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"Microsoft tackles China piracy with free upgrade to Windows 10" That's some impressive marketing spin there. To me this reads "Microsoft admits defeat to soft

by jobu 12y ago

"Microsoft tackles China piracy with free upgrade to Windows 10" That's some impressive marketing spin there. To me this reads "Microsoft admits defeat to software pirates and gives Windows away for free." They may have some pretty legitimate reasons for wanting people to update to the latest OS, but giving it away for free is a massive shift for the company that lots of people call "M$"

Cthulhu_ 12y ago
There's probably a catch - a built-in app store where MS can earn via commission on applications, a subscription model for future updates or basic features, that kinda thing. If they did some better marketing (like Google manages to), they could call it 'combating botnets' or something.
- cwyers 12y ago
  The app store isn't really a "catch," it's been in Windows since 8.0.
- userbinator 12y ago
  I see this as the first steps in planning to lock-down the Windows ecosystem completely (and then extract profits from the users). I wouldn't be surprised if this "free" OS becomes unable to install applications easily except from the built-in app store, has some paid features, phones home with usage statistics, may start being ad-supported, etc... basically making the OS "freemium" software.
spoiledtechie 12y ago
You have to remember now, that they are making money for each game bought in the MSoft Market place. So I think that has probably helped a bit with this move.
tracker1 12y ago
I think it really comes down to MS not being able to backport their internet presence, and newer DirectX interfaces to older versions of windows. Software developers want to target modern browsers, and game developers want to target newer interfaces. They've doubled down on Office as a service/rental. They've doubled down on their Azure cloud services (which are pretty damned good now). They're competing against very-near free ChromeOS and Android... they're also being encroached by Apple's OSX and iOS. They had to diversify their income strategy and get windows to a loss-leader position. It makes sense. Keeping developer mindshare and their office software in place, even across platforms is far more valuable in the near term. Their long term strategy isn't too different from where the likes of IBM and Oracle have gone before, but with a bit more focus on their developer and consumer interests. As I'm using linux more frequently for a deployment target (even in Azure), and more inclined to reach for node.js (io.js) over C#.. it's nice to see MS open up software (.Net vNext) and platforms (windows) a bit more. I setup a docker container for a small C# microservice (migrating password schemes on login for accounts that were in an ASP.Net website) running .Net vNext, and it was pretty cool to be able to do.
digi_owl 12y ago
Never mind that with Windows 8 they introduced (yet another) "app store". Between that and Office going service by way of Office 365, and they no longer need to sell Windows to bring in the money. May as well give it away and entice people to sign up for their services (Some Skydrive space for free, hotmail/live/outlook email, etc etc etc). Thing is that MS has alwasy used the home market as leverage for their corporate sales. This via "total cost of ownership" claims. It boils down to the idea that home users are familiar with basic MS product use already, so the corporations don't have to spend as much time training employees if they buy MS software.

by jobu 12y ago

Cthulhu_ 12y ago

There's probably a catch - a built-in app store where MS can earn via commission on applications, a subscription model for future updates or basic features, that kinda thing. If they did some better marketing (like Google manages to), they could call it 'combating botnets' or something.

cwyers 12y ago
The app store isn't really a "catch," it's been in Windows since 8.0.
userbinator 12y ago
I see this as the first steps in planning to lock-down the Windows ecosystem completely (and then extract profits from the users). I wouldn't be surprised if this "free" OS becomes unable to install applications easily except from the built-in app store, has some paid features, phones home with usage statistics, may start being ad-supported, etc... basically making the OS "freemium" software.

spoiledtechie 12y ago

You have to remember now, that they are making money for each game bought in the MSoft Market place. So I think that has probably helped a bit with this move.

tracker1 12y ago

I think it really comes down to MS not being able to backport their internet presence, and newer DirectX interfaces to older versions of windows. Software developers want to target modern browsers, and game developers want to target newer interfaces. They've doubled down on Office as a service/rental. They've doubled down on their Azure cloud services (which are pretty damned good now). They're competing against very-near free ChromeOS and Android... they're also being encroached by Apple's OSX and iOS. They had to diversify their income strategy and get windows to a loss-leader position. It makes sense. Keeping developer mindshare and their office software in place, even across platforms is far more valuable in the near term. Their long term strategy isn't too different from where the likes of IBM and Oracle have gone before, but with a bit more focus on their developer and consumer interests. As I'm using linux more frequently for a deployment target (even in Azure), and more inclined to reach for node.js (io.js) over C#.. it's nice to see MS open up software (.Net vNext) and platforms (windows) a bit more. I setup a docker container for a small C# microservice (migrating password schemes on login for accounts that were in an ASP.Net website) running .Net vNext, and it was pretty cool to be able to do.

digi_owl 12y ago

Never mind that with Windows 8 they introduced (yet another) "app store". Between that and Office going service by way of Office 365, and they no longer need to sell Windows to bring in the money. May as well give it away and entice people to sign up for their services (Some Skydrive space for free, hotmail/live/outlook email, etc etc etc). Thing is that MS has alwasy used the home market as leverage for their corporate sales. This via "total cost of ownership" claims. It boils down to the idea that home users are familiar with basic MS product use already, so the corporations don't have to spend as much time training employees if they buy MS software.