Microsoft Is Readying a Consumer Microsoft 365 Subscription Bundle

Megalith

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As part of its cloud strategy, Redmond offers a subscription bundle called Microsoft 365, which packages Windows 10, Office 365, and Enterprise Mobility + Security (a device management suite) for business and enterprise environments. ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley has learned Microsoft is planning something similar for consumers, which could include “some variant of Windows 10, Office 365 Home, Skype, Cortana, Bing, Outlook Mobile, Microsoft To-Do, and maybe MSN apps and services.” Some believe Microsoft has telegraphed their intention to make Windows a subscription product in the future.

As a number of readers have noted, Microsoft currently makes Windows 10 available for "free" when Windows ships on new PCs. I am NOT suggesting this consumer bundle is Microsoft's plan to do away with "free" Windows. I think M365 Consumer will be an option, not a requirement, just like M365 for business users is today. I've asked Microsoft for comment as to when Microsoft 365 Consumer might be available and what it will include. No word back so far.
 
Subscriptions for consumers make little sense. There is a case to be made for the subscription model in the business environment but for home....not so much. There isn't a signicant advantage that I can see, any advantage really.. for home users. I see a shitstorm coming for MS the first time a home user can't access their OS because they forgot to pay and/or ran out of funds for any reason.

I have subscriptions for Office and the Adobe suite and wil not be renewing them. I'll purchase the software I need instead.
 
Subscriptions for consumers make little sense. There is a case to be made for the subscription model in the business environment but for home....not so much. There isn't a signicant advantage that I can see, any advantage really.. for home users. I see a shitstorm coming for MS the first time a home user can't access their OS because they forgot to pay and/or ran out of funds for any reason.

I have subscriptions for Office and the Adobe suite and wil not be renewing them. I'll purchase the software I need instead.
For business they send notice at 30 days of no payment and don’t shut off access till 6 months of no payment. But they claim to not delete the data till something like year 2 if the account isn’t re activated. But for businesses the A3 or A5 depending on what kind of security you need works really well.
 
For residential I don’t see the benefit, now for home businesses or small companies having access to Win10 Enterprise licensing and the benefits that come with it would be pretty big. The tech support options alone that come with the A3 and A5 licensing would be game changers for most.
 
As a number of readers have noted, Microsoft currently makes Windows 10 available for "free" when Windows ships on new PCs.
For Royalty OEMs yes but not for System Builders like myself, have to toss in a OEM Windows 10 and that's sure as hell not free. :p

But ugh, a consumer sub service for Windows + Office smells mighty stinky. Office 365 is bad enough to me.
 
Ah, nope. Windows is not going to a subscription based model, good luck with being wrong. :D :p
 
already running linux on everything except 2 gaming boxes here

never paying a subscription for an OS, not going to happen

Good thing because if you were using Windows, you never will need to do so.
 
What happens to your phone when you don't pay each month, that is what will happen to our PC's
 
Geez, here I am on the flip side again. =( I used Open Office for years, but when you want Open Office Writer to do some simple desktop publishing stuff (like columns and colors) it starts getting wonky. I finally gave up and tried Office 365 on subscription. No problems since, cheap at the price.


P.S. If you're looking for an Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator replacement, try Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer. They cost money, but at $50.00 they are very professional, and each has a 30-day trial package. There are some small differences in the menu, but they are miles better than GIMP and Inkscape. I recommend them because I own and use them.
 
Geez, here I am on the flip side again. =( I used Open Office for years, but when you want Open Office Writer to do some simple desktop publishing stuff (like columns and colors) it starts getting wonky. I finally gave up and tried Office 365 on subscription. No problems since, cheap at the price.


P.S. If you're looking for an Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator replacement, try Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer. They cost money, but at $50.00 they are very professional, and each has a 30-day trial package. There are some small differences in the menu, but they are miles better than GIMP and Inkscape. I recommend them because I own and use them.
I will try those out. I've recently heard mention of the Affinity apps elsewhere but haven't looked into them yet.
 
What happens to your phone when you don't pay each month, that is what will happen to our PC's

Really? So, a phone that does not have a Cell service live on it cannot be used at all? You are simply wrong.

Edit: What you are saying is akin to not paying your Internet bill but even that is not entirely accurate.
 
Um, yeah. $1 a month maybe for both windows and office "leasing".

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I have subscriptions for Office and the Adobe suite and wil not be renewing them. I'll purchase the software I need instead.

