[A]n INI configuration file in the Windows Canary channel, discovered by German website Deskmodder, includes references to a “Subscription Edition,” “Subscription Type,” and a “subscription status.”
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For the average consumer, this would help Apple and Google out more than anything. People want what they know.
On the more savvy user side and for gamers, this move would, potentially, help Linux adoption rates.
It would help all of their competitors. A non zero number of people would move from windows to each of the others.
Whether or not the number moving away from windows and on to each of the others is significant or not is a different matter.
The biggest thing helping Linux right now is Valve’s work improving the gaming experience, IMO.
Even the rumor of this makes Valve’s focus on Linux seem that much smarter.
I’ve never used Linux but if Microsoft goes subscription I’m out and I’ll be learning Linux.
NGL PopOs is easy and the works with steam/most things easily.
I really hope Windows doesn’t go subscription based because of the proliferation of ads.
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I’ve been meaning to install Linux on my primary gaming PC but haven’t yet due to laziness. This would 100% get me to pull the trigger if/when I ever had to upgrade/reinstall.
For the average consumer, this would help Apple and Google out more than anything. **People want what they know. **
Exactly, which is why this will probably work, do you really think the average consumer that’s used to Windows is going to switch to Mac when they can just pay 5$/month instead? Lol
As long as the price isn’t ridiculous like 50$/month or some shit, the average consumer is just going to pay it lolol
To start, I don’t think it’ll be a “subscribe or else” type deal. My assumption would be something like a forced S mode unless you subscribe.
Second, people won’t jump right away. To start, word will get around and they’ll simply not update. Then, when it comes time to buy a new computer, the average user will be possibly swayed to look at entry level MB Airs (They often go on sale for like $750) or Chromebooks.
The people who will get really pissed will be power users and gamers who will be forced to shell out money to get back features they had in previous versions of the OS.
Honestly, I don’t even think it’ll be S mode. Just Home really and for pro users they’ll end up with the subscription model
Yeah the only people whose minds this will change are agnostic techies
Yup, Chromebooks are already cheap and pretty intuitive, I think this will bump their sales a lot. I’ve ditched windows long ago except for my gaming PC and the PCs at my office (I don’t have a say in those though, I just much prefer Linux
Yup, Chromebooks are already cheap and pretty intuitive, I think this will bump their sales a lot.
Won’t matter to Microsoft at all. You’ll use your Chromebook to connect your Windows 365 Cloud PC . They’ll add it to the Microsoft Family Plan, same one that has MS Office in it, for free when its introduced and then slowly raise the price as people get embedded into it.
Gaming? You’ll buy the WinBook Ultra that can handle streaming gaming or buy an Xbox.
Welcome to the future, it’ll be here in 10 years or less.
Chromebooks generally encourage you to use Google’s family of office apps. So I don’t know about that.
It’ll be a legal battle where MS will claim Google’s closed ecosystem as a monopoly and force them to carry the “MS Cloud PC App” in the Play Store. Or you’ll just go buy a “WinBook” made by HP, Dell, Lenovo, etc…
And tablets, which most people seem to be using these days.
I’d switch at that point. I’ve only not switched because the pain isn’t worth the reward right now. I’d have to learn a bunch of new apps and hasn’t been worth it.
Start charging a subscription fee. I’ll learn to use whatever tools a priority.
Trust me, it’s already worth it. Literally every other operating system in existence is better than windows. I’d use Temple OS before going back.
Caveat: if the software you need is supported. Unfortunately that’s the major reason I haven’t switched
Does that include the Miley Cirus operating system?
Yes.
I was thinking, “Wait…what…?” But there it is:
And a lot of linux programs take inspiration from Microsoft’s design because they’re the norm. When you think of a word processor you think of Word, same goes for all of Office 365 actually.
I think of Word 2007. All downhill after that…
Edit: Or was it 2011? I can’t even remember anymore…
They implemented the ribbon menu in ~2007 office iirc, somewhen around Vista. 2003 is the old WinXP styled one with all these little menus and buttons, fugly but usable. Is that the one you’ve meant?
I’m having to use windows+office for work after a few years of being linux only, and god do I hate modern office’s interface.
