Can Windows 10 Survive In A World Of Free Operating Systems

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For the past twenty years, the biggest rivals to Windows have all been free operating systems. Even then, none of them have come close to being a real threat, so I don't know why that would suddenly make Microsoft change how it makes money off Windows. It's insane when you think about it, Microsoft has been able to charge hundreds of dollars for each new version of Windows for decades even though there is a plethora of great free operating systems out there.

Like an old friend who's no longer the star quarterback, Windows 10 is a little more humbled, but a little more reasonable. Microsoft is listening to its users, building solutions across platforms, and working hard on building better products. I like where Microsoft is going with Windows. While the PC business model is broken, there will always be a space for Windows on our computers and in our hearts.
 
Wut? decades of great free operating systems out there? If you are referring to Linux, um no, that hasn't quit fit the bill, especially for PC gamers or Business'. Mac operating systems most certainly are not free - Mac tax and all..

Now with the advancement of the mobile space (Android), and Chrome OS - yes options are getting better. Yes, Microsoft fears Chrome OS..
 
Call me crazy but seems like the biggest rival to Windows has always been Apple, at least given statistics:

Windows-Now-Running-on-91-56-Percent-of-the-World-s-PCs-471911-2.jpg
 
I am still looking for that one Linux distro that meets all my needs. I recently tried OpenSUSE tumbleweed and have internet issues after reboot. Then again I did install all non-expert repo's. I am going to give Zorin OS a try next. Windows 7 is nice but I think Windows 8.1 will be the sweet spot. Since I am a gamer Linux is always lagging behind is most cases. Even playonlinux & wine can only do so much. I will one day make the leap to a Linux distro only. For now though it's only dual booting.
 
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Isnt windows 10 like OSX nowadays? (you buy it once, just like OSX, buy the hardware once, then free upgrades)
 
Microsoft and everyone else is looking at the long tail of the PC curve. That's life.

The segment will shrink because users that don't really need the full PC experience get sucked up into the pile of consumers of lighter weight devices.

MS will make money on the OS, just less. To make up for it, MS is looking at the cloud. Will they win? I don't know, but they are better positioned to make money. They are in a way being the apple of the cloud. They aren't really innovating, but they are looking at what attracts paying customers, refining that and integrating that, and offering more for less in general.

Azure loses less money than any other cloud computing platform. If they can push enough customer volume into it, the jump to profitability is not a huge hit in price per user.

Office 365, for $5 a month offers 50GB of email, 1TB of cloud storage. I want similar storage from dropbox or google drive, it's $10 a month for just that. It also gets me a spam filtering service that would likely cost me money to replicate on any other platform other than space constricted free mail services. If you don't worry about paying $9.99 a month, for $2 more a month, they'll match or beat what you have and throw in 5 copies of office for your various devices.

Your average low end MS consumer bought a high volume OEM license (~$50 in their pocket) with their PC and a copy of office at $99 every 3 years. Even if you are on osx or linux, if they an get you int there for less than you pay for your cloud storage, they made back the OS license money you gave them every three years in one. You cough up the $5 a month to add on office, and they are getting $150 for office every three years instead of $99. Since office is now availabel on windows, osx, android, and iOS, that covers most OSes out there where they could make back that $50 license fee in one year.
 
Steve said:
Like an old friend who's no longer the star quarterback, Windows 10 is a little more humbled, but a little more reasonable. Microsoft is listening to its users, building solutions across platforms, and working hard on building better products. I like where Microsoft is going with Windows. While the PC business model is broken, there will always be a space for Windows on our computers and in our hearts.
Click to expand...

What is this nonsense? They might be listening to the users, but only to do the exact opposite of what they hear. I guess it was the users who asked for more "telemetry". It was also the user who asked for uncontrollable updates. And it was also the user who asked for features to be added or taken away at a whim, with no way of opting out. Users couldn't care less about cross platform solutions. It might be a good thing to some developers, but that is a very small fraction of people using windows.

I wouldn't call pushing upgrade like it was the vaccine for cancer humble either.

I'd have a few choice words with the "users" who asked for the uncustomizable, bland gui too.
 
daglesj said:
I cant give Linux away to customers. They just don't want it. They want Windows.
Click to expand...
That's the sad reality. Desktop Linux is only free if your time to constantly play around with it is free. I know there are some people who have low requirements and it works fine with little or no fuss, but this is [H] and we're generally not web surfing grannies.
 
daglesj said:
I cant give Linux away to customers. They just don't want it. They want Windows.
Click to expand...

