4 ms·

>If you really believe Microsoft are strong enough to coerce most or all of their entire market to move to Windows 10 when it's not in their interests, I invite

>If you really believe Microsoft are strong enough to coerce most or all of their entire market to move to Windows 10 when it's not in their interests, I invite you to look up the current market share of Windows 7 vs. Windows 10, and to consider that this is about 10 months into the 12 month free update period already. A huge number of people have upgraded to Win10. Many of those are because of the underhanded tricks, but it doesn't matter; they've switched now. Now MS just has to squeeze them some more by cutting support for Win7 early, or maybe they could be like Apple and start pushing Win7 updates which massively slow down the OS, in effect forcing people to upgrade. What are people going to do, stop getting security updates? Or switch to a different OS? Face it, people and businesses are locked into Windows, and aren't going to stop using it no matter what. MS can do whatever they want at this point; it's not going to hurt them, and will only help them. The more people they can push to Win10, the more money they'll make from advertising. I can't wait to see them pushing mandatory advertising and spyware in Win10 Enterprise.

Silhouette 10y ago
Now MS just has to squeeze them some more by cutting support for Win7 early, That would surely result in lawsuits on such a scale that even Microsoft would be lucky to survive the results. or maybe they could be like Apple and start pushing Win7 updates which massively slow down the OS, in effect forcing people to upgrade. They already do seem to be crippling Windows 7 updates; there have been numerous reports of problems since earlier this year where Windows Update will sit there taking literally hours to do the most simple tasks, apparently including several controlled experiments using new machines to prove that it really is Windows Update at fault. This doesn't bode well for anyone remaining on Windows 7, but of course it bodes even less well for anyone committed to whatever update mechanism Microsoft wants on Windows 10. What are people going to do, stop getting security updates? Probably. Or switch to a different OS? Possibly. Face it, people and businesses are locked into Windows, and aren't going to stop using it no matter what. There is rarely true lock-in within this industry. Usually there is only the relative cost of migrating to new systems vs. staying put. The thing is, migrating to a new OS is already an extremely expensive, time-consuming and risky proposition for large organisations. Entire teams of IT staff spend months planning the switch, testing hardware and software on the new platform, and so on. That is going to be true even if organisations decide to upgrade to Windows 10 from whatever they're on already. That is the inertia Microsoft really has to overcome if it wants to establish Windows 10, and it's the same inertia that meant some organisations were willing to pay millions for support beyond the official cut-off date with Windows XP because that was still better for them than risking a migration even to Windows 7, which had relatively few areas of risk in that scenario. If they fail to do that, either by not making 10 an attractive proposition or by trying to degrade 7 until people give up, then those big corporate migration exercises do have alternatives they could consider, and sooner or later some big names will actually make the jump. And if a few of them do that and it becomes clear that they've done well out of it, that's very, very bad for Microsoft. That's why I don't think they'll let it come to that.
- Grishnakh 10y ago
  >That would surely result in lawsuits on such a scale that even Microsoft would be lucky to survive the results. Unless they're bound by a contract, which would only apply to very large customers, they're under no obligation to continue support for Win7. It's just like XP; there's no support for that unless you're a special customer who pays extra for that support. >They already do seem to be crippling Windows 7 updates; there have been numerous reports of problems since earlier this year where Windows Update will sit there taking literally hours to do the most simple tasks, Yep, and there's no legal recourse here either. They can run Windows Updates however they want. Don't like it? Don't get any updates, and leave yourself open to hacking and malware. >>What are people going to do, stop getting security updates? >Probably. See above. Good luck dealing with the malware and hacking. >>Or switch to a different OS? >Possibly. You're joking, right? Linux backers have been trying to encourage people to switch to that for ages and it hasn't gotten very far. Apple has a very strong brand with huge success in mobile devices and they haven't gotten very far either. >There is rarely true lock-in within this industry. WTF are you talking about? Every time anyone proposes switching to Linux, tons of people pop up talking about all the applications they're bound to which only work on Windows. Lock-in (with apps) is the entire reason Windows is so dominant. It's the exact same reason that WinPhone has been a disaster and can't make a dent in the Android and iPhone marketshare: there's no apps for it. >If they fail to do that, either by not making 10 an attractive proposition or by trying to degrade 7 until people give up, then those big corporate migration exercises do have alternatives they could consider No, they don't. They're locked into tons of applications that only run on Windows. As everyone knows, there's no Photoshop on Linux. The same is true for countless business applications that most of us have never heard of, but are critically important to businesses (and each business has different, obscure applications it's bound to). Don't forget, with larger businesses, they do site licenses, so they pay constant license fees to MS no matter which MS they run. No matter what these customers do, they're going to be paying MS for the privilege of running their software. There's no way MS can screw this up, it's just a matter of which tactic will maximize profit. At worst, they'll have a steady but constant revenue stream.
  - Silhouette 10y ago

