Microsoft's New Business Model For Windows 10: Pay To Play

[Megalith]

With the news that Microsoft is offering Windows 10 subscriptions to businesses for $7 per month, discussion regarding the company’s potential plans for charging regular consumers are ramping up again. For now, I’ll just ponder whether MS would have to credit you back every time they release a broken system update.

The exact price that Microsoft charges large OEMs for Windows is a carefully guarded secret, but there's no question that the price tag has dropped precipitously in the past few years. Indeed, on some devices, such as small tablets, the OEM price of Windows is literally zero. People are still buying PCs, but the rate of new sales is declining year over year. Fewer PCs, with lower revenue per unit, means dramatically lower overall revenues for the Windows licenses attached to those PCs. But the cost of developing, distributing, and supporting Windows isn't declining. To maintain its margins, Microsoft is aggressively looking for new ways to convince Windows users to pay for additional products and services.

 

[Trimlock]

If they charged monthly to use an OS then more and more people would stay on their non-monthly OS's, even if unsupported. I'd subscribe to a business subscription but not a consumer one.

 

[glutto]

Little by little......

Cue the soon.jpg's.

 

[Deleted member 93354]

If Microsoft forces windows 10 to a pay model, there will be a class action lawsuit so large, and so fast that Microsoft would go broke for sure. There was no mention of a pay model when Microsoft practically forced the windows 10 upgrade on everyone. In fact Microsoft claimed it was free, and to change this would fall under deceptive marketing practices.

 

[Lunas]

Called it when office 365 came out...

 

[Spartacus]

I'm an IT consultant and I can tell you right now that my small biz customers will have zero interest in a subscription OS.
Neither do I for my biz and personal systems.

I guess I better start brushing up on my Linux skills.

.

 

[Lakados]

For Business and Enterprise, Microsoft has always offered software assurance this is not new at all, Microsoft has simply changed the name turned it from an Annual cost to a Monthly one and halved the price while simultaneously bundling it with additional features. This is a big win for Small/Medium businesses and makes things easier for the small computer companies that are often doing their system maintenance.

 

[nilepez]

If Microsoft forces windows 10 to a pay model, there will be a class action lawsuit so large, and so fast that Microsoft would go broke for sure. There was no mention of a pay model when Microsoft practically forced the windows 10 upgrade on everyone. In fact Microsoft claimed it was free, and to change this would fall under deceptive marketing practices.

It would be on future licenses, not existing ones.

That said, I think they'd lose market share if they did that. I'm willing to do a subscription with Photoshop, because it'd take 10 years (or more) for the cost of a PS/LR Sub to cost as much as buying PS (no LR) and only upgrading once every 4 years (which is longer than most would wait). As long as it's 10 bucks, that's a great deal.
OTOH, Windows would have to be around 2 bucks/month for me to justify it...and even then it'd be a close call, because I tend to use my machines for 4-5 years (sometimes longer). They'll sell the OS outright, while offering subs.

I think this makes a lot of sense for business users, but far less sense for consumers.

Called it when office 365 came out...

Office 365 supports my argument that this won't be a requirement. You can buy Office 2016 Home/Business for 200 bucks (give or take). I'll just use my 2013 (or is it 2010) for as long as possible. I don't use it enough to care about new features and it's hard to justify upgrading at all.

 

[acidrain97]

I personally don't care if M$ charges or not. As long as there are official ISO's that can be downloaded and your own personal KMS server (key management service) I'm good. And yes that stuff has been reversed engineered. There are some smart mofo's out there.

 

[Semantics]

For business large volume deals this doesn't change much...

 

[Archaea]

If Microsoft forces windows 10 to a pay model, there will be a class action lawsuit so large, and so fast that Microsoft would go broke for sure. There was no mention of a pay model when Microsoft practically forced the windows 10 upgrade on everyone. In fact Microsoft claimed it was free, and to change this would fall under deceptive marketing practices.

Windows 7 or 8 you upgraded from can
A) be reverted back to
B) reinstalled

You didn't lose your original license in the upgrade.

Your retail based consumer would pay though because they won't know how to revert or reinstall.

 

[Skripka]

Windows 7 or 8 you upgraded from can
A) be reverted back to
B) reinstalled

You didn't lose your original license in the upgrade.

Your retail based consumer would pay though because they won't know how to revert or reinstall.

You can only revert back within 10-30 days of when your "upgrade" was installed. After which windows.old is deleted automatically, and your ability to revert ceases.

 

[nilepez]

You can only revert back within 10-30 days of when your "upgrade" was installed. After which windows.old is deleted automatically, and your ability to revert ceases.

