[RUMORS] Windows 10 is moving to a subscription based activation system?

[Guest]

Source: https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3068420/microsoft-365-for-consumers-could-be-on-the-way-with-office-skype-and-windows
https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-is-readying-a-consumer-microsoft-365-subscription-bundle/
ps: those two sources are the most non-clickbaiting I could find

 

Quote

MICROSOFT'S RUMOURED plan to move to a full-on subscription model seems to be coming to pass.

Rumours are swirling that ‘Microsoft 365', a subscription-based version of Windows 10, is on the way, thanks to some eagle-eyed scouting of job adverts in Redmond. There have been hints that this was the direction for years but now there's some solid if circumstantial evidence. 

Quote

As a number of readers have noted, Microsoft currently makes Windows 10 available for "free" when Windows ships on new PCs. I am NOT suggesting this consumer bundle is Microsoft's plan to do away with "free" Windows. I think M365 Consumer will be an option, not a requirement, just like M365 for business users is today.

Quote

The existing Microsoft 365 subscription bundle is an integrated collection of Windows 10, Office 365 and Enterprise Mobility + Security (aka EMS, which includes Intune device management, analytics and some Azure Active Directory capabilities), sold on a subscription basis. Microsoft 365 is the evolution of the bundles formerly known as "Secure Productive Enterprise E3 and E5." Microsoft introduced the Microsoft 365 concept in July 2017 at its Inspire partner conference.

Summary: Well, first of all, those are just rumors, but they are making a bit of a discussion. Some journals are making news about "Windows 10 moving into a subscription-based activation" system even for consumers, making them bit of a clickbait if said like that like "would you move to Linux after this?"

But the reality is that basically from one year to now Microsoft is solding (more like offering, remember it's just an option) to enterprise users a subscription which includes Windows 10 + the Office 365 suite, and Microsoft recently seem is hiring for new Microsoft 365 (it's called like that the one for the enterprises) product managers, which journals are saying that a could be the same thing but aimed for home consumers, a bit misleading saying "Windows 10 is moving to a subscription based activation"

Opinion: Well, there is no proof this is happening at first. Also, this would probably be just an option like the Enterprise offering, I don't know why there is much clickbaiting in the titles like "tomorrow you'll have to pay a subscription to use Windows 10" 
Things are not like that, at least for now, at least for Enterprise users at this current state, so there won't be a reason for that to happen.
Imho overall even if I don't personally like Microsoft or use Office is a cool thing for small offices using very intensively the microsoft office suite, the cost doesn't seem to be that high per month for the things they offer, but yeah, this is going to cost in the future I suppose.
Would home consumers have benefit from this too?
First of all I don't even think this is going to change people that already have an OEM or a "legacy" Windows 10 license, every laptop comes with Windows preinstalled, even if there would be people using custom-made desktops would they benefit anything from this?  Well, unless they do some work in Windows + Office too a lot I think yes? I don't have the pricing list with me right now, you could make your own conclusion about that by seeing the current cost for a Windows 10 licence + Office

Sorry for the TL;DR, just read further just if you are interested to know my opinion and predictions.

Just a prediction, probably this is not going to happen because it would be a suicide imo, but If it will replace legacy licensing, and by that I mean you won't be able to use your current license and/or you couldn't buy legacy licenses anymore, but just a subscription, like the clickbaits are claiming yeah, I think a lot of people will move on Linux but not without troubles. Linux desktops at this current state have issues especially on new PC's because vendors are not supporting the Linux kernel for drivers at the same time when releasing a product, they could at least make sure major Linux distros like Ubuntu have all the drivers and fixes, because that would suck a bit lol. Other than that, linux desktops are different than the past, they are becoming better and user friendlier every day and are constantly updating and have some advantages compared to Windows.
Are people going really to use Linux in this case? Pirate Windows? Or they'll give up and buy the subscription in this remote, bad, fallout-like future? 

Example for some use cases: Most distros like Ubuntu have the nouveau driver enabled by default, and for new NVIDIA video cards the system won't boot  because there is no support for having a functional desktop for installing the proprietary NVIDIA driver unless you use the modeset driver (you should put a kernel parameter for that) there are however other distros which are using the nvidia proprietary driver by default, where NVIDIA does a great job at supporting new cards usually. Well, it's their driver...
Another use case, an HP laptop has crappy ACPI because of DSDT issues on Linux and that could make for example the backlight buttons not working properly, at this current state you should patch your DSDT manually and/or have or use a workaround coming from the Linux kernel itself or distro packages with acpi fixes, which is what is currently happening without proper vendor support. Another use case could be missing drivers for a sound card or you are using or a proprietary mouse software for customizing buttons or DPI, even if there are some supported ones out there on Linux too. So well, without writing any further, this isn't options isn't going to be without issues as well in some specific cases.

Sorry for the tl;dr, so what do you think about that?
Would you buy a Windows subscription + Office for your new desktop PC? Or if you don't have an OEM license, for your laptop? Do you think they'll replace legacy licensing? 

[Mooshi]

If it all goes to shit, I'd switch to Mac OS and console gaming.

[Billy Pilgrim]

1 minute ago, Mooshi said:

If it all goes to shit, I'd switch to Mac OS and console gaming.

What about Linux

I have some experience with MacOS and there is a significant gap between these, but it should be free on a hackintosh, so thats a big plus

[Worstcaster]

Microsoft have been doing subscription based services for business for a while now.  They have said they do not plan to go to a subscription plan for home OS, but who knows.  As far as Microsoft office goes, I prefer Open Office for everything except presentations, so I don't care too much what they do with that.

[Tristerin]

My watermark...oh wait, it will still be there

 

[Drak3]

These rumors have been going since 2015.