The ribbon, on its own, isn’t super offensive to me - its just a chonky toolbar. But why on earth did they have to get rid of the classic menus?! If I don’t know where a feature is, it’s so much easier to skim through text menus than flipping from ribbon to ribbon, hovering over each button for tooltips, and popping out secondary toolbars of icons to find what I want. It’s maddening for someone who only needs to use office intermittently.
No I think it was 2011. Whatever the stable most streamlined release was before Office 365 rolled out.
Aha, okay. So we have different tastes in software. Are we supposed to fight each other now?
If i remember correctly, 2010 introduced the ribbon and 2013 was the last edition before 365 took over
That’s the one!
I think of Google Docs now because the inconvenience of not being able to have word on my own system without a price caused me to use the free alternative.
When you think of a word processor you think of Word.
Only if you’re a cretin! The only thing one should envision when thinking of a word processor is WordPerfect 1.21a for the Apple IIgs!
Envisioning Calligra Words is also acceptable.
Now that’s just some bullshit and you know it
Haven’t used windows by choice in over a decade, and no regrets.
Remove the bloatware with a free program like ShutUp10++, and Windows is a fine OS. Linux may very well be better still, but better enough to go through the effort of switching over, reinstalling everything, relearning everything, finding alternatives to programs, etc.? I doubt it. Not for me at least.
Then save yourself and use a Mac! /s
I think the general consumer mostly uses the web browser tbh.
Start trying some of the open source apps on Windows. For example, try using LibreOffice for a bit and see how it compares to Microsoft Office. You may be surprised to find that the difference isn’t as big as you thought.
I wish. Try editing a document with tables.
LibreOffice is fine if all you are doing is writing a Dear Princess Celestia letter, but when you actually start doing advanced things, the jankiness of LibreOffice starts to become wasted effort. If I have to spend more time fighting the program than actually doing work, it’s worth the money for Office. Especially at $70/year for M365, which is roughly 1-3 hours of work depending on what job and such.
Like garbage. That’s why I haven’t invested in the time. I write large documents and do lot of research for publishing. As such learning a new tool is a pain in the ass
It does the same job but when you’re using it constantly the small QOL things really matter.
Exactly. It’s taking the time to learn everything to produce a document quickly for publishing.
Even going from pc to Mac word requires an uplift.
I figure when I make the switch, it’ll cost me about 100k in lost productivity. Nothing has driven me to take that loss yet but a subscription might.
Favorite OS be damned when you have a fiscal consequence. Switching to Linux full time will cost me money at the end of it and I can’t justify that until it costs me more to NOT switch to Linux.
Unfortunately the difference is huge. It’s not just the cost of learning a new tool, it’s that 10% of really important features are not there. For me for example it was the ability to apply a theme to an existing presentation in Impress. Well in the corporate world, it’s mandatory.
Using Linux daily since 99, as my only personal OS since 2013, and still struggling with the office alternatives.
Since most companies are moving their tools to web-based versions, the switch will be even easier.
Office already has extensive een versions. They’re not entirely there yet, but good enough if you don’t need advanced functionality.
My biggest argument for Linux is: Windows isn’t going to get better, but Linux will.
I started using a lot of the same open-source tools that are on Linux as replacements in Windows to ease the transition. As someone else mentioned, most of the top projects strive to match the workflows of traditional Windows options. Some lemmy instances have huge posts of top tier open source alternatives to most things you need and somethings you don’t.
There might be a subscription option or a subscription tier with a windows suite like office and stuff included in it, but for normal windows OS, they’re decades away from going to a subscription only model, at best.
I imagine they’ll split it into an enterprise version and then multiple consumer tiers, with a “free/lite” version with ads and progressively more function or less ads. Folks that dont use a computer for more than web browsing will jump on that
might as well be that they change their licensing model for businesses to some sort of Subscription. The resale of volume keys has been a pain in their butt for a long time.
That honestly makes sense B2B, wouldn’t hate that as a policy but I do dislike it on the consumer front. But I’ll never use windows personally again so I really only care for how it affects the rest of the computing world
Why? They could roll out W12 with subscription-only plans. Besides the contracts they currently have that specify a specific amount of security updates for X years, they can let W11 and previous versions die. No more updates besides what they need to protect themselves.
It’s not like governments and businesses will balk. They already pay a premium for Windows licenses and they’d probably get deals, anyways. Average home users might not upgrade, but all new PCs sold will have W12 and require a subscription if you want to be able to use most of the features.