1. 30 days (never heard of a 10 day limit)
2. presumably you backed up before upgrading (I know I did)
   
3. you can always reinstall 7 or 8. but I suspect you can't do an upgrade from 10 to 7.

Nevertheless, they're not going to take your current license and change it to a pay/month OS. I'm not convinced they'll do it at all for consumers. We were never a cash cow for MS.

 

[Skripka]

1. 30 days (never heard of a 10 day limit)
2. presumably you backed up before upgrading (I know I did)
   
3. you can always reinstall 7 or 8. but I suspect you can't do an upgrade from 10 to 7.

Nevertheless, they're not going to take your current license and change it to a pay/month OS. I'm not convinced they'll do it at all for consumers. We were never a cash cow for MS.

WAU cut the upgrade window from 30 to 10 days. That was another "feature" of the "anniversary update"

Microsoft Shortens Recovery Rollback Period to 10 Days in Windows 10 Anniversary Update

 

[ir0nw0lf]

1. 30 days (never heard of a 10 day limit)

Been a known thing since at least early August: Windows 10 1607 (Anniversary Update) rollback time is now 10 days.

 

[Nenu]

lol.
Amusement increase with MS is proportional to time passed.
Windows 7 ftw for so many reasons

 

[ChadD]

It gets easier and easier to sell small business on Linux everyday. Patches that don't happen whenever they want, no crashes, more secure, less $ upfront... and now no monthly sub. More and more most only need a web browser, with Libre and thunderbird. The more companies that make the switch, the easier it gets to sell the next shop down the road. I've been so busy I didn't even notice that I'm not the only game in town anymore... I walked into my first potential client last week that was already running Linux. lol

 

[Galvin]

Try to use your computer one day and cant cause you failed to pay your bill. This become just like cable TV. Except you have to pay a monthly fee to keep your computer running.
It starts off cheap, then over the years the rates will go up.

 

[DPI]

If Microsoft forces windows 10 to a pay model, there will be a class action lawsuit so large, and so fast that Microsoft would go broke for sure. There was no mention of a pay model when Microsoft practically forced the windows 10 upgrade on everyone. In fact Microsoft claimed it was free, and to change this would fall under deceptive marketing practices.

They won't force it, it'll just be a slow, creeping erosion: offer Windows 10 Pay-Forever™ Subscription Edition in parallel to the retail/paid edition. Then make the one-time-pay version more of a nuisance and/or try to incentivize the subscription version. Trouble with MS is they don't know how to incentivize their software anymore or deliver killer features, since that actually requires innovation.

 

[jwcalla]

It gets easier and easier to sell small business on Linux everyday. Patches that don't happen whenever they want, no crashes, more secure, less $ upfront... and now no monthly sub. More and more most only need a web browser, with Libre and thunderbird. The more companies that make the switch, the easier it gets to sell the next shop down the road. I've been so busy I didn't even notice that I'm not the only game in town anymore... I walked into my first potential client last week that was already running Linux. lol

I've been exclusively Linux for almost six years now (Oct. 2010) but I can objectively say that the various Linux distros have their own set up problems. It is fine for web browsing and such like that. But most distros care not a twit about UI / UX and so if you can get around the fact that nobody is looking to make a desktop experience that works for everybody, it's fine. It just so happens that for what I do, Windows can't compete with Linux.

(But MS forced their users into a trainwreck UI / UX also, so pissing off users is basically a universal industry trend.)

 

[Trimlock]

For business volume volume deals this doesn't change much...

This might make it cheaper for volume licensing and support, since I think the old subscription model included it and now businesses have the ability to adjust their requirements monthly instead of yearly. Businesses are no longer forced to over estimate their yearly needs.

 

[ChadD]

I've been exclusively Linux for almost six years now (Oct. 2010) but I can objectively say that the various Linux distros have their own set up problems. It is fine for web browsing and such like that. But most distros care not a twit about UI / UX and so if you can get around the fact that nobody is looking to make a desktop experience that works for everybody, it's fine. It just so happens that for what I do, Windows can't compete with Linux.

(But MS forced their users into a trainwreck UI / UX also, so pissing off users is basically a universal industry trend.)