Well it is simple for me as a consumer I steer away from Windows it is not good for my needs.
If you look at tablets or phones look at the way Windows has had no impact, they ware being sold and used but consumers don't require it as they do on the desktop.

Windows 10 also didn't pull the industry out of the downwards spiral it has been in. So what does that exactly prove about Windows 10.
It just tells you that desktop users don't know any better then to stick with windows. If Microsoft was as good as they think they were they would sell more hardware because of their top notch innovative piece of technology they claim as an Operating System (for years now (sigh)) .
 
What kills me for Linux is I still cannot find a solution for it like Active Directory. Being able to manage GPO & GPP for desktops is mandatory, and without something similar for Linux is just a joke.
 
Well, considering I got Windows 7 for free years ago (I know people will argue it was in the cost of the laptops that I've owned but I prefer to think the slight increase in price was because of the outstanding warranty service from Dell) I don't really see much of a point in this article. Linux has been around 25+ years now and while I used some of the code Linus originally released, and then Slackware 1.0, then other distros along the way I can confidently say that for myself Linux still sucks and I won't have anything to do with it anymore. :)

But Windows isn't going anywhere even in spite of the "modern" Microsoft almost purposely trying to bring down their own house of cards that Bill and company built.
 
I think the cash flow, advertising, is being built into it slowly but surely. Slowly so no one notices. Much. I'm not so sure free is all it's cracked up to be.
 
MrValentine said:
What kills me for Linux is I still cannot find a solution for it like Active Directory. Being able to manage GPO & GPP for desktops is mandatory, and without something similar for Linux is just a joke.
Click to expand...

This^^ There is nothing like AD not in linux not in iOS. AFAIK Apple is now targeting the enterprise so expect them to "invent" an AD solution.
 
I don't see them going "free"...I would see them moving to an annual subscription model. It worked for Office, why not Windows?

And if they'd give me a constantly updated, adware and spyware free version of Windows 10, I'd pay $40-50 a year for it.
 
Pointless article. I use linux on the desktop and even I can tell Windows has a loooong way to fall before going extinct. Microsoft makes their profits on enterprise and office products, not their home windows.

They are more far more vulnerable on the mobile side since they have next ti nil marketshare.
 
sboucher said:
Wut? decades of great free operating systems out there? If you are referring to Linux, um no, that hasn't quit fit the bill, especially for PC gamers or Business'. Mac operating systems most certainly are not free - Mac tax and all..

Now with the advancement of the mobile space (Android), and Chrome OS - yes options are getting better. Yes, Microsoft fears Chrome OS..
Click to expand...

So, Microsoft should fear an OS that is directly created on ads and data mining? Good luck with that and the fact that Chrome OS will never reach the support and application level of Windows. (Let alone not ever be HIPPA compliant nor like Windows 7, which many here really, really want.)
 
Tweak42 said:
Pointless article. I use linux on the desktop and even I can tell Windows has a loooong way to fall before going extinct. Microsoft makes their profits on enterprise and office products, not their home windows.

They are more far more vulnerable on the mobile side since they have next ti nil marketshare.
Click to expand...

With the OS, yes, with the app support on the major platforms, not even close to nil.
 
tetris42 said:
It's called a shill piece. Windows 10 is objectively the most invasive OS Microsoft has ever released.
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And yet people still use Android, iOS and Mac OS. All of which gather more information about you and send it back to their creators and no one is complaining about it. I'm not suggesting your point about Windows is wrong, just that somehow people choose to ignore the problems with all the other popular operating systems and go after Windows for adding features that all the rest of them already had.
 
daglesj said:
I cant give Linux away to customers. They just don't want it. They want Windows.
Click to expand...

MrValentine said:
What kills me for Linux is I still cannot find a solution for it like Active Directory. Being able to manage GPO & GPP for desktops is mandatory, and without something similar for Linux is just a joke.
Click to expand...

Both of these. Linux just isn't ready still. You don't have a solution to the active directory that works anywhere near as well. Open office doesn't compete with MS Office for many power users. Even stuff like access doesn't have a good competitor(as much as most of us don't like access it does fill an important role). You also have a lot of commercial software that windows and to a lesser extent apple own. Companies have found that linux users generally don't want to pay for anything(bryan lunduke talked about this a while ago in one of his linux sucks videos when he gave the numbers of his paid software that was in the top 10 on ubuntu's store). Adobe, Autodesk, Intuit, etc all don't really have good free alternatives for all of their software and most of their own software isn't on linux.