This is what happens by not breaking up MS more or imposing penalties for anti-competitive behavior.
I could see them releasing hardware that’s tied to a subscription that Windows would track, perhaps, or offering subscription as a payment model for Windows.
You’re right, though I can’t see a straight migration to subscription-only happening. They haven’t even gotten Office to subscription-only yet, despite their wish to.
They haven’t even gotten Office to subscription-only yet
Getting closer every day. Having a M365 subscription for Office is now the normal way that SMB and larger businesses work with it and at home Microsoft’s “Family Plan” that includes Office has been doing nothing but growing since they introduced it. Last I checked they were over 50 Million subscribers.
Windows as an OS will eventually be going subscription. You’ll pay the licensing to unlock features like the Windows “S” mode model or you’ll pay the licensing in order to access a Windows 365 Cloud PC that’s part of your family plan.
Most home users will have hardware similar to a Chromebook. “PC” gaming will be done via streaming or you’ll just buy an Xbox.
Welcome to the future.
I’ve been hearing a variant of this since I joined Slashdot in 1999. “Microsoft really messed up this time, mainstream Linux adoption is right around the corner!”
Yeah, except the Steam Deck has been giving a huge reason to provide compatibility with Linux, and Valve/WINE have been pushing hard as hell to help facilitate it.
Unity pushed me to go with Godot. Unity already had a Linux editor, but this has pushed me to also move from Photoshop to Krita, since we’re in that kind of mood.
I tried several games last night that were rated gold or platinum rather than native on ProtonDB. While some people provided launch options, they all worked flawlessly out of the box. I’m even the first person to file a compatibility report for Furry Cyberfucker, let’s fucken go.
Piper let me configure my mouse and keyboard without the need for GHub. My HOTAS works flawlessly without the Saitek software, since I’m used to configuring buttons in-game.
I tried this last year, and went back to Windows with the same “it’s not quite there” response as everyone there. But I’ve been keeping an eye on this since I had to use ndiswrapper to get Ubuntu to play nice with my wlan adapter, and this month, I installed PopOS, and have been getting along pretty well. I haven’t encountered a single issue or compatibility that outright breaks this move for me, and I’m generally stubborn as shit to learn new things.
It may not be the “year of the Linux desktop” for everyone, but it is for me. If you’re expecting some monolithic mass adoption, keep dreaming, but this progress doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
I have two main concerns with switching. I may eventually switch when these get better.
- My mouse shortcuts (Logitech is fully integrated with discord allowing a mute toggle that actually bypasses any keypresses, don’t know if Linus has this as Logitech software on Mac used to be awful)
- FFXIV mods: reshade, quick launcher (does work with Linux it says), and ACT (which on windows does a packet capture to parse your damage and has overlays to show that)
I was just reading that ACT doesn’t work will with overlays on Linux. Here’s hoping though! I can’t for the day when I have a solid free/open source Linux desktop running all my games. One where I’m not afraid to update in fear of breaking. One where I don’t need to use docker to host Overseerr and nginx. One where I have the control like I (mostly) do on my work laptop.
One day….
I can’t speak for your FF stuff, that’s outside of my wheelhouse. However, Piper has taken care of my configuration for my G502 mouse and G815 keeb. Even the lighting options work. Will need to re-record your macros, probably.
Yeah, except the Steam Deck
aaand he replies with a gaming rant. Most users arent children nobody gives a fuck about steam and le wholesome gaben chungus. We want excel and word. Witcher 3 is not a selling point. You live in a teenager reddit bubble.
Hey, that’s cool, man. You do you.
Right!
If I had gotten 10 cent each time I heard (or said) this I would be close to 10 € by now :D
I switched to Linux back in 2006 but not everyone has the knowledge, the capacity or the motivation to do so.I have the capacity and the knowledge but not the motivation.
Someday Linux desktop percentage will jump up, but not how the optimists have thought. It’s going to be more because the younger generations don’t think they need desktop operating systems, leaving them exclusively to to younger gen-X, older gen-Y, various hobbyists, and those who need a desktop workflow at work and like it enough to bring it home. The desktop will settle into its niche, like live theater, fountain pens, and a thousand other mass culture relics, and Linux will still be there chugging along while Windows and OS X (as we know them) slowly molder due to reduced profits in the desktop space.