Linux however lets me completely customise both the UI and UX for each customer. Granted for the most part most places want things to look pretty much the same. When I go in and pitch though the options aren't a bad thing at all. I have installed machines made to look pretty much just like windows Xp/7... machines I have made look like OSx... and I have even installed a few that honest to goodness where completely stupid terminals that had a couple buttons on the bottom for a web browser and a word processor. I do agree there are of course plenty of issues with plenty of distros, anyone can create or fork a distro making something new. The confusion is great no doubt that hasn't helped with the square world. For anyone wanting to get into Linux for the first time it can be confusing and often Linux comes off as a complete cluster. Once you understand what is happening with the OS though and how things work, setting up critical systems isn't a big deal... there are solid working distros out their like Suse and Cent, or for larger clients their are cost effective options like going with RHEL. Making it look like people expect or tailoring it for a situation, can be a major plus for Linux... it requires people that know what they are doing to pull it off though. Most clients I have dealt with have been looking for simple no frills UIs, Linux excels in that dept... haven't really installed the flashly Gnomes KDEs and Cinnimons of the linux world. The majority of my setups have been setup with XFCE at the customers request (after being shown a few options).... simple bar along the bottom, start bar on the left clock on the right "windows" style. Linux does it better then MS these days. (heck with a few simple lines of code I even set the XFCE search bar to do web searches when users enter @ in the bar. MS likes to over complicate their convince stuff)

For end users setting it up so they don't have to think about the OS is the key... MS had the advantage for years of being pre installed for end users, and most manufacturers had things already pimped out for their system, and the big guys even had restore image partitions and the like pre installed. I think all the windows 10 upgrade horror stories go to show most people had never had to actually install an older version of windows.

For folks newer to Linux looking to support it the best crash course is playing around with Arch. Pull and old machine out of the closet and play around with arch. Set arch up get it running with a good UI, then wipe it and start over. I have watched people with no real long term Linux experience turn into Linux pros pretty quick messing with arch for a few weeks. To many distros hand hold even IT guys these days. Arch is no business distro... it is a great leaning tool, fastest way for a Windows type tech to get up to speed fast on Linux. A good stripped down do anything distro with great online documentation.

 

[htpc_user]

If that happened I'd finally learn to use Linux.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Now, I'm primarily a Linux guy, but I do dual boot to Windows for games.

I wouldn't mind a subscription model if it cost me the same as previous licenses.

So, last windows license I bought cost me $139.

They generally last me ~5 years, which is 60 months.

So this is about $2.30 per month.

At that price I'd take it. It would be more flexible than a traditional license. You could add one when you need it, and cancel it when you don't.

I'd insist that they offer a de-clouded version where I can uninstall any and all of the included Microsoft apps though, inclusong Cortana and Edge. I want none of that cloud shit on my machine.

The $7 per month price does seem a little high, but it is for an enterprise license right? These have always been much more expensive than consumer licenses.

 

[nutzo]

Windows 7 or 8 you upgraded from can
A) be reverted back to
B) reinstalled

You didn't lose your original license in the upgrade.

Your retail based consumer would pay though because they won't know how to revert or reinstall.

Just wait until Microsoft shuts down their license servers, so you can no longer activate that copy of Windows 7

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Just wait until Microsoft shuts down their license servers, so you can no longer activate that copy of Windows 7

They'd probably get sued if they did that before published end of extended support for Win 7 SP1, which is 1/14/2020.

After that point if you really want to, there will likely be hacks to still activate it, but I wouldn't recommend it, as it will no longer be patched for security.

 

[steakman1971]

I might be ok with a subscription if they did a bit more than the base OS. Add in Office 365, some good anti-malware, more OneDrive space - I might be ok with it. If I don't pay, I still get the base OS but lose out on Office/anti-malware/enhanced OneDrive.
I use Linux a lot at home. It really does everything I need except play some games. I even let my wife use Linux a few years ago - she had no idea she was using it (might have been Suse - talking like 10 years back). I watched her download a spreadsheet attachment from an email, edit it with OpenOffice (I think - might have been Libre), save it, resend the attachment. It just worked. My wife is not a bit technical. Linux distros have improved a lot since then - Mint is one of my favorite desktop clients.

 

[TechLarry]

If Microsoft forces windows 10 to a pay model, there will be a class action lawsuit so large, and so fast that Microsoft would go broke for sure. There was no mention of a pay model when Microsoft practically forced the windows 10 upgrade on everyone. In fact Microsoft claimed it was free, and to change this would fall under deceptive marketing practices.

They gave the drug away for free, got everyone hooked on it, and now they will send out the collectors. Where have we seen this business model before ?

 

[Quix]

No consumer is going to pay $7 a month for Windows. Also, if you already have a perpetual license to Windows 10, they can't take that away. In the event that Microsoft tries some sort of shenanigans, I'll jump ship faster than you can say "Fuck Microsoft", I've already got Ubuntu running as the primary OS on my notebook, the Windows install hasn't been started in months.

 

[Skripka]

No consumer is going to pay $7 a month for Windows. Also, if you already have a perpetual license to Windows 10, they can't take that away. In the event that Microsoft tries some sort of shenanigans, I'll jump ship faster than you can say "Fuck Microsoft", I've already got Ubuntu running as the primary OS on my notebook, the Windows install hasn't been started in months.

