I'll play devil's advocate and suggest that when one buys a Mac, one is already aware of the fact that it's more of an appliance and a subscription hub than an

I'll play devil's advocate and suggest that when one buys a Mac, one is already aware of the fact that it's more of an appliance and a subscription hub than an actual computer. Yes, it does all the regular computer things, but it's practically a loss-leader for Apple to keep you in the ecosystem (and I say this as someone who "owns" a M1 mini). For Microsoft on the other hand, this is breaking new ground with Windows users. Microsoft has slowly been easing their users into a OS-as-a-Service paradigm, the next logical step for them is to require your credit card info (which to be clear, isn't required...yet) to continue to use the OS on the computer you bought outright. After all, the other major software players are pushing subscriptions instead of license purchases (Adobe, Parallels, Codeweavers, and Microsoft themselves with 365, among so many others), so why not charge a fee to use their preloaded and -- in the eyes of the average consumer -- required OS?