Another huge problem is groupware. No one has a good solution to exchange. You have google apps which isn't as good and doesn't have as good of support when it comes to phones(their iphone app sucks compared to the built in mail app and exchange). Everything else is either based off broken crap like push imap or is a copy of the ms solution. This later means they will always be behind them.

Really they need someone like apple, ibm or redhat to make an open standard that competes with active directory. Same goes for exchange. In that field you really need someone like apple to try and compete with them as they could make their phones compatible. I don't see google doing it as they want to host it themselves. A third party app could be used but really it would need support built in to have the best chance.

I don't see windows going away for a long time.
 
Samba - opening windows to a wider world
FreeIPA
Red Hat Directory Server

Its really not that hard to integrate or replace AD. Don't get me wrong nothing wrong with AD... but Its not going to save or doom Windows one way or another. There are plenty of very good options to do the same job with Linux, even open source ones.

Yes as a Linux booster clearly this article is odd. I don't think anyone expects windows to go the way of OS/2 or something tomorrow. Of course long term I believe Windows time with run out.

I think the only way that happens fast (over 2-3 years) is if Google makes it happen. The eventual open source OS win isn't likely to be a fast transition. Google however does have the $ and the possible market pull to make it happen faster. So of course MS is looking very closely and are concerned about Chrome. It wouldn't take very much polish for Google to shine Chrome up as a Windows killer. (I don't know if there is enough $ in the market to really tempt them to bother however) I mean do we really see Google dropping tons of Marketing Money, possibly throwing money at a bunch of the largest game publishers to support Chrome/Linux... and perhaps throw more money at manufacturers like Dell to get some a bunch factor shipped installs.

It sounds far fetched to me sure... cause ya its a rapidly shrinking market, and googles current version of Chrome is already getting a pretty good bite out of the portable market.

Still though I am sure MS could envision Google at some point, getting Steam up on a new version of Chrome... throwing around some $ to ensure a bunch off AAA games launch on steam when they hit the go button. Launch a line of Google branded New-Chrome laptops... and pay off a few of the bigs like Dell to offer Chrome OS. Then blitz the ad spaces for a few months and push "GoogleOS". (a "GoogleOS"... that would run on Everything. replacing Android and Chrome. Of course that gives the high ups at MS nightmares.)

Not likely, but of course MS has considered the possibility... and I am pretty sure Google has run those numbers at some point.
 
If Microsoft would have not trainwrecked Windows Phone we'd be in a very different place in the PR battle right now.

I freaking LOVE my Windows phone, except for the whole being slowly abandoned thing. If they would have been a year faster getting 10 Mobile out, and actually supported it we'd have a real viable mobile work device that compliments but doesn't replace the Windows desktop.

Screw tablets. Screw laptops for the most part. I'm either fully mobile with only my phone, or I'm geared to the hilt on a desktop. I don't need or want half-ass in between setups.

But it's going to take a miracle to save Windows Phone at this point.
 
Advil said:
If Microsoft would have not trainwrecked Windows Phone we'd be in a very different place in the PR battle right now.

I freaking LOVE my Windows phone, except for the whole being slowly abandoned thing. If they would have been a year faster getting 10 Mobile out, and actually supported it we'd have a real viable mobile work device that compliments but doesn't replace the Windows desktop.

Screw tablets. Screw laptops for the most part. I'm either fully mobile with only my phone, or I'm geared to the hilt on a desktop. I don't need or want half-ass in between setups.

But it's going to take a miracle to save Windows Phone at this point.
Click to expand...

The bad thing is they had it with the old windows phones. The new ones sadly just have too many issues.

I'm getting ready to ditch my 950. I'm on the edge of cell coverage and if the phone drops signal it usually refuses to pick it up again until I turn on and of the cell part(quick way is to put it in airplane mode then take it out). Today it dropped off at some point and I missed it going off for a few hours. Sucks as overall I like the phone.
 
For only $xx a month you can do your part to make sure a helpless Microsoft doesn't go to bed hungry. Please, look deep inside and get out your credit cards, its not too late!
 
Quix said:
And yet people still use Android, iOS and Mac OS. All of which gather more information about you and send it back to their creators and no one is complaining about it. I'm not suggesting your point about Windows is wrong, just that somehow people choose to ignore the problems with all the other popular operating systems and go after Windows for adding features that all the rest of them already had.
Click to expand...
The very big difference, is that android is on my phone. All the information they can collect on that they're welcome to it. But I want my home computer to be private. But most importantly to be mine. To do as I please. And not go home to find a new update has altered my settings, or removed features I used.
 
It's a matter of trust.