I have a kid, and yes, there’s a laptop she uses, but to her it’s exclusively for games and for dicking around in Roblox Studio or TinkerCAD. I’ve even seen her close a game, settle into her chair at the very same desk, and pull up Youtube on an iOS device. And this is from a kid who is more comfortable with a PC than most of her peers.
It’s going to be more because the younger generations don’t think they need desktop operating systems
We’re already there. The Millennials, and every Generation after them, by and large don’t give two shits about the Operating System, they’re used to working in an App Driven ecosystem…just like your kid.
2025 is the year of the linux desktop!
It legit could be. When Win10 support ends you have three options:
- Buy a new PC with the required TPM chip.
- Bypass the check in the Win11 installer and hope the OS functions properly after install and going forward.
- Install a fully supported Linux that’s optimized for older hardware.
None of those three options are easy, and Linux is the only option that’s free and guaranteed to work. Although to be fair most computers made after 2018 have the TPM chip, and so I don’t know how many folks will actually be running 7+ year old hardware at that point. It’s probably more likely to cause a jump in PC sales more than Linux adoption.
Personally, mine has TPM but Windows is complaining that it didn’t give itself enough space in the bootloader to upgrade itself to 11 and this is somehow my fault. I’m debating whether I’ll bother to try troubleshooting it when 10 goes EOL or just move my gaming PC to linux. I do like having at least one Windows machine around for compatibility but it’s getting too annoying to get caught up.
I’ve been using linux on my laptops and tablets for years so it wouldn’t be a huge hurdle for me to switch.
if microsoft doing stupid shit with windows affected linux adoption rate, we’d all have switched by now.
I’ve played around with Linux before, but never really wanted to use it. I’ve always just been happy with windows. Without a doubt though, if they started a subscription for it. I would switch to Linux.
I’m the tech savvy guy in the family. I’ve always said that I keep windows around for gaming and some level of music production. However, if this happens with Windows 12, I’ll move 100% to Linux and deal with the ramifications. Most of my game collection is on Steam which I know has some Linux support now for certain titles.
Only if they manage to contain pirates.
Or folks like myself that refuse to get a TPM just to run a worse OS. I’m fine with Windows 10.
im really sad to say this because linux bros are cancerous but if they did a windows subscription i would probably have to swap linux…
I’m looking forward to the Year of the Linux desktop ™️
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It’s the decade of the Linux desktop over here.
Actually, yeah, that’s a cool way to look at this. Imagine everything getting support over night. The only reason I don’t use Linux is because a ton of the things I do on a computer require windows.
Been and gone for me.
it may actually come now if this happens
Literally can’t happen, at least not on the scale y’all like to imply, not in the way Linux is today. If your OS doesn’t work with a ton of peoples’ hardware at all, no wide adoption. Don’t pretend this doesn’t happen-- it happens all the time. I was never able to get sound working on Ubuntu with mainstream hardware. If your OS requires a ton of technical knowledge to get any basic hardware or software feature working, no wide adoption. If your OS runs any commonplace software in a glitchy, super-slow way, no wide adoption. Wide adoption of desktop Linux is just not going to happen until a distro has a well-organized, goal-oriented, QA-pushing non-profit such as Mozilla making sure it works for the masses, on almost any hardware.
Right now, my Windows 10 installation is pretty bloatless and is easily revertable when an update wants to change things. However I’m definitely looking for a more mainstream Linux solution because I know these times won’t last.
Check out Endeavor OS. I’ve been using it for about 3 months now as a full replacement to my old windows 11 set up… everything I’ve needed it to do, with the exception of a few games has worked either right out of box or with minor tweaks. The forums are active and the Arch Wiki has answers to nearly every question you may have about the backbone of the OS. System updates are incredibly easy and are done on your schedule, not Microsoft’s.
Fedora is my recommendation of choice. The default Fedora + Gnome workflow out of the box is absolutely flawless.
Yeah that’s the beauty of it isn’t it… a lot of distros and desktop environments to choose from; there is a flavor for anyone!
For anyone switching from windows I recommend KDE Plasma as it’ll feel closest to what you are used to.
Yeah, as a Windows user it’s very intuitive and easy to navigate. My only problem with KDE Plasma, and this would not prevent me from using it altogether, is that there’s this relatively large hover window that pops up if you accidentally swerve the mouse over anything on the task bar, and takes a couple seconds to die. Soooooo irritating.
