this would be an enormous mistake unless it is radically cheaper than I know it will be. It would have to be under $5 a month to be worthwhile. The market of windows users able to afford more than that is a tiny fraction of current owners, and no a lot of them aren't even pirates they just paid for it with a pc bundle deal. See netflix usage rates in romania (2.5%), hungary (3.6%) etc as an illustrative example, these are middle income countries where I can assure you people are interested in the content but will not pay $8 a month
Microsoft might want to be making Windows 12 a subscription OS, suggests leak
31–40 of 210 posts
Re: Microsoft might want to be making Windows 12 a subscription OS, suggests leak
#32If Microsoft does, I am not using Windows 12, I am going to Ubuntu. I won't even pirate it. I refuse to pay a subscription for an OS, that should be pay once and be done paying.
You are already paying a subscription for an OS. How old is your computer, 4 years-5 years old? Take $200 (cost of OS) and it's $40 or $50 a year or $3-4 dollars a month. Same applies for Apple Mac OS you just pay the $200 in the price of the $2,000 computure.
Thats a very positive and forgiving perspective on subscription fees!
Re: Microsoft might want to be making Windows 12 a subscription OS, suggests leak
#33I already dual boot windows 11 and NixOS. I only use Windows for some games on Steam, everything else I do in nix land. (My work computer is a Mac but that could be switched easily as well.)
There isn't a world where I would pay a subscription for an OS, given the plethora of good and stable distros of linux (and OSX)
Re: Microsoft might want to be making Windows 12 a subscription OS, suggests leak
#34I'm not even sure why Windows 11 exists, I can't see any real difference over Windows 10 (once I move the start menu back to the left) Hell, I don't even know what's the difference between Windows 7 and 11
You don't enjoy the ads?
Re: Microsoft might want to be making Windows 12 a subscription OS, suggests leak
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are already paying a subscription for an OS. How old is your computer, 4 years-5 years old? Take $200 (cost of OS) and it's $40 or $50 a year or $3-4 dollars a month. Same applies for Apple Mac OS you just pay the $200 in the price of the $2,000 computure.
What? Say you bought some pants last year for $60. Do you think you paid a $5/month subscription for that? What have you ever purchased that's not a subscription then?
Well, I actually had to take those $60 as a 12-month loan, so I've paid $7/month for a year...
Re: Microsoft might want to be making Windows 12 a subscription OS, suggests leak
#36I would guess that they are not planning on charging a monthly fee to use windows on your own hardware. If I had to guess I would say that this is related to a subscription for an online version of windows. Pay a monthly fee and get a full version of windows dekstop in a browser that you can use anywhere.
Re: Microsoft might want to be making Windows 12 a subscription OS, suggests leak
#37Windows is already a subscription OS, usually for businesses. Subscription licenses are included with higher Microsoft 365 tiers. It's just one of the many ways that it's sold. This doesn't indicate that the perpetual licenses are going away, but it seems logical that they would package certain services in a subscription tier like bundling Microsoft 365 with Copilot and other future features.
Re: Microsoft might want to be making Windows 12 a subscription OS, suggests leak
#38I think they will offer two options, advertising or advanced features. The advertising option speaks for itself. The will put ads in different parts of the O/S. Kiss goodbye to any privacy you thought you had. The features option will make more O/S options like photo and video editing apps a subscription type model. Pay $10 a year and get the advanced features. Either way, I think this should help Apple and open sour…
> The will put ads in different parts of the O/S.
They have already been doing this.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/1790329/i-paid-for-microsoft... https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/17/microsoft_windows_sta...
Perhaps you mean third party ads from their ad network? https://about.ads.microsoft.com/en-us
Wait, they already do: https://about.ads.microsoft.com/en-us/solutions/ad-products/...
> Kiss goodbye to any privacy you thought you had.
If you haven't already, it's too late.
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3684413/how-to-protect...
https://www.wired.com/story/windows-10-privacy-settings/
> Either way, I think this should help Apple and open source operating systems.
Doubtful. They've not cared so far, I don't know what's going to really have to change.
Most folks I know don't really care about the OS, but many or all they apps they've learned are only on Windows. So they see themselves as trapped.
Re: Microsoft might want to be making Windows 12 a subscription OS, suggests leak
#39I’m old enough to remember when windows 11 was going to be the last windows.
If this comes to pass that might actually be true in some sense.
Re: Microsoft might want to be making Windows 12 a subscription OS, suggests leak
#40If Microsoft does, I am not using Windows 12, I am going to Ubuntu. I won't even pirate it. I refuse to pay a subscription for an OS, that should be pay once and be done paying.
The problem is, in a capitalist world even libre/open source needs money to live. A race to thr cheapest is a loss for everyone in that kind of society. No OS is ever "done", there is always maintenance, security updates, ...