Yea they can. I've never read the W10 EULA, but I'll bet money it says they can change the usage terms at any time for any reason.

 

[DukenukemX]

If that happened I'd finally learn to use Linux.

I already use Linux for like 90% of my daily computing needs. The 10% is my gaming. I don't even need PhotoShop and MS Office anymore. I use Krita for photo editing, and Libre Office works just fine. I just want to play my games already.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

I already use Linux for like 90% of my daily computing needs. The 10% is my gaming. I don't even need PhotoShop and MS Office anymore. I use Krita for photo editing, and Libre Office works just fine. I just want to play my games already.

I'll have to try Krita. I've been using the Gimp for so long that I didn't even realize there were other good solutions to choose from.

 

[DukenukemX]

I'll have to try Krita. I've been using the Gimp for so long that I didn't even realize there were other good solutions to choose from.

I still use Gimp for when I need to add Text. Some reason, Krita does this very poorly. Photo editing is done nicely, otherwise.

 

[HeavensCloud]

I'd pay $50 yearly for Windows. Not many of my family members would though. This wouldn't go over well with the tech illiterate users.

 

[Lunas]

I'd pay $50 yearly for Windows. Not many of my family members would though. This wouldn't go over well with the tech illiterate users.

And it would go over poorly with some of the literate crowd i would rather switch to linux and begin teaching myself how to fix every issue regarding windows program emulation than pay a subscription for the right to use my pc...

No Microsoft can go f*ck and get f*cked by a cactus

 

[ChadD]

I might be ok with a subscription if they did a bit more than the base OS. Add in Office 365, some good anti-malware, more OneDrive space - I might be ok with it. If I don't pay, I still get the base OS but lose out on Office/anti-malware/enhanced OneDrive.
I use Linux a lot at home. It really does everything I need except play some games. I even let my wife use Linux a few years ago - she had no idea she was using it (might have been Suse - talking like 10 years back). I watched her download a spreadsheet attachment from an email, edit it with OpenOffice (I think - might have been Libre), save it, resend the attachment. It just worked. My wife is not a bit technical. Linux distros have improved a lot since then - Mint is one of my favorite desktop clients.

That's been my experience hundreds of times now. Most employees don't realise they aren't using some corp locked down version of windows unless they are told otherwise. For the record that far back it was Open Office. 5 or so years ago Oracle bought OO and changed the licence, that is when a Fork was created with that code that remained GPL licence, it became Libre office. Its the open source continuation of OO pre Oracle, OO is now Apache licence or some such... no one cares the community supports Libre. There is talk Apache OO is going to end soon due to lack of community support, it would be nice if they donated the name back at least so everyone can go back to using the cooler name.

 

[Rev Lemmon]

The only thing keeping me from switch to linux is Excel. I'm rewriting a ton of macros to work in in Libre, though office 2016 is supposed to work in WINE.

 

[ChadD]

And it would go over poorly with some of the literate crowd i would rather switch to linux and begin teaching myself how to fix every issue regarding windows program emulation than pay a subscription for the right to use my pc...

No Microsoft can go f*ck and get f*cked by a cactus

Windows emulation works better then many people would expect. It works very well for games that are just a bit older. DX 9 titles are almost never much of an issue. Sure they run a bit slower under Linux... when you are talking about 2-4 year old games though its not honestly much of a concern. The newest titles are a in general a pain... it would be nice if more where released native. Its slowly changing, not sure if it will continue or not hopefully. I was dual booting for a long time for games... and just got to the point where I said screw it. Not worth messing around with a windows drive anymore. I honestly just got sick of having to mess around with Windows to make it play nice with my Linux partitions. Having to make sure and go into windows and make sure and turn off swapping and other junk to ensure I could push files to stupid NTFS and such was always annoying.... having to disable updates to keep from getting stuff like that turned back on all the time was the last straw. After I deleted my windows drives, with in a few weeks I realised it wasn't that hard to get almost all the games I was playing running just fine. I have been a linux guy a long time and honestly never used wine for much more then running the odd piece of tax software or something here and there. Don't get me wrong clearly some games are a huge hassle to get running, but many just work with nothing more then a click.

 

[rezerekted]

I would never pay so will stick with what I have. I won't even pay subs for online games so there is no way I will pay one for an OS. Companies like Adobe with subs can suck a dick too.

 

[nilepez]

Yea they can. I've never read the W10 EULA, but I'll bet money it says they can change the usage terms at any time for any reason.

Maybe, but I think at that point, someone is going to challenge the EULA...might be a class action, it might be the EFF. They are on record saying that your license is perpetual. If they have something else buried in the EULA, I think the courts might rule against MS.