Microsoft Trademarks 'Windows 365'

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Microsoft has filed for a trademark on Windows 365 leading many to believe that sometime in the future, Microsoft intends to take the operating system down the same road as Microsoft Office. From the announcement that Windows 10 will be a free upgrade, it doesn’t look like there will be a subscription based fee in the near future, but from all indications, it looks like that is the direction Microsoft is taking.

Although, Microsoft has recently filed for a trademark for 'Windows 365', which adds a bit of fuel to the subscription based version of Windows. While this trademark could be a defensive claim, to make sure it is not taken by another company, if and when Microsoft does announce a subscription version of Windows, 'Windows 365" would likely be the name.
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MajorDomo said:
if and when Microsoft does announce a subscription version of Windows, 'Windows 365" would likely be the name
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And it will likely be the end of windows as people switch to a non subscription based OS
 
I don't think they would be foolish enough to switch to an all subscription based model.

If they did, I really don't know how they would sell it to the home user consumer base. I mean, if you tack on a subscription to a desktop, laptop or even tablet, I feel like you're gonna bomb your sales.

I could see it working for business because the constant need to stay compliant fuels the business's need for windows upgrades, but not home use.
 
I have no issue with a subscription on a purely out-of-pocket basis. It's just the aggravation of having another recurring bill to keep track of that I hate. I much prefer to pay for something once and forget about it.
 
Smashing Young Man said:
I have no issue with a subscription on a purely out-of-pocket basis. It's just the aggravation of having another recurring bill to keep track of that I hate. I much prefer to pay for something once and forget about it.
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This
 
Subscription to an OS is ridiculous and it will blow up in their face.
 
nutzo said:
And it will likely be the end of windows as people switch to a non subscription based OS
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Maybe not. Businesses tend to be on what amounts to a rental plan anyway. Let's be honest, when it comes to the PC businesses are who MS cares about. In the mobile/tablet market they will just ship devices with a 2-4 year life expectancy, with a 2-4 year license. Laptops with a 3-5 year license. We can scream about it, maybe even leave on principle, but if the average person has used up or tossed out the device b4 the rent comes due, the average person will not be bothered at all.

All depends on how MS works it. I don't like it, but I am not seeing it being too much of a problem for MS to actually go rental in the next few years.

Oh, and in b4 Heatless wrecks the place..
 
As long as MS continues as they have in office stop your crying. You can choose either model with MS office. For me O365 is great and I will keep using it. In fact I think MS of all companies is one people need to cut a little slack. How many games do you know of that let you choose between subscriptions and buy it outright models? How many other pieces of software? Most of these companies just pick a model and go with it and say tough luck if you don't like it. MS is letting the consumer choose what works best for them. I can easily see packages and bundles showing up. For instance Windows 365 might start to become a part of office 365. As long as you keep up your office subscription you get the latest windows too. I could also see scenarios where there is a free version of windows with ads and you can buy a subscription to remove all the ads and add other features.
 
I would never buy a sub to an OS, just like I refuse to buy a sub to an office application. But as long as they continue to offer the buy it once and you own it option - they are free to do what they want in my book...
 
People already sub to antivirus so it's not a far reach for MS to do the same. As long as they continue to offer the choice of upfront purchase and reasonable length of support lifetime.

Some linux versions are sub based (RedHat) but that's aimed at corporate where they are willing to pay for real support instead of the basic hand holding home users need. Additionally in the linux world you're free to switch to another distro (CentOS) if you feel that constricted by subs. In windows world you're limited to just Microsoft.
 
As a host OS there'll never be a subscription, not one where if you don't pay you can't use your computer with the OS it came with. As a virtual or remote offering for use on a non-Windows platform, sure.
 
fdiaz78 said:
Subscription to an OS is ridiculous and it will blow up in their face.
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Office 365 hasn't blown up in their face, and they've announced Office 2016 to come out later this year. If you want Office without a subscription, you can have that, and it'll be the same for Windows. MS loses nothing by having both methods available, and they'd lose a lot by dropping the non-subscription method.
 
Subscription is good for businesses, you can always have the latest OS version as long as you are subscribed.

It would be similar to paying for Software Assurance.
 
leeleatherwood said:
Subscription is good for businesses, you can always have the latest OS version as long as you are subscribed.

It would be similar to paying for Software Assurance.
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It also makes financial sense to spread the costs over time instead of having to pay a lump sum of $200,000+ every 5 or so years to stay current on an entire companies PC's.
 
just wait until someone comes out with windows 366 or 364, YOU CANT DO A GOOD OS IN 365 THATS CRAZY

7's the key number here. Think about it. 7-Elevens. 7 dwarves. 7, man, that's the number. 7 chipmunks twirlin' on a branch, eatin' lots of sunflowers on my uncle's ranch. You know that old children's tale from the sea. It's like you're dreamin' about Gorgonzola cheese when it's clearly Brie time, baby. Step into my office.
 
look at all the people here who think Windows 365 is going to fail.

Mark my words: Windows 365 is going to be a major success.

:D
 
Cerulean said:
look at all the people here who think Windows 365 is going to fail.