Do we trust Microsoft with holding the O/S, "cloud" stuff, business documents, family photo storage, etc?
So far the answer is a big no from the world. We rather limit our data exposure by compartmentalizing our data to various providers/systems.
So what do the big companies do? They buy the smaller players for big money, just to grab more of our data. Microsoft buys Skype & LinkedIn (and more). There went the fence protection of data (if you use those platforms).

Also, I think that most people either don't care which O/S they run, as long as it does what they want with minimal fuss. Serving up ads in a start menu or built in programs is "fuss". Giving the O/S away "free" will still put people off when you make things inconvenient and annoying. What happens? More people will actively look for alternatives. And right now Apple is it. If any company makes an actually useful and good distro, we'll all use it. (Linux distros have a laundry list of shortcomings, and once someone figures out how to fix those, game over).
 
MrValentine said:
What kills me for Linux is I still cannot find a solution for it like Active Directory. Being able to manage GPO & GPP for desktops is mandatory, and without something similar for Linux is just a joke.
Click to expand...
Kerberos +LDAP+ Puppet ... are you even trying

or if you want a single solution "because that's what windows does so linux has to do things exactly the same" ...FreeIPA
 
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naib said:
Kerberos +LDAP+ Puppet ... are you even trying

or if you want a single solution "because that's what windows does so linux has to do things exactly the same" ...FreeIPA
Click to expand...

Pretty much, FreeIPA is a one click install in pretty much every major distro. For the big boy distros where people are likely to use such tools its as hard as typing "yum install ipa-server"... setting it up on an ubuntu/redhat/suse system is hardly rocket science if your looking for an easy solution.
 
For Linux to really get traction...dump the 47648 other distros and merge it down to concentrating on purely 2-3 for general/specific purposes.

Oh and maybe settle on a Desktop...whatever?

Currently Linux is running it's own divide and conquer strategy...on itself.

I got really fed up the few occasions I installed a distro of Linux to then be told by two dozen neck-beards that I should instead have installed one of two dozen other distros.

Pointless.
 
Quix said:
And yet people still use Android, iOS and Mac OS. All of which gather more information about you and send it back to their creators and no one is complaining about it. I'm not suggesting your point about Windows is wrong, just that somehow people choose to ignore the problems with all the other popular operating systems and go after Windows for adding features that all the rest of them already had.
Click to expand...
I was mostly commenting on this quote:

"Windows 10 is a little more humbled, but a little more reasonable. Microsoft is listening to its users, building solutions across platforms, and working hard on building better products. I like where Microsoft is going with Windows. While the PC business model is broken, there will always be a space for Windows on our computers and in our hearts."

I see no way Windows 10 is humble and MS is listening to its users, nor how there is space for windows "in our hearts." I use Windows because I need it to run my games (old, new, popular, and obscure). That's pretty much it right now. I would leave it in a heartbeat if there was a realistic alternative. As for your point, Android isn't a desktop OS designed to be able to do serious work on. If you compare Windows 10 to every previous version of Windows, or to Linux, there's PLENTY to complain about regarding telemetry, or more importantly, forced updating and feature removal. Hell, just look at these forums. Even the average Joe is complaining about Windows 10, not because of telemetry, but when MS changes something in an update so that something stops working.
 
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daglesj said:
For Linux to really get traction...dump the 47648 other distros and merge it down to concentrating on purely 2-3 for general/specific purposes.

Oh and maybe settle on a Desktop...whatever?

Currently Linux is running it's own divide and conquer strategy...on itself.

I got really fed up the few occasions I installed a distro of Linux to then be told by two dozen neck-beards that I should instead have installed one of two dozen other distros.

Pointless.
Click to expand...

The distributed nature of Linux is a handicap in terms of wide spread distribution sure. It is not however a weakness of Linux in anyway. It means their is a Linux desktop to suit every situation, a distro to cover off all sorts of edge caes. (remember a distro when it comes down to it is really just Linux with a bunch of presets and preinstalled software... its a lot like a Windows Manufacturer spin, only the software included is almost always more useful. I will agree some Linux users don't help out with their "advice" to new users. Its a small community some folks have been around for 10 years and don't wanna share their special toys. To defend the Linux name a bit though... I will say it is funny that when a super commercial distro like that is created like I don't know say *cough* Android, the MS boosters won't admit that it is in fact a Linux distro. This is to polished to be Linux... can't be, its butchered ect ... Sillyness, it runs the Kernel its Linux ;)

If your talking about distros for the "average" user. Sure those can always get better... and they have been getting better every week for years now. Sure for new users having one no argument distro to point to would be nice... but where honestly not that far off of that. The average user distros are pretty well agreed on... "Mint / Ubuntu" l think its safe to say would earn the top votes of 90% of the "neck beards" going further I would imagine a good majority of that 90% would just say Mint, and 9/10 of the remaining 10% off the NBs are likely going to suggest a small number of other distros that are new user friendly. Choosing a new user distro has never been easier. (and less relevant to be honest, outside of a few tools being a bit different there isn't many distros really rocking the boat and doing anything all that strange anymore, things are pretty consistent)

As for the desktop env, to be completely honest it makes almost no difference which you run at all. It can be easily summed up for new Linux people like this...