I really hate the subscription model

We have a few users that had Adobe products that we would upgrade every 2-3 years.
When they stopped offering upgrades and when to the subscription model, we just kept using the old version as long as we could.
However, as usually Adobe kept making minor changes in the file formats, until we started running into problems opening files sent to us by outside contractors with newer version.
We finally had to break down and put some people on the subscriptions.
We now have less people using Adobe, but our cost is more than before.
Wish I could just drop all Adobe products.
 
So maybe someone can answer this....what about the people who already paid for a Windows 10 Home or Pro key. I have two keys for the full version of Windows 10 Pro, are they now going to seek to have me pay for it monthly now even though I paid for it and own it? That would be some real bullshit if they did that.
 
So maybe someone can answer this....what about the people who already paid for a Windows 10 Home or Pro key. I have two keys for the full version of Windows 10 Pro, are they now going to seek to have me pay for it monthly now even though I paid for it and own it? That would be some real bullshit if they did that.

I'm not in anyway capable of fielding this question but going to go with ... Yes! Welcome to the loot box subscription access to your personal operating system :( I cant imagine it gets less intrusive from here!
 
Would you rent a book just to read it?

No?

Answer: BUY IT.

Right?

So would you subscribe (spell that rent) such a software?

/s
 
P.S. If you're looking for an Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator replacement, try Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer. They cost money, but at $50.00 they are very professional, and each has a 30-day trial package. There are some small differences in the menu, but they are miles better than GIMP and Inkscape. I recommend them because I own and use them.

Serif's a decent company, used their previous products for years (drawplus, photoplus, webplus, pageplus, movieplus). I have both of these installed now and other than the annoyance that they don't support their own previous software's file formats (at least, designer doesn't) these two are good stuff, well worth the price you pay.

BB
 
Yes but what about Adobe Bridge, Acrobat DC & Preflight Features and the integration of smart objects within the suite? What about automatic font activation across all Adobe Apps through software like Suitcase Fusion? And of course Adobe Media Encoder / Premier / After Effects.

It's not that simple to replace the Adobe Suite once you engage deep into it and they know it and it works well as far as I am concerned.
 
Good thing because if you were using Windows, you never will need to do so.

I honestly believe that if Microsoft were to do this tomorrow, you'd still be ranting the same old line "It'll never happen"! Even after it's been done!

Microsoft gave Windows 10 away, they make nix on OEM installs, even retail versions of Windows have dropped in price. They make more money out of the cloud now, the cloud works in perfectly with a subscription based model and yet you think it'll never happen 'because I'm the consumer'.

I don't pretend to know the future, but I think you're jumping around with your fingers in your ears if you think this isn't at least a possibility. Capitalist USA love the subscription model.
 
Yes but what about Adobe Bridge, Acrobat DC & Preflight Features and the integration of smart objects within the suite? What about automatic font activation across all Adobe Apps through software like Suitcase Fusion? And of course Adobe Media Encoder / Premier / After Effects.

It's not that simple to replace the Adobe Suite once you engage deep into it and they know it and it works well as far as I am concerned.
I think you're right. I use the Adobe Suite (for now) but I don't delve deep enough into any of it to make it irreplaceable for me but I can easily see how for professionals it's hard to beat.
You may be able to find comparatively inexpensive programs that can match or closely match the abilities of any single Adobe offering but making them work together as they would through the Adobe Suite I'd imagine would be difficult at best.
I also didn't realize just how massive the Suite actually is. The number and quality of programs available makes it pretty much a no-brainer for those who use it to earn income imo.
 
I think you're right. I use the Adobe Suite (for now) but I don't delve deep enough into any of it to make it irreplaceable for me but I can easily see how for professionals it's hard to beat.
You may be able to find comparatively inexpensive programs that can match or closely match the abilities of any single Adobe offering but making them work together as they would through the Adobe Suite I'd imagine would be difficult at best.
I also didn't realize just how massive the Suite actually is. The number and quality of programs available makes it pretty much a no-brainer for those who use it to earn income imo.

I reckon I'd make it work as opposed to paying the rip off subscription for their products at a price that just keeps increasing.
 