Mark my words: Windows 365 is going to be a major success.

:D
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Care to put money on that?

The in-between OS versions from microsoft pretty much always fail. :p
 
I am not necessarily against a subscription based OS but I don't think they could pull off a yearly model. Security Patches and updates don't justify the model; they would need to offer significant upgrades or overhauls which I do not have confidence in them being able to do on a tight schedule.
 
jroe52 said:
just wait until someone comes out with windows 366 or 364, YOU CANT DO A GOOD OS IN 365 THATS CRAZY

7's the key number here. Think about it. 7-Elevens. 7 dwarves. 7, man, that's the number. 7 chipmunks twirlin' on a branch, eatin' lots of sunflowers on my uncle's ranch. You know that old children's tale from the sea. It's like you're dreamin' about Gorgonzola cheese when it's clearly Brie time, baby. Step into my office.
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Dont do drugs, kids.
 
LBJM said:
Care to put money on that?

The in-between OS versions from microsoft pretty much always fail. :p
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Windows 365 wouldn't be an "in-between OS", it would always be the most recent one. It would be WIndows 10, then Windows 11, then Windows 12, and so forth, whenever they came out.
 
rolling updates, less feature islanding with more pro features standard, etc., i'm down. Then again i'm already an office 365 sub.

give me windows pro plus 5 installs if need be for a reasonable price and i'll pay the sub every year
 
Honestly, I would be okay with paying a subscription fee for Windows, as long as it was reasonably priced (e.g. maybe ~39.99 a year or something for what is now the equivalent of Windows 8.1 Professional) and the subscription model allowed them to implement changes and iterate on the OS more quickly.
 
Everyone is over reacting.. They are just protecting a future version of Windows.
Right now they are working on Windows 10.. They just want to make sure they can use Windows 365 after they release Windows 11 through Windows 364.
My great great great grandchildren deserve a solid numbering sequence. Can you image how devastated they would be to have go from Windows 364 to Windows 366?

It would be like going from Windows 8 to Windows 10... Thats just dumb.
 
Rizen said:
Honestly, I would be okay with paying a subscription fee for Windows, as long as it was reasonably priced (e.g. maybe ~39.99 a year or something for what is now the equivalent of Windows 8.1 Professional) and the subscription model allowed them to implement changes and iterate on the OS more quickly.
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Why in the hell would you be fine paying $40 per year when you could just buy it once for $100 and use it until it's no longer supported?
 
It is also worth mentioning the success or failure of every subscription model I have seen always comes down to the subscription being reasonably priced ideally cheaper than you would pay for the purchase model. IMO windows would need to be $10 / year. I base that on the reality that most OEMs and Volume licenses for big companies are probably around $50 - 70. And the average person tries to keep a PC about 4-5 years.

I have seen way to many subscription models release where the subscription will in the long run cost more than even updating every year. For instance if you are a single person with 1 computer and you want to buy office you can get an OEM key for around $150 and office only updates at 3+ years. So that is $50 / year. But the cheapest O365 subscription is $70 which means you pay 210 over 3 years. MS needs to lower the price.

For some such as myself O365 + business + 6 PCs means the $100 / year subscription works out well since I can often find it for around $80. But I feel the pain of people with lower needs.
 
evilsofa said:
Windows 365 wouldn't be an "in-between OS", it would always be the most recent one. It would be WIndows 10, then Windows 11, then Windows 12, and so forth, whenever they came out.
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It will come after 10. MS shut down their MSDN subs because they did not make enough money in their eyes. They should have just changed their pricing structure. Windows 365 is a new name on an old strategy, unless they do to windows what google does to chrome.

However, to the standard consumer it will fail because they do not want to pay subscription fees. People go out and buy a new computer and in most cases only change the OS when they throw out the old one.Remember the big deal satellite radio was suppose to be? Xm and Sirius had to merge to keep that ship afloat. Look at magazines even online ones are struggling. GM's Onstar is another example it comes free for the first year on new vehicles and yet most don't re up after that.
 
LBJM said:
It will come after 10. MS shut down their MSDN subs because they did not make enough money in their eyes. They should have just changed their pricing structure. Windows 365 is a new name on an old strategy, unless they do to windows what google does to chrome.

However, to the standard consumer it will fail because they do not want to pay subscription fees. People go out and buy a new computer and in most cases only change the OS when they throw out the old one.Remember the big deal satellite radio was suppose to be? Xm and Sirius had to merge to keep that ship afloat. Look at magazines even online ones are struggling. GM's Onstar is another example it comes free for the first year on new vehicles and yet most don't re up after that.
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You are connecting disconnected things. We can list about 10 things millions of Americans pays a subscription for, phone, internet, TV, HOA fees, gas, car registration, license, Netflix, amazon prime and MS office. I don't get why some people seem to not understand that that the mere fact someone has to pay a subscription has nothing to do with the success. It has to do with does the product subscription cost a reasonable amount for the service and as compared to the competition. Most of the cases you listed are having poor performance simply because the subscription is too high in price as compared to the alternative, or people don't see the value. IE radio is free onstar became obsolete when people all got cell and smart phones. Actually cell phones and smart phones which now cost more than most of those other services combined are what is replacing many of them. IE magazines, onstar, satellite radio can all be streamed into your phone and believe it or not subscriptions to magazines are growing on electronic devices.
 
evilsofa said:
Windows 365 wouldn't be an "in-between OS", it would always be the most recent one. It would be WIndows 10, then Windows 11, then Windows 12, and so forth, whenever they came out.
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Yes it would. It would be the in-between OS until they went back to the traditional non-subscription model. It would forever be the in-between model.