[Sauron]

Windows ought to be free... they gain a lot more from people using their stuff than they do from the license purchases, and frankly their current level of support is anything but premium.

[aezakmi]

5 minutes ago, Billy Pilgrim said:

What about Linux

I have some experience with MacOS and there is a significant gap between these, but it should be free on a hackintosh, so thats a big plus

not like you can run a game on linux...

 

*cough* fallout 4 *cough*

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, Worstcaster said:

Microsoft have been doing subscription based services for business for a while now. 

They have said they do not plan to go to a subscription plan for home OS, but who knows. 

As far as Microsoft office goes, I prefer Open Office for everything except presentations, so I don't care too much what they do with that.

Why using OpenOffice instead of Libreoffice too? 

Anyway yes I wrote about that on OP too

10 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

These rumors have been going since 2015.

 

In fact they did in 2017 a subscription option for Enterprise users, and recently they seem to be hiring for product managers for a new "subscription option" that journals are stating to be basically the same but for home consumers, which is the whole point of the thread I made

 

8 minutes ago, aezakmi said:

not like you can run a game on linux...

 

*cough* fallout 4 *cough*

You can actually with Steam Play, it is working with dxvk for a while



Just a question but, did you understand the summary I made or it is not fluent to read so you don't understand that much other than the title? Because yeah I'm not a native speaker and I have issues on making periods in English, I tried to make the periods as short, formatted and understandable as possible

Edited December 19, 2018 by Guest

[Billy Pilgrim]

9 minutes ago, aezakmi said:

not like you can run a game on linux...

 

*cough* fallout 4 *cough*

I don't see how MacOS would be any better for gaming?

[Drak3]

8 minutes ago, Lukyp said:

In fact they did in 2017 a subscription option for Enterprise users, and recently they seem to be hiring for product managers for a new "subscription option" that journals are stating to be basically the same but for home consumers, which is the whole point of the thread I made

So just like the rumirs that have been going since 2015.

 

Until something is confirmed, this isn't news.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

So just like the rumirs that have been going since 2015.

 

Until something is confirmed, this isn't news.

Isn't a news also a rumor or a chance which seems to be confirmed by actual facts? lol? 

So 50% of news aren't real news either

Edited December 19, 2018 by Guest

[Nicnac]

pls get steam os (especially proton)  ready valve plssss

[Eaglerino]

Depending how much it would cost every month, I wouldn't really be against the convenience of getting endless updates and never having to upgrade to a new OS. I would hope they'd let me put it on multiple computers too, but that's probably just dreaming

[Zando_]

18 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Windows ought to be free... they gain a lot more from people using their stuff than they do from the license purchases, and frankly their current level of support is anything but premium.

Facts. They charge like a normal product, but then want to collect all your data like Google and all the big social media sites. They have an excuse since their services (and OS in the case of Google) are provided free of charge, you're basically agreeing to let them use your data by signing up. Microsoft wants to force me to pay $120+ for a copy of a mediocre OS (I only use it because Destiny 2, the game I play the most, only runs on Windows), and then also wants to collect your data like a "free" service. 

[Nicnac]

4 minutes ago, Eaglerino said:

Depending how much it would cost every month, I wouldn't really be against the convenience of getting endless updates and never having to upgrade to a new OS. I would hope they'd let me put it on multiple computers too, but that's probably just dreaming

it's almost certainly gonna get more expensive. If I think of all the years I got use out of my win xp machine it's gonna be very hard to justify anything more than 16$ a year.

[Guest]

Just now, Eaglerino said:

Depending how much it would cost every month, I wouldn't really be against the convenience of getting endless updates and never having to upgrade to a new OS. I would hope they'd let me put it on multiple computers too, but that's probably just dreaming

Currently, the Microsoft 365 pricing In italy it's 16,90€ per month per each user for businesses without VAT (22%)

Includes Windows 10 license, office and other software. Maximum number of users is 300.

Don't remember all the pricing for each software individually tho...But you could spare some money I think 

[Blademaster91]

29 minutes ago, Billy Pilgrim said:

What about Linux

I have some experience with MacOS and there is a significant gap between these, but it should be free on a hackintosh, so thats a big plus

I'd rather switch to Linux, and the Steam library for Linux is decent. Getting a hackintosh to work kinda sucks if all of your hardware isn't supported.

[bcredeur97]

gosh I hate monthly bills. plz no. why does everything have to be subscription now? it's annoying.

[Terryv]

1 minute ago, Blademaster91 said:

I'd rather switch to Linux, and the Steam library for Linux is decent. Getting a hackintosh to work kinda sucks if all of your hardware isn't supported.

I'd also argue that gaming is better on Linux than macOS.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Terryv said:

I'd also argue that gaming is better on Linux than macOS.

They use the same transition layer libraries...So yes the performance is more or less the same, sometimes better on Linux, other times on MacOS
Doesn't apply for DXVK + Wine because there is no MoltenVK support currently on MacOS, so there is more support for DX11 windows games on Linux

[Brooksie359]

12 minutes ago, bcredeur97 said:

gosh I hate monthly bills. plz no. why does everything have to be subscription now? it's annoying.

You can still buy Microsoft office instead of using 365 so I would assume they would allow a similar option for Windows 10. 

[bcredeur97]

5 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

You can still buy Microsoft office instead of using 365 so I would assume they would allow a similar option for Windows 10. 

yeah until only 10% of their customers actually use it because convenience and they just get rid of it.

[Brooksie359]

Just now, bcredeur97 said:

yeah until only 10% of their customers actually use it because convenience and they just get rid of it.

I don't think they will ever get rid of it. It doesn't really cost them money to simply take what they already made for 365 and package it and resell it at a fixed price. 

[Slayerking92]

Microsoft has been talking about subscription based windows since Windows XP.  Office 365 was more or less a "beta test" for the idea.