This hover thing would probably take thirty seconds to turn off if I knew how, but it’s hard to search for when I can’t figure out what it’s called, and “hover” doesn’t get me anything useful.
If I could turn that shit off I would have zero problems with KDE Plasma. It’s a legit great interface.
Endeavour OS. . . . everything I’ve needed it to do, with the exception of a few games has worked either right out of box or with minor tweaks.
If I may ask, have you tried MS Office on your Endeavour OS box, and if so, what version and what were your results? Seriously, if you have a minute, I’d really appreciate hearing your specific experiences with MSOffice if you’ve tried it on Endeavour.
I inquire only because MSOffice is the only reason I wasn’t on Linux years ago, and any distro that can run MSOffice out of the box, macros included, I will install today. Not exaggerating: I have been trying out various distros for the last month, and MSOffice is literally the sole dealbreaker. I even have an Endeavour Cassini Nova LiveUSB ready to go; I’m on Zorin 16.3 Core right now for the same reason.
Let me know if you can, and thanks in advance.
I Don’t use MS Office, unfortunately. You are going to have a lot of people say just try LibreOffice, but that does not work for everyone so I understand the hesitation.
Yeah, I’ve tried and still am trying, lol. I’m still going to move the rest of my stuff to Linux, regardless, but I need one box with an operable copy of MSOffice at least for now.
I’ll definitely keep EndeavourOS on my list of distros to try, especially because it has all the resources of Arch behind it. That’s a huge plus on its own. Thank you for taking the time to reply!
Remember when Microsoft said that Windows 10 would be the last edition?
I don’t believe for one bit that windows will move to a pure subscription based model. They are greedy, but not stupid.
What’s more believable is that the base OS will be the same as usual, but if you want fancy AI assistants in your OS, you must subscribe, with the justification being that MS must pay for the servers running the models you’re using.
Time to contribute heavily to Linux open source and make Linux desktops super useful to everyone.
Maybe this will finally convince the world to move to Linux Mint
You’ll be surprised/dismayed how resistant people are to learning something new.
That’s not the problem… The problem is Linux isn’t “normal”. Their work laptop comes with Windows or osx. Their home computer comes with the same.
Now go tell the average person to install Linux… To them, you might as well be telling them to open up their computer and snip a jumper to make their computer faster. To them, you’re telling them to take their working computer and do something they don’t really understand and is beyond their ability to undo.
It’s an aftermarket modification to them. If you want to make Linux approachable, it’s really damn simple. Hand them a computer running Linux, with a pretty desktop manager, and a GUI for everything you expect them to do with it. Better yet, add an app store so they can try out software and run updates without feeling intimidated
My point is, if manufacturers start selling Linux machines again, a lot of people will get on board
People aren’t opposed to learning, they’re just scared of breaking it, and they need to at least be able to use a web browser without going up a learning curve
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unless you’re just naturally adventurous like me
LMAO
People like you are the reason I haven’t tried Linux.
I’m not up my own ass enough to proudly declare myself “naturally adventurous,” but I have stayed at a few Holiday Inn Expresses in other towns before. I use Debian and Ubuntu somewhat regularly, but mostly use Windows and MacOS in daily life, and I don’t understand where the “sinking ship” metaphor comes in. Microsoft will attempt this recurring-revenue monetization, and it will either be successful, or it won’t; Windows won’t go away if it isn’t. Otherwise, Apple prints money from its beautifully made consumer-friendly hardware, which also features shockingly good in-house silicon.
No ships are sinking. This isn’t some grand narrative where Linux awaits us all at the end of personal-computing history.
Humans are creatures of habit. The average user won’t switch until the pain of using what they know outweighs the pain of learning something new + the fear of something new.
I have mint dual booted on my laptop with Win 11. I find myself using Win11 more.
Idk why, linux mint doesn’t feel finished to me:
- 120hz won’t work with my dock (works fine in ubuntu and w11)
- Touchpad scrolling is insanely quick and almost unusable
- My mouse jitters allover, accelleration or something seems wrong.
- Can’t seem to set different governors depending on battery or power.
- Fingerprint doesn’t have a driver (works in Ubuntu ok though).
- Scaling 125% seems janky, everything is blurry as shit
It does work mostly ok though and is quick, but it doesn’t feel polished. Ubuntu was great but fuck snap packages.
