Australian resellers react to Windows 10

HoloLens, Surface Hub, ecosystem impress

Several resellers told CRN that they were more excited about the "peripheral" technology unveilings, such as holograms, Surface Hub and Xbox integration – rather than the Windows 10 OS itself.

"From a personal point of view, the new Surface Hub and Holographic stuff that MS announced at the same time [as Windows 10] are more interesting and exciting in term of how it will potentially change how we communicate and perhaps work in the future," said director of Adelaide business Open Systems Technology, Glenn Nanda.

"Building in Cortana as part of Windows will also be quite interesting but to make it useful MS need to have more localised content information – as I think it is very US centric at the moment."

The holographic innovations also captured the attention of Zettagrid's Pereira: "The HoloLens feature will hopefully lead to much innovation in AR, which also excites me."

Ethan Group's vendor alliance manager Nick Stranks watched the event online and predicted the innovations would be a boost for mobility.

"[The Windows 10] eco system looks amazing," he said. "It will give a push for phones in particular. Xbox and desktop apps working on the phone natively in one ecosystem and one code base – incredibly powerful."

Not hard to beat Windows 8

NetCare IT is both an Apple and Microsoft partner. Managing director Darryl McAllister applauded the free upgrade from Windows 7, saying the move matches what Apple has been doing for years with OSX.

"It's a really good thing for Microsoft to offer free upgrade from Windows 7 within the first 12 months to encourage people," he said. "It's now in line what Apple's been doing. It makes it so much easier for SMBs to standardise - move to a standard platform. It was a pleasant surprise."

McAllister said that Windows 8 and 8.1 were not well received by his customer base. "We've actually not been deploying 8 and 8.1 on desktops for our clients."

Asked what the best feature Windows 10 provided that Windows 8 and 8.1 were missing, McAllister simply said "the Start menu".

McAllister said that he had downloaded the Windows 10 preview onto his home notebook a month ago, but had hesitated about installing it. The latest Microsoft presentation has changed his mind.

"I was impressed… Once the new version comes out I will install it. This morning's announcements really energised me."