I would heavily consider Linux at that point. Linux has made bigger strides with gaming in the last couple of years than all of the years prior.
 
I actually like MS as a company but this is entirely foolish of them. People want to pay once for an OS that is theirs, we are not interested in monthly or even annual fees.
 
My guess is that this is only for enterprise because of one little bitty thing that Microsoft said.

This is more than a one-time upgrade: once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device – at no cost. With Windows 10, the experience will evolve and get even better over time. We’ll deliver new features when they’re ready, not waiting for the next major release. We think of Windows as a Service – in fact, one could reasonably think of Windows in the next couple of years as one of the largest Internet services on the planet.
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So there is no reason for anyone to buy a Windows Subscription as once you get windows 10, you get 10.1, 10.2 (or however they decide to name them) free. So there is nothing for you to pay for. So this is probably going to be like a replacement for Software Assurance for enterprise customers. As we already know that they don't get the free upgrade. And so by changing the name from Software Assurance to Windows 365 you keep the same features, can charge the same, but it is a different service as you aren't getting windows 11, windows 12 but are just keeping up with the 10.x releases that come out.

Term-X said:
I am not necessarily against a subscription based OS but I don't think they could pull off a yearly model. Security Patches and updates don't justify the model; they would need to offer significant upgrades or overhauls which I do not have confidence in them being able to do on a tight schedule.
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You take the cost of an upgrade, split it by the number of months expected between version and poof you have a baseline to start with.

Darksword said:
Why in the hell would you be fine paying $40 per year when you could just buy it once for $100 and use it until it's no longer supported?
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Right there, this isn't for you. The case of Office 365 (and Windows 365 if it does actually turn out to be something) is that instead of you going out and buying every single version as soon as they come out you pay a monthly fee than just get them. So if you went right from Office 2000 to XP to 2003 to 2007 to 2010 to 2013 and expect to get 2016 then that is all for you. Same as if you went through all the version of windows like that. If you don't upgrade till you are forced then then no there is no value in that. No more than there is value in having a razor mailed to you every month from dollar shave club if you don't stay clean shaven but instead have a 6 inch long beard, or there is to sign up for a beer of the month club if you don't drink. There are reasons for services and they make perfect sense for those that have a need for them. If you aren't one of the people that do then no the service would be a waste.
 
BurntToast said:
Yes it would. It would be the in-between OS until they went back to the traditional non-subscription model. It would forever be the in-between model.

I would heavily consider Linux at that point. Linux has made bigger strides with gaming in the last couple of years than all of the years prior.
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Windows 365 would not be a version of windows, just like Office 365 is not a version of office. it would be a service to give you whatever the current version is. However this service would not and could not apply to home customers. So you and everyone else have nothing to worry about.
 
Haha I love the anti ms trolls. I guess their predictions that office 365 would fail was accurate as well? Haha.
 
People have been kind of groomed for subscriptions now though so it might be premature to write it off ... most cell users pay fixed monthly fees for data plans ... millions pay monthly fees for services like Netflix and Spotify ...although I don't think we will see a subscription model until after Windows 10, it is premature to write it off as a failure (it would likely depend on the cost, features, and stability)
 
Sounds like an alternative to Horizon 6 running off Azure to me.
 
GORANKAR said:
Maybe not. Businesses tend to be on what amounts to a rental plan anyway. Let's be honest, when it comes to the PC businesses are who MS cares about. In the mobile/tablet market they will just ship devices with a 2-4 year life expectancy, with a 2-4 year license. Laptops with a 3-5 year license. We can scream about it, maybe even leave on principle, but if the average person has used up or tossed out the device b4 the rent comes due, the average person will not be bothered at all.
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And when that average person keeps their computer an extra year, or hands it down to their kid, they will be very upset when they are prompted to start making payments every year just so they can keep using the old computer.

In a way most people already rent windows, it's just that the term is limited to the life of the device, and they pay the full rent up front (i.e. the cost of an oem version).

It's the power users) that pay extra for a retail copy that will really be impacted.

It's the same for smaller businesses too. I still have systems that are over 8 years old in use. a high end system bought for a power user will eventually end up on the desk of a non power user after several years. Older laptops are lent out to people who need to work from home for a few days/weeks or have un expected travel plans. If windows where to revert to a yearly rental after a few years it would significantly impact the cost of keeping these older systems in use.
 
Microsoft may or may not go with the subscription. No doubt they want to see if they can pull it off though. The only thing holding them back is fear of backlash. They will likely try to creep it on us slowly and subtly to see if they can boil the frog without alarming it to jump out.
 
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