hard to get people to update, like e.g. recently they tried to trick people to install Windows 10 by pre-selecting it in Windows Update, even though it was under the optional updates.

What are you doing on Windows anyway? Didn't you hear the news, Microsoft lost already. Migrate to Android ASAP, leave the old PC/Windows paradigm behind. Windows tablets don't cut it either, Android (and iOS) is where its at.

Sure it means you can't play your Steam games there, but hey, time marches on, progress. You aren't trying to use Wordstar either, are you? :)

I did some thinking and have a further reply to you.

Wordstar has been surpassed by modern software, but the games that are available here on GOG offer an experience and way/style of playing that is not always available in more modern games.

A program like Wordstar is designed strictly for utilitarian purposes and work, and so there is no harm in upgrading to something more efficient.

Games are mostly just for entertainment purposes and personal enjoyment. Why would I want to rob myself of these qualities just for the sake of upgrading to the "latest and greatest" OS, especially since Windows 7 will keep receiving security updates until 2023 (as I recently found out).

There is something to be said for older forms of entertainment (old time radio programs, for example). I guess what I am trying to say is that now I know all of my GOG purchases will not work on Windows 10, I'll stick with Windows 7 even if it makes me a technological Luddite.

Where is that market share they're losing? Linux and Mac are still a minority of the desktop operating systems. Also, turning the PC into console is not what they're doing. What they're doing is making one unified operating system for desktops and tablets and laptops and phones.

The time where Microsoft becomes history is clearly not now.

They already tried that with Windows RT (RIP). It didn't allow installing of applications from third-party sources, so it basically used the console/iOS "walled garden" approach.

Luckily it failed.

Is that a good thing, especially for those who are not looking forward to use MS-powered phones and such, but are only interested in PCs as far as Windows goes?

I see a couple of perils with the idea that mobile devices and full-fledged PCs should use the same OS:

1. First of all, at this point it seems evident MS is losing the mobile market. The share of sold MS-powered phones has been decreasing, being now only about 2% of sold devices (Android is winning the market). It also seems MS is slowly realizing this, aiming their mobile products and services more to corporate users and less and less to home users, and putting more effort to cloud services than mobile devices.

2. MS making design choices that benefit the mobile users but makes desktop use less lucrative. Case in point: Windows 8/8.1. Only die-hard MS fans will try to deny anymore that its UI was shitty for desktop PC users, it catered mainly for touch-device mobile users. Windows 10 user interface was kind of an apology from MS towards desktop users that they let down with Windows 8.x.

3. To me MS seems to be pushing the idea that PC gamers would mainly play mobile WinRT games (same that you'd play on your MS phone), while Real Gaming(tm) would take place on their walled-garden Xbox consoles where they make more money than from PC gaming (that darn Steam must be a thorn in MS' side). The kind of games that MS is pushing to Windows PC nowadays seem to be those simpler mobile games. See where MS has released its Halo series after the early Halo 1-2 games:

http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/halo-series

Only Halo: Spartan Assault and Halo: Spartan Strike have arrived to PC as well, and they are more like a mobile games, available also for MS tablets/phones and iPhone/iPad. Everything else is XBox-only.

The days of MS really pushing AAA PC gaming with Age of Empires games, Midtown/Motocross Madness series, lots of different PC gaming peripherals etc., seem to be long gone. To me it seems now the only interest MS has for PC gamers and users is to somehow lure them to migrate to WinRT and XBox users, so that they don't become e.g. Android and/or Linux users instead. And this to me seems to be the main reason MS is pushing an uniform OS on PCs and mobile devices, migrating PC users to other MS ecosystems (mobile devices and XBox).

Luckier is, it was only limited to tablets. Its a good thing to have the same operating system on any device to basically access the same set of applications and games and such on any device, as opposed to having separate apps for my Android device and Windows PC. That's where Windows 10 is supposed to patch up. To make Windows Phone more lucrative and accessible to developers, by spreading on as many Microsoft powered systems as possible, convincing developers to develop for Microsoft's devices only once and get that app working on all. As a non MS-diehard, I deny that the Windows 8 UI was shitty. What I agree is that desktop users are just jumping on any hate bandwagon they see hitting Microsoft, that's what happened with Windows 8. As a former Windows 8.1 user myself, I believed into their hate until I slowly made a dualboot with Windows 7 and Windows 8, and soon enough, I found myself deleting Windows 7. On a desktop nonetheless with only a mouse and a keyboard! Nowadays, I pretty much require a start screen for any desktop OS I get my hands on. The start menu has become a joke and I don't see why people are still clinging into it. But hey, both Start Menu and Start Screen are present in Windows 10, so they "apologized" to the Start menu diehards, and pleased the Start Screen diehards. That's only Microsoft's games. If you want to release games on the Windows Store that only use the keyboard and mouse, I've been there. If you want to release games on the Windows Store that only uses a touchscreen, I've seen that. If you want both, I've met that. Plus I hate this separation of 'mobile' and 'PC' games if you excuse me. Other than that I've no comment. Not really their case, they don't want you to not migrate to Android or iBrick or whatever. They want you to use their services, hence their apps on Android and iBrick, hence their phone companion app that pairs with not only Windows Phones but also Androids and iBricks. They want you to use their services like OneDrive, OneNote, Cortana, Xbox, Outlook, Office, etc. Their migrate everyone to the Windows ecosystem seems like a secondhand strategy to me, but it nonetheless can boost the market share to Windows Phone if they do the unified thing right. I wonder what would be the reaction if Apple did a Windows 8 though!