Silhouette 10y ago

Now MS just has to squeeze them some more by cutting support for Win7 early, That would surely result in lawsuits on such a scale that even Microsoft would be lucky to survive the results. or maybe they could be like Apple and start pushing Win7 updates which massively slow down the OS, in effect forcing people to upgrade. They already do seem to be crippling Windows 7 updates; there have been numerous reports of problems since earlier this year where Windows Update will sit there taking literally hours to do the most simple tasks, apparently including several controlled experiments using new machines to prove that it really is Windows Update at fault. This doesn't bode well for anyone remaining on Windows 7, but of course it bodes even less well for anyone committed to whatever update mechanism Microsoft wants on Windows 10. What are people going to do, stop getting security updates? Probably. Or switch to a different OS? Possibly. Face it, people and businesses are locked into Windows, and aren't going to stop using it no matter what. There is rarely true lock-in within this industry. Usually there is only the relative cost of migrating to new systems vs. staying put. The thing is, migrating to a new OS is already an extremely expensive, time-consuming and risky proposition for large organisations. Entire teams of IT staff spend months planning the switch, testing hardware and software on the new platform, and so on. That is going to be true even if organisations decide to upgrade to Windows 10 from whatever they're on already. That is the inertia Microsoft really has to overcome if it wants to establish Windows 10, and it's the same inertia that meant some organisations were willing to pay millions for support beyond the official cut-off date with Windows XP because that was still better for them than risking a migration even to Windows 7, which had relatively few areas of risk in that scenario. If they fail to do that, either by not making 10 an attractive proposition or by trying to degrade 7 until people give up, then those big corporate migration exercises do have alternatives they could consider, and sooner or later some big names will actually make the jump. And if a few of them do that and it becomes clear that they've done well out of it, that's very, very bad for Microsoft. That's why I don't think they'll let it come to that.

Grishnakh 10y ago
>That would surely result in lawsuits on such a scale that even Microsoft would be lucky to survive the results. Unless they're bound by a contract, which would only apply to very large customers, they're under no obligation to continue support for Win7. It's just like XP; there's no support for that unless you're a special customer who pays extra for that support. >They already do seem to be crippling Windows 7 updates; there have been numerous reports of problems since earlier this year where Windows Update will sit there taking literally hours to do the most simple tasks, Yep, and there's no legal recourse here either. They can run Windows Updates however they want. Don't like it? Don't get any updates, and leave yourself open to hacking and malware. >>What are people going to do, stop getting security updates? >Probably. See above. Good luck dealing with the malware and hacking. >>Or switch to a different OS? >Possibly. You're joking, right? Linux backers have been trying to encourage people to switch to that for ages and it hasn't gotten very far. Apple has a very strong brand with huge success in mobile devices and they haven't gotten very far either. >There is rarely true lock-in within this industry. WTF are you talking about? Every time anyone proposes switching to Linux, tons of people pop up talking about all the applications they're bound to which only work on Windows. Lock-in (with apps) is the entire reason Windows is so dominant. It's the exact same reason that WinPhone has been a disaster and can't make a dent in the Android and iPhone marketshare: there's no apps for it. >If they fail to do that, either by not making 10 an attractive proposition or by trying to degrade 7 until people give up, then those big corporate migration exercises do have alternatives they could consider No, they don't. They're locked into tons of applications that only run on Windows. As everyone knows, there's no Photoshop on Linux. The same is true for countless business applications that most of us have never heard of, but are critically important to businesses (and each business has different, obscure applications it's bound to). Don't forget, with larger businesses, they do site licenses, so they pay constant license fees to MS no matter which MS they run. No matter what these customers do, they're going to be paying MS for the privilege of running their software. There's no way MS can screw this up, it's just a matter of which tactic will maximize profit. At worst, they'll have a steady but constant revenue stream.
- Silhouette 10y ago