
Windows 10 Leak Exposes Microsoft's New Monthly Charge - dustinmoris
https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2018/08/04/microsoft-windows-10-subscription-cost-price-upgrade-update-windows-7-8
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naikrovek
Reading Microsoft stories on Forbes.com is like reading about Slenderman on a
site run by 9 yo girls. All rumors are true and the end is coming in 45
minutes unless we freak out about it enough.

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FooHentai
The Windows 10 situation is no different to that for 7/8 - No chance that
it'll overnight transition to being 'as a service' for a charge.

Instead what'll most likely happen is the next releast of Windows desktop
_after 10_ will be set up from the start as a service offering, and at the
point where people sign up for it the ongoing charge aspects will be spelled
out very clearly, including in the Ts and Cs. It'll be similar to how Office
switched to the Online version - Superficially little change in the product,
but clearly delineated with a separate deployment, branding, and versioning.

It can only be this way, because aside from the 'stealth' upgrades' that some
7/8 users encountered, a significant number of people _bought_ windows 10
licensing, at retail. It would be a PR nightmare for Microsoft to attempt to
invalidate ongoing OS usage rights for their Windows 10 user base, and they're
not ignorant of that fact.

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lev99
The whole thing is crazy. You aren't going to have to sign up for a windows
subscription when buying a new laptop. This would absolutely kill the home
windows market. The low end consumer would delay upgrading as long as
possible. The high end consumer would go to Apple. More people would adopt
Linux.

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type0
> You aren't going to have to sign up for a windows subscription when buying a
> new laptop.

I think the majority of the consumers in the West will accept this and MS will
continue to make a shit ton of money. It's just another subscription you add
to the list along with netflix, spotify, mobile carrier subscription etc.

> More people would adopt Linux.

I hope this could be true, unfortunately they probably will buy a Chromebook
if they don't like the hassle of a Windows subscription.

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slededit
This article is short on details, here's a much better one:
[https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-got-a-new-plan-
for-...](https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-got-a-new-plan-for-managing-
windows-10-devices-for-a-monthly-fee/)

Its more like a cloud replacement for Active Directory and WSUS, complete with
on-demand windows licenses.

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justinclift
Wonder what the legality of this will be for the Win7/8 users upgraded to Win
10 without their consent?

Hopefully the EU has a very, very, strong negative opinion on this. :)

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simula67
Even if this happens after Windows 10, it will still be a problem since you
still need upgrades and access to latest applications. I hope PC manufacturers
start pushing Ubuntu extremely hard

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growlist
Second that. Windows is pretty much at the limit of obnoxiousness for me now.
I'm locked to it by things like drivers for my fancy photo inkjet, but any
kind of regular charge would be the last straw - I'd just swap to Linux and
possibly buy a cheapo Mac for the inkjet type situation.

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lwkl
This is nothing new businesses already have the option to buy a Windows
Subscription including Features like Update and Configuration Management (and
if bundled with Office 365 this is called Microsoft 365).

The only new thing about this is that Microsoft adding a bundled subscription
that includes their software services and the hardware that runs it.

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kup0
This is enterprise-only, yet the article makes it out to be otherwise. Sloppy
reporting.

That said, I'm curious if doing this in the enterprise environment could be
testing the waters for doing it on consumer PCs, but I think that is unlikely.

