
Microsoft's new business model for Windows 10: Pay to play - walterbell
http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-new-business-model-for-windows-10-pay-to-play/?ftag=TRE5575fdc&bhid=25696397469645606458680072209264
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WorldMaker
I don't think this is "new" at all. It's been the Windows business model for a
while: separate SKUs for separate user classes. In-place upgrades from lower
SKUs were added way back in Vista (which had two more SKUs even, Ultimate and
Enterprise Ultimate!).

I guess the "new" item here is the Office 365-esque plan for Windows
Enterprise, but that isn't so much a "new business model" as a better
small/medium business proposition for the low end of Software Assurance and
the other large enterprise tools for Windows Enterprise licensing.

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e1ven
Part of what the article suggests is new is moving some items to more
expensive editions. For example, Deferring upgrades has moved from Home to
Pro, and several Group Policy Options have moved from Pro to Enterprise only.

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WorldMaker
That also doesn't seem so new to me? Microsoft has constantly tweaked what is
or is not included in each SKU since the very beginnings of Windows.

If anything, these two particular complaints sound to me more that some users
(especially small/medium businesses, but also some "semi-pro" users) have been
using the wrong SKU for years and this is a necessary alignment shift.