If you’re using synaptics as the touchpad manager, there is a config element to control the speed of the scroll
VertScrollDelta and HorizScrollDelta (integer) configures the speed of scrolling, it is a bit counter-intuitive because higher values produce greater precision and thus slower scrolling. Negative values cause natural scrolling like in macOS.
It’d certainly convince me. I run windows 11 since my laptop came with it but if I had to pay for my OS I’d run to Linux. The existence of Proton makes it much easier to switch now as well.
Switching to a Linux can be overwhelming. A few distros have made great strides to make most of the OS work right after installing it. But even if there’s only 1% issues due to hardware, drivers, gaming, etc., troubleshooting those issues would often require using terminal and are not accessible to everyone. There’s no customer support to reach out to, and online forums can be difficult to navigate for someone not familiar with coding.
It ‘can’ be overwhelming, yes. I’ve never found, however, so MANY online guides that literally tell you step by step what to enter in the terminal window to succeed. There’s always a learning curve, it’s just about whether or not you want to pay Windows every month to avoid figuring this out. This is why I mentioned Mint specifically, btw. It’s the most user friendly.
Most of my tech literate (yes, literate, not illiterate) friends were actually supportive of this.
So imagine what tech illiterates will be like.
Most people will just accept it as a cost of computing, I fear.
For personal use maybe. Im 100% my job (and possibly most workplaces) will just eat the subscription cost to stick with what they know.
Arch
btw?
The rise of Linux is upon us
Incredibly unlikely to happen to home versions. MAYBE “pro” could be subscription, but I assume this will be a paid support model instead.
Because Microsoft’s market share comes from everyone pirating copies and getting free copies from university. It is the same reason Apple has so many discounts for students and position themselves as “required for art”
Because when those people enter the corporate world? It is easier to support the OS that people sort of know how to use and like.
So yeah, there is almost zero chance of consumer grade windows requiring a subscription. And any outlet that would even entertain the thought mostly shows itself to not understand the market.
Microsoft overcharges for Windows anyway. You can go to StackSocial and regularly get Win 11 Pro for $30, when the retail price is $200.
In any case, everything else tech is moving to SaaS. It’s not hard to believe that MS would “give” out a free (read: ad-laden) version of Windows, with various features enabled depending on tier of subscription. They’ve already got the technology in place with Azure Active Domain and this seems like a logical extension of that.
They’ve also already got the embedded ads feature ready to run in windows.
It’s not hard to believe that MS would “give” out a free (read: ad-laden) version of Windows, with various features enabled depending on tier of subscription.
Except that already have that with the Enterprise/SA tier and have for a long time. Sure, Pro is still required but it’s typically an OEM license included in the cost of the hardware.
Those are typically grey market keys, and subject to being voided.
Not saying it’s not a good deal, or not worth the small risk, just that those aren’t true retail prices.
It eludes me why people purchase these grey market products over just running unactivated. They’re not valid licenses, they just overcome the technical limitations of non-activation. Generally speaking, you’re supporting criminal enterprise for the sake of being able to change your wallpaper.
Edit: Truth hurts, I guess.
tRUth hUrtS
StackSocial’s parent company, StackCommerce, is listed as a partner with Microsoft, so they’re probably legit. Speaking for myself, the Win 11 key and two Office keys I’ve bought before haven’t had any problems.
Two things that boggle my mind:
-
In a thread where the discussion is about Microsoft possibly giving away a “free” future version of Windows and monetizing features, someone thinks it unlikely that Microsoft could sell Windows now at a loss hoping to push Office 365 and OneDrive subs, and
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That some people feel such a sense of entitlement they’ll go to fantastic lengths to not pay for services or products they use. They think that just because they decide a movie, or album, or operating system is too expensive they can can acquire it without paying for it. (Not you obviously, since the nagware version of Windows is technically free, just… other people).
Two thoughts on StackSocial. Even if they legitimately are an MS partner that bar is so low as to be irrelevant. I know, I’m an MS Partner. All it takes is an email address and two (maybe three) checkboxes to become a Partner at the lowest levels. Additionally, the product isn’t actually being sold by SS. the vendor is “SmartTrainingLab” which appears to only exist in the context of selling cheap keys via Stack Social and it’s clone, other clone, e-commerce sites.