I am surprised by many of the responses. I thought it was pretty common knowledge this is the direction Microsoft was going to take.
it is, iirc there was an interview with B.Gates where he regretted not converting windows to a subscription model.
I am not surprised that MS are pushing this ... Office is actually pretty good and if they made it linux-native I would actually subscribe because typically there isn't any real issues and those that do exist are fixed fast.
Office is what keeps people on windows ... butbutbut the games, hate to burst a few ego's but gamers are such a small percentage of desktop users. butbutbut professional cad applications, they pretty much are OS agnostic because again they are such a tiny market if someone pushing that they use linux they will make it for linux

So why did MS push Win10 for free? to wipe the slate of all the old, poor patched machines to make their life easier? probably. But they just replaced it with forced patches that have poor quality.
Only a fool would subscribe to windows (outside of business) as the quality is crap. Paying for BSoD is just insult to injury, but as a platform to keep office existing it makes sense
 
Why would I ever want all my documents to be poured over by Microsoft, at their leisure?

Cloud storage? No thanks.
 
So, based on the job description, that I actually read, show me how you can subscribe to these things: Microsoft Surface device portfolio, Microsoft’s intelligent agent in Cortana and search efforts with Bing, as well as the Microsoft Education Team. In my opinion, there is going to be NO Microsoft Windows subscription services. Common sense and logic would dictate that but then again, people rarely, at least around here, see Microsoft in that way.

I am surprised by many of the responses. I thought it was pretty common knowledge this is the direction Microsoft was going to take.

It is common opinion in these forums for certain folks but, it is not common sense is not going to happen. (No, you are not going to go to Best Buy, buy an HP laptop or Desktop and then put your credit card in at startup to be able to use it.)
 
Why would I ever want all my documents to be poured over by Microsoft, at their leisure?

Cloud storage? No thanks.
Yeah, that would be crazy. It would be like using Gmail, Google, Facebook, Instagram, and bunch of other things that monetize you.
 
They have decades to implement this. If they move too fast the people will notice.
 

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People are just dying to pay a monthly sub for an OS that randomly deletes their data and disables more and more software with each 'update.'

This might be the staw that breaks Windows dominance. The avg mom buying a $300 laptop or pc is not going to want to spend $10 a month just to ues that pc.

The user base fragmentation caused by the 8/10 disaster certainly hasn't helped. I'd love to see Ubuntu on the cheap laptops at Walmart.

Honestly, I think they probably could have had some success and made more money if they had gone with a subscription desktop-focused OS after Windows 7. I paid a couple hundred a year for Technet back in the day. Turning Windows 8/10 into some kind of awful mobile-desktop hybrid OS monetized by ads and 'apps' has been an unmitigated disaster, and now I don't think the Windows team has the talent or budget to recover regardless of their strategy. I'm expecting a desktop Azure OS at some point.
 
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This is all but guaranteed. Why? Because they will make more money, simple as that, when ever there is a change like this the internet will be up in arms for a while. Then things will blow over and people will move on. Sure they need to be patient but it's coming.

My kids are teenager's and they think subscription models are great because that's what they know. I try to explain how we're getting screwed but they know better :D
 
already running linux on everything except 2 gaming boxes here

never paying a subscription for an OS, not going to happen
I have several laptops running Mint 19 (don't ask how I got them) and 2 desktop machines that run Mint 19. My gaming PC is the only machine running Windows 10. If need be I'll switch it over to Linux Mint. My Creative Recon3D sound card would sometimes stop working when I resume the PC from sleep and that's been a problem since Windows 7, so maybe using Linux won't have this issue.
 
This might be the staw that breaks Windows dominance. The avg mom buying a $300 laptop or pc is not going to want to spend $10 a month just to ues that pc.
I really don't think that is the business model they are going for, that being said unless they are changing things up most of the features they are offering with that plan require Win 10 Enterprise, so if they wanted to throw an Enterprise license at individuals who sign up for this than that would be sweet. The A3 and E3 packages currently include Win 10 Enterprise dekstop licensing for each user but you need 150 seats to even apply for E3, change that up so a home business can do it and they have a real win.
 
Really? So, a phone that does not have a Cell service live on it cannot be used at all? You are simply wrong.

Edit: What you are saying is akin to not paying your Internet bill but even that is not entirely accurate.

Right now without internet we can still use our computers, what I am saying is
your Personal Computer will not be Personal at all, it will be a dummy terminal with no real power to do anything.
 
Right now without internet we can still use our computers, what I am saying is
your Personal Computer will not be Personal at all, it will be a dummy terminal with no real power to do anything.

That is the same thing as saying that Microcenter is going out of Business and closing their doors.
 
Yeah, that would be crazy. It would be like using Gmail, Google, Facebook, Instagram, and bunch of other things that monetize you.

Lol... You've just listed what I have never, and will never, use and the reason why. ;)
 
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