5 ms·

Microsoft mulling cheap PCs supported by ads, subscriptions

18 points by elorant 4y ago

josephcsible 4y ago
I don't like this, not because I hate ads, but because such computers will be tivoized, because if you had freedom with them, some people might remove the ads.
ivoryloom 4y ago
> Included in the possible models are low-cost PCs available via subscriptions, with advertising helping to offset some of the costs. (Also mentioned in the job are direct-to-cloud devices.) Does direct-to-cloud mean something like ChromeOS? That could be interesting
- xen2xen1 4y ago
  I'm sure it would be Windows 11 in lock down mode, with mostly just Edge? Maybe only just Edge? So not Chrome Os, but still a Chromebook competitor. The ARM tablets weren't far off that to be fair.
rarecoil 4y ago
IIRC back when computers were a fair amount more expensive in the early 00s, eMachines and some other ultra low cost computing platforms came supported by installed adware for extremely low costs - I bought one at that time as it was the only machine I could afford to buy, and there also was ad-supported dial up Internet you could access (NetZero et al.) I reformatted the disk, installed a Windows 2000 Pro copy I had to it, and got a cheap tower from it. Perhaps all is old is new again, but I can’t imagine this model leading to significant growth in today’s market. PCs are vastly more commoditized than they were then; my local supermarket sells low-end Windows and Chromebook machines for very little, and refurbished/recycled business machines with Skylakes can be had for $150 on eBay. If people want inexpensive computing platforms there are many more options and this doesn’t even include ultra cheap tablets or prepaid Android devices. Here’s a paper from 2004 that explains it: https://escholarship.org/content/qt2t03k647/qt2t03k647_noSplash_5ba9d6ec1ef18ff120ec403c564bb30c.pdf https://escholarship.org/content/qt2t03k647/qt2t03k647_noSpl...
- fuzzfactor 4y ago
  I was going to say, I thought this was nothing new. Now in this decade, almost a year ago I know someone who got a free tablet which appears to be a cloud device from a pure advertising company. Microsoft may be a little late with an offering like this, plus it may not be the kind of thing where you can compete on price.
31337Logic 4y ago
Great, I can't wait to get my hands on cheap hardware and then break out of their ecosystem. It's the same story as Kindle Fires, Chromebooks, or even Microsoft's own XBOX, etc.
- fomine3 4y ago
  Microsoft perfectly blocked running (outside of dev mode) homebrew/"backup" by hacking since Xbox One for now. It seems that they are really great to lockdown hardware.
lykahb 4y ago
This means more investment into technologies that lock down a general computer and give continuous surveillance and control to the maker. Likely those restrictions will creep out of this low-cost niche to the rest of PC ecosystem. Installing Linux on a laptop with secure boot was a bad experience, and I dread to imagine how much worse it can be made. For me a PC is only useable with Linux. But it is impossible to get rid of Microsoft influence - they dictate what PC hardware gets to the market.

18 points by elorant 4y ago

I don't like this, not because I hate ads, but because such computers will be tivoized, because if you had freedom with them, some people might remove the ads.

ivoryloom 4y ago

> Included in the possible models are low-cost PCs available via subscriptions, with advertising helping to offset some of the costs. (Also mentioned in the job are direct-to-cloud devices.) Does direct-to-cloud mean something like ChromeOS? That could be interesting

xen2xen1 4y ago
I'm sure it would be Windows 11 in lock down mode, with mostly just Edge? Maybe only just Edge? So not Chrome Os, but still a Chromebook competitor. The ARM tablets weren't far off that to be fair.

rarecoil 4y ago

IIRC back when computers were a fair amount more expensive in the early 00s, eMachines and some other ultra low cost computing platforms came supported by installed adware for extremely low costs - I bought one at that time as it was the only machine I could afford to buy, and there also was ad-supported dial up Internet you could access (NetZero et al.) I reformatted the disk, installed a Windows 2000 Pro copy I had to it, and got a cheap tower from it. Perhaps all is old is new again, but I can’t imagine this model leading to significant growth in today’s market. PCs are vastly more commoditized than they were then; my local supermarket sells low-end Windows and Chromebook machines for very little, and refurbished/recycled business machines with Skylakes can be had for $150 on eBay. If people want inexpensive computing platforms there are many more options and this doesn’t even include ultra cheap tablets or prepaid Android devices. Here’s a paper from 2004 that explains it: https://escholarship.org/content/qt2t03k647/qt2t03k647_noSplash_5ba9d6ec1ef18ff120ec403c564bb30c.pdf https://escholarship.org/content/qt2t03k647/qt2t03k647_noSpl...

fuzzfactor 4y ago
I was going to say, I thought this was nothing new. Now in this decade, almost a year ago I know someone who got a free tablet which appears to be a cloud device from a pure advertising company. Microsoft may be a little late with an offering like this, plus it may not be the kind of thing where you can compete on price.

31337Logic 4y ago

Great, I can't wait to get my hands on cheap hardware and then break out of their ecosystem. It's the same story as Kindle Fires, Chromebooks, or even Microsoft's own XBOX, etc.

fomine3 4y ago
Microsoft perfectly blocked running (outside of dev mode) homebrew/"backup" by hacking since Xbox One for now. It seems that they are really great to lockdown hardware.

lykahb 4y ago

This means more investment into technologies that lock down a general computer and give continuous surveillance and control to the maker. Likely those restrictions will creep out of this low-cost niche to the rest of PC ecosystem. Installing Linux on a laptop with secure boot was a bad experience, and I dread to imagine how much worse it can be made. For me a PC is only useable with Linux. But it is impossible to get rid of Microsoft influence - they dictate what PC hardware gets to the market.