As for selling Windows at a loss… They’ve always been split-brained on that front. They only just stopped giving away free upgrades to Windows 10/11 in the past few weeks despite that offer having expired over seven years ago. The real Windows Desktop OS money has historically been from the fees that OEMs pay for licensing. That’s why the retail price is so high; it establishes the baseline from which OEM discounts get negotiated. The $199 actually is pretty reasonable considering inflation, etc. Windows 3.1 was $149, Windows 95 was $209 and Windows NT 4.0, which current Windows is descended from, was $319. I wouldn’t even pretend to know what they’re going to do on that front but a subscription service seems highly possible, though I see it most likely being bundled as part of the Microsoft 365 products; you get the upgrades for “free” with one of the (product formerly known as) Office 365 consumer subscriptions OR you get ad-laden upgrades for free OR you pay $99 upgrade pricing.
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And Microsoft doesn’t care. Because the profit made off a single person’s license is nothing. That is why they have never cared how many people called to unlocked FEED-BEEF-1234-5678. They know we all got that off dc++ and they don’t care because, again, the goal is to get corporate sales and to more or less make it a requirement for all OEMs and prebuilts to include a key in the sticker price.
almost zero chance of consumer grade windows requiring a subscription
And even if they did, fully hacked local install versions would be created… adobe photoshop is subscription only and I see full installs for it all over the place (and I might even have one myself but Im admitting to nothing)
So yeah, there is almost zero chance of consumer grade windows requiring a subscription.
Microsoft already has more than 50,000,000 consumers (not businesses) on Office 365 personal or family plans. It’s a small step from there to adding Microsoft 365 Cloud PC to it. With a marketing push people will gladly buy cheap WinBooks to connect in. You can do it NOW if you wanted too, all of the low cost hardware already exists as do the Windows VDs, it’s just not being packaged for and marketed directly to consumers yet.
I strongly suspect that Windows 12 will come with two licensing models “Install on your own hardware” and “License for Virtual Desktop”. Over time Microsoft will push ever harder to get people to go for the second one. They did it exactly like this with Office and it worked quite well.
MS Office has long been replaced with Google Docs. To the point that students pretty much use it from kindergarten until they graduate high school. At this point, the only people really buying MS Office have no choice or are old idiots.
So… it is a lot closer to the Adobe model of “What else are you going to do?”
MS Office has long been replaced with Google Docs.
No it hasn’t. My Son is currently in Engineering School here in the States and MSO is a requirement. My Niece is working on her BSN at a different College and MSO is a requirement.
Then you graduate and find out that nearly every business is also using MSO and you’ll be interacting with it daily at work. So when you get home and need to type something up…well…there’s a reason that Microsoft has 50 Million subscribers to it’s MS Family Plan.
So what you are saying is that MS is still incentivizing universities with cheap copies and licenses so that companies will use MS Office?
That doesn’t mean that you, as a consumer, at all need MS Office just like you, as a consumer, do not need Adobe Acrobat in any form.
But, if you have an effectively free license, you might well use it.
So what you are saying is that MS is still incentivizing universities with cheap copies and licenses so that companies will use MS Office?
What I’m saying is that despite anyone’s thoughts or feelings MSO is in no way shape or form dead. It is the standard that all other Office Applications and Suites are judged against. None of us have to like it but its not going anywhere. Windows itself will die before MSO does.
That doesn’t mean that you, as a consumer…
As someone who installed Slackware 3.1 from floppy disk in 1996 I’m a veteran of the OS and Application Holy Wars. The fact is our wishes don’t matter, most businesses will make the easy purchase, most users will follow along with that at home and the easy purchase is Microsoft.
Microsoft has already shown success at getting Home Users to sign up for Microsoft Family in order to get MSO. So while us olds may remember the “better” GUIs of previous versions of Office, which were hated in their day too, there’s now over a decade of users who are used to the Ribbon. When they fire up Open or Libre all they think is “Ewww, this looks old!” You may as well tell them to install WordPerfect 7.
Ah. Well, just so long as you are in your thirties then I am sure you require ms office for personal use and totally aren’t wasting money.
So the year of the Linux desktop is finally happening
So does Linux, I subscribe to the Arch rss feed, which is the operating system I use btw.
With this subscription, the year of the Linux desktop will finally be here.
I knew sooner or later they’d push me to Linux, but that’d do it alright
I know there’s always someone evangelizing Linux when you mention Windows anything, but when Microsoft requires a subscription for Windows is the day I will actually move to Linux.