1) you can run them all if you are not sure which you like... don't be to worried about installing as many desktops as you like, if your sticking to the top 4-5 new user friendly distros I listed above you can remove ones you don't like later with one click. (no BS left behind, no registry entries ect) Start with that distros flagship... and install the others when your up and running to check them out.

2) Gnome = Windows 8 done right... KDE (and perhaps Cinn) = Windows 10 done right... XFCE = Windows 7... Mate very much like XFCE/Windows 7 if the distro you choose has mate as a main option but not XFCE go that way. (all the others... don't worry about them if its your first go with Linux. Most are niche and exist so wanna be hacker kids can claim to only be using 42.0k of ram while idle. As fun as it is to run openbox on a laptop and look super nerdy when your fixing Workstations... no one anywhere even the beardiest grizzly bearded neck beard you can find is suggesting stuff like that to new folks.)
 
daglesj said:
I happen to think it is a HUGE weakness. But I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. ;)

I just wonder if all that effort and know-how was pushed into just a handful of distros...
Click to expand...

Fair ... and I do understand your point. Yes having 1001 options show up if you search "linux" doesn't help grandma install it Or the average windows person who starts with a "Linux" google search. Its just my (and most Linux die hards) opinion that choice is good, and I would never install on my home machine the same ditros I install for people on workstations ect. Its like having 1000s of customised installs, which is nice if you use Linux for more then just your basic home desktop setup.

For new user know how... yes I will say the vast majority of the (how to make this work for everyone) type know how is found in a couple distros.

Mint is that distro for most people you will talk to. For a few reasons.

1) it is one of a small handful of distros that has an option to install with "non-free" drivers. (The Manjaro has this type of option as well... but for a new user as much as I love the Arch Linux based Manjaro I think Mint is still the safe bet) The Non free is HUGE if you are using some newer Intel Cpus... and ^HUGE^ if your running say an Nvidia GPU. I believe many new people get tempted to try like the major workstation Distros like CentOS (the free version of Red Hat), or OpenSUSE... doing something like installing an Nvidia driver that windows people would assume is simple, isn't really. (if you know Linux its no big deal... if you don't it is). I have seen people suggest for instance OpenSuse Tumbleweed their rolling release... but for a new user thats a terrible suggestion, if they run an nvidia GPU their going to have to recompile their Kernel with every driver update and it will be a nightmare for them if they even get it running to start with. Mint however from the first option you get at the install screen lets you just say "Use Non-Free drivers" and you never have to worry about it. (seriously 99% of Nvidia cards for example will be detected and the Newest Nvidia driver will be installed... and Updated when every you update your system forever more... no more downloading drivers from Nvidia.com)

2) it has all the basics almost every basic desktop user is going to want already installed. No need to hunt down pretty fonts, or codecs... it comes with VLC, Firefox, thunderbird, Libre... and installing anything else you will want is a basic one click. There software repositories isn't the biggest out their, but its very well stocked... covering off anything a new user could want.
The only thing I get asked about from people I know with mint is... "how do I install chrome" Most distros don't put google-chrome in their repositories, instead you will find chromium. Still if its Chrome you want; you simply have to click on terminal and type "deb http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main" to add Googles Debian based linux Repository Then update your repositories with this "sudo apt-get update" and install chrome with this "sudo aptitude install google-chrome-stable". 2 min later you have Chrome on your system... and any time there is a new version of chrome it pops up in your system update like all your other software. (you can find those simple instructions with a quick google search... of course are a few bad advice links that may suggest a different install method that may not have Chrome updating properly later, bad advice with everything if you always trust google search for anything.)

Anyway long post to say, yes I agree with you. For all around work on any desktop laptop type distros. Mint is likely the best option mainly thanks to the non free driver install option... as people with newer or niche GPUS I believe are going to have the most issues out of the box with any distro. Mint bypasses this by simply identifying your GPU and downloading the newest driver from the manufaturer before it even boots a Desktop env.
 
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