4 ms·

Windows 10 Leak Exposes Microsoft's New Monthly Charge

40 points by dustinmoris 8y ago

justinclift 8y ago
Wonder what the legality of this will be for the Win7/8 users upgraded to Win 10 without their consent? Hopefully the EU has a very, very, strong negative opinion on this. :)
naikrovek 8y ago
Reading Microsoft stories on Forbes.com is like reading about Slenderman on a site run by 9 yo girls. All rumors are true and the end is coming in 45 minutes unless we freak out about it enough.
FooHentai 8y ago
The Windows 10 situation is no different to that for 7/8 - No chance that it'll overnight transition to being 'as a service' for a charge. Instead what'll most likely happen is the next releast of Windows desktop after 10 will be set up from the start as a service offering, and at the point where people sign up for it the ongoing charge aspects will be spelled out very clearly, including in the Ts and Cs. It'll be similar to how Office switched to the Online version - Superficially little change in the product, but clearly delineated with a separate deployment, branding, and versioning. It can only be this way, because aside from the 'stealth' upgrades' that some 7/8 users encountered, a significant number of people bought windows 10 licensing, at retail. It would be a PR nightmare for Microsoft to attempt to invalidate ongoing OS usage rights for their Windows 10 user base, and they're not ignorant of that fact.
- evfanknitram 8y ago
  Yes. I'm amazed that the writer or this article didn't realize this.
  - justsomedude43 8y ago
    That's because they're neither a writer not is it an article. Take Forbes with a grain of salt, their authors are mostly half-literate unemployed students writing "blitz articles" for about 50p/100 words.
- lev99 8y ago
  The whole thing is crazy. You aren't going to have to sign up for a windows subscription when buying a new laptop. This would absolutely kill the home windows market. The low end consumer would delay upgrading as long as possible. The high end consumer would go to Apple. More people would adopt Linux.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - type0 8y ago
    > You aren't going to have to sign up for a windows subscription when buying a new laptop. I think the majority of the consumers in the West will accept this and MS will continue to make a shit ton of money. It's just another subscription you add to the list along with netflix, spotify, mobile carrier subscription etc. > More people would adopt Linux. I hope this could be true, unfortunately they probably will buy a Chromebook if they don't like the hassle of a Windows subscription.
- ConceptJunkie 8y ago
  > the next release of Windows desktop after 10 Which will no doubt be called Windows One.
simula67 8y ago
Even if this happens after Windows 10, it will still be a problem since you still need upgrades and access to latest applications. I hope PC manufacturers start pushing Ubuntu extremely hard
- growlist 8y ago
  Second that. Windows is pretty much at the limit of obnoxiousness for me now. I'm locked to it by things like drivers for my fancy photo inkjet, but any kind of regular charge would be the last straw - I'd just swap to Linux and possibly buy a cheapo Mac for the inkjet type situation.
slededit 8y ago
This article is short on details, here's a much better one: https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-got-a-new-plan-for-managing-windows-10-devices-for-a-monthly-fee/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-got-a-new-plan-for-... Its more like a cloud replacement for Active Directory and WSUS, complete with on-demand windows licenses.
lwkl 8y ago
This is nothing new businesses already have the option to buy a Windows Subscription including Features like Update and Configuration Management (and if bundled with Office 365 this is called Microsoft 365). The only new thing about this is that Microsoft adding a bundled subscription that includes their software services and the hardware that runs it.
kup0 8y ago
This is enterprise-only, yet the article makes it out to be otherwise. Sloppy reporting. That said, I'm curious if doing this in the enterprise environment could be testing the waters for doing it on consumer PCs, but I think that is unlikely.

40 points by dustinmoris 8y ago

Wonder what the legality of this will be for the Win7/8 users upgraded to Win 10 without their consent? Hopefully the EU has a very, very, strong negative opinion on this. :)

naikrovek 8y ago

Reading Microsoft stories on Forbes.com is like reading about Slenderman on a site run by 9 yo girls. All rumors are true and the end is coming in 45 minutes unless we freak out about it enough.

FooHentai 8y ago

The Windows 10 situation is no different to that for 7/8 - No chance that it'll overnight transition to being 'as a service' for a charge. Instead what'll most likely happen is the next releast of Windows desktop after 10 will be set up from the start as a service offering, and at the point where people sign up for it the ongoing charge aspects will be spelled out very clearly, including in the Ts and Cs. It'll be similar to how Office switched to the Online version - Superficially little change in the product, but clearly delineated with a separate deployment, branding, and versioning. It can only be this way, because aside from the 'stealth' upgrades' that some 7/8 users encountered, a significant number of people bought windows 10 licensing, at retail. It would be a PR nightmare for Microsoft to attempt to invalidate ongoing OS usage rights for their Windows 10 user base, and they're not ignorant of that fact.

evfanknitram 8y ago
Yes. I'm amazed that the writer or this article didn't realize this.
- justsomedude43 8y ago
  That's because they're neither a writer not is it an article. Take Forbes with a grain of salt, their authors are mostly half-literate unemployed students writing "blitz articles" for about 50p/100 words.
lev99 8y ago
The whole thing is crazy. You aren't going to have to sign up for a windows subscription when buying a new laptop. This would absolutely kill the home windows market. The low end consumer would delay upgrading as long as possible. The high end consumer would go to Apple. More people would adopt Linux.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- type0 8y ago
  > You aren't going to have to sign up for a windows subscription when buying a new laptop. I think the majority of the consumers in the West will accept this and MS will continue to make a shit ton of money. It's just another subscription you add to the list along with netflix, spotify, mobile carrier subscription etc. > More people would adopt Linux. I hope this could be true, unfortunately they probably will buy a Chromebook if they don't like the hassle of a Windows subscription.
ConceptJunkie 8y ago
> the next release of Windows desktop after 10 Which will no doubt be called Windows One.

simula67 8y ago

Even if this happens after Windows 10, it will still be a problem since you still need upgrades and access to latest applications. I hope PC manufacturers start pushing Ubuntu extremely hard

growlist 8y ago
Second that. Windows is pretty much at the limit of obnoxiousness for me now. I'm locked to it by things like drivers for my fancy photo inkjet, but any kind of regular charge would be the last straw - I'd just swap to Linux and possibly buy a cheapo Mac for the inkjet type situation.

slededit 8y ago

This article is short on details, here's a much better one: https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-got-a-new-plan-for-managing-windows-10-devices-for-a-monthly-fee/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-got-a-new-plan-for-... Its more like a cloud replacement for Active Directory and WSUS, complete with on-demand windows licenses.

lwkl 8y ago

This is nothing new businesses already have the option to buy a Windows Subscription including Features like Update and Configuration Management (and if bundled with Office 365 this is called Microsoft 365). The only new thing about this is that Microsoft adding a bundled subscription that includes their software services and the hardware that runs it.

kup0 8y ago

This is enterprise-only, yet the article makes it out to be otherwise. Sloppy reporting. That said, I'm curious if doing this in the enterprise environment could be testing the waters for doing it on consumer PCs, but I think that is unlikely.