Why not now?
Not the commenter but the answer is easy - right now, it’s not costing me anything to run Windows on my PC, and installing Linux takes research, time, and attention that I don’t feel like investing in my home PC at the moment. Probably the next PC I build (whenever my 10 year old Dell i7 is too damn slow, only now starting to get laggy) will run Linux. Previously I only installed linux on laptops I retired from active use, just for shits and giggles. Never once had a linux powerhouse, but now that linux gaming is a reality, I’m very interested in getting away from the advertising platform that Windows has become.
We’re running a 6 year old selfbuilt gaming rig on Garuda Linux … Runs like a charm. Husband is playing Warthunder which uses Anti-Cheat - so far everything runs out of the box.
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Linux gaming has made mind blowing progression thanks to Valve.
If you’re using Steam, most games run, zero fiddling needed.
I’m running Void Linux and have no issues running most games. Proton pretty much handles everything. And performance is often better than on Windows these days.
Other platforms are a bit more difficult. There are several apps that take care of the heavy lifting, but a bit more knowledge is required.
Pretty much thrown out every Windows installation and haven’t missed them at all.
This website is a godsend https://www.protondb.com/
You can search any game in steam, and it will tell you exactly what to expect.
For most games, it’s as simple as checking one box in the steam settings for the first time.
Also https://areweanticheatyet.com for just anti-cheat compatibility of non-Steam games. Also has Steam games but you might as well check ProtonDB for those.
Tbh you don’t even need to check unless it’s a competitive multiplayer game or something with anti cheat. I just buy games and assume they work.
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There has been a lot of progress recently due to the SteamDeck, but it’s still not as good as Windows gaming. There are a few outlier examples where games run better on linux, but those are few and far between. Give it another few years, and hopefully things will improve even more.
Short answer: no. You can expect to fiddle at least sometimes. Many games will run out of the box in proton, but there a million things that can throw a wrench in the gears. I’ve personally never had a 100% seamless experience for the duration of a game.
This has been true across a couple distros, although none that were specifically geared toward gaming. Maybe I’ll change my tune next time I hop distros.
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There’s Valve’s custom Distro they built for the steamdeck, unfortunately they haven’t fully released it yet, for the time being it’s only available via steamdeck recovery software.
I’ve heard that Mint, PopOS, and Manjaro are good for gaming, but I have not tried them myself. Mint is high on my list for my next distro.
I’m on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS now, which I chose in the hope that it would eliminate a lot of fiddling since it’s a common, stable target officially supported by most companies (like Nvidia). Unfortunately, it is simply too old at this point.
I assume that if you are running AMD instead of Nvidia, you will have an easier time. Nvidia’s drivers have been a pain point on every distro I’ve used.
Pretty much the only games that don’t work now are games with anticheat.
Steam really pushed windows games on Linux after the steam deck.
Pretty rare that you run into an issue at all these days, but one big bummer is that non-steam-workshop mods are a pain to install. Basically anything that uses a mod manager.
It’s been at the point for awhile now that I can just buy games on a whim without looking up any sort of compatibility, and I just assume they work. It’s worked every time so far. Right now I’m like 100 hours into Bauldurs Gate 3 lol. The other online game I play is Genshin Impact, which I just had to install with the exe through wine and then it just works.
Not OP, but Linux isn’t much good for professional creative work. Would love to try it out, but without a functioning Adobe suite it’s not gonna happen.
In my opinion, Inkscape is a great competitor to Adobe Illustrator. The problem comes in with the fact that we don’t have a viable image manipulation software. Gimp just aint it.
Article: “We don’t know how, but Windows is taking away a pint of blood from the user every time the OS is booted up”.
Some guy at the edge of fainting: “I swear, I am this close to switching away”.
Because he is lost
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It’s ok to be lazy
Possibly
Windows would always give you a homeopathic dose of value to being kept from switching out.
I have friends that no longer use Facebook to chat, but still doomscroll their timeline anyway, because once per twenty ads there is one post that barely interest them. They won’t switch, they won’t even try other media, they just keep telling themselfs about those two times per year they got something useful out of it.
I can confirm if Windows ever required a subscription I’d be swapping to Linux so fast. So Fast.
“We’ll shut down your computer after this quick message from our sponsor!”
