MS Subscription Coming Soon to an Area Near You....

[WildWestDesigns]

I had forgotten about this, but I do think that there was some stirrings of it last year, about the same time.

Now, the article did say that MS may drop Win 10 (and maybe games) from the bundle as most people would already have Win 10 installed on a computer that they buy. I can easily see this being an option for people that do custom builds where an OS is not installed by an OEM and/or maybe having certain niche features that a targeted group (gamers, designers etc) may need being subscription based, but that's me speculating. Some little niche feature to unlock being subscription based. Again, I'm speculating here.

It may flop, sometimes they do well with enterprise, but not well with consumers trying to replicate an earlier success that they had with enterprise users.

Be interesting how this plays out that's for sure.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I think Forbes had an article about a work around to still get updates.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Interesting, just saw this this morning.

Now, in of itself, I don't have a problem with sending out a message. Just a message, a warning, especially for those that have an online connection (which would be easy enough to distinguish between those that are and those that aren't). However, I do have a problem with what the article claims in the 5th paragraph. One chooses the option to not be reminded and yet according to the article will still get nag warnings. If that is true, that really isn't good. Shouldn't have the option to not be reminded if this is the case. Might was well just have two options and that's it.

As a side note, those first two options remind me of the Win 98 days and the updates there. Had a choice of doing updates right then or ask again next time online after a 24 hr delay and those were the only options. Even though that was annoying, I would prefer that to clicking something expecting a specific response (or lack thereof) and get something the exact opposite.

 

[Reveal1]

I for one don't mind paying a subscription model as it provides software companies a continuous revenue stream to stay relevant. To get the Microsoft haters riled up, I have to say I absolutely love the commercial version of Office 365 as it integrates all of the Office tools with desktop versions that are always up to date on our 5 computers and four users , easy administration of Office tools and company e-mail, provides lot's of OneDrive storage, easy file sharing and archiving, reliable/secure Exchange email server and lots of features I'm still exploring. Great for a small business with multiple users and simplifies my life as a small business owner reliant on technology.

One other thing. As an old fart that has been a tech-head and early adopter from the early PC days, I have trouble understanding the reluctance to move from WIN7. I've had many, many equipment and software changes and WIN10 has never presented a major problem as long as you use the PRO version which allows you to defer upgrades while the bugs are worked out of updates. Yes, Microsoft blew it with WIN 8, but that's ancient history in today's tech environment. WIN 10 is a great operating system and like any software requires a learning curve (but not much).

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I for one don't mind paying a subscription model as it provides software companies a continuous revenue stream to stay relevant.

This is dubious. Some are great at keeping current some aren't. The problem for me is that they have to do things to show that they deserve my paying, not pay first and then see if it's worth it. That incentive is gone and if it is something that people truly can't live without, even if they don't innovate all that much, they are still stuck with that company.

To get the Microsoft haters riled up, I have to say I absolutely love the commercial version of Office 365 as it integrates all of the Office tools with desktop versions that are always up to date on our 5 computers and four users , easy administration of Office tools and company e-mail, provides lot's of OneDrive storage, easy file sharing and archiving, reliable/secure Exchange email server and lots of features I'm still exploring. Great for a small business with multiple users and simplifies my life as a small business owner reliant on technology.

Alicia (wife) uses 365 at her work, I've never tried it. I never had a problem with the standard office suite. Although I did stop using it back in 2012 (I was still using Office 2007 at the time). I was always partial to Word 97 (I actually liked Clippy) and still run that for fun on my Win 98 VM.

One other thing. As an old **** that has been a tech-head and early adopter from the early PC days, I have trouble understanding the reluctance to move from WIN7. I've had many, many equipment and software changes and WIN10 has never presented a major problem as long as you use the PRO version which allows you to defer upgrades while the bugs are worked out of updates.

Dad is the only one that has Win 10 that I've ever messed with and I don't have a problem with Win 10 until you get to the issue of buggy updates (he has always had an issue, every single time). Alicia has it on her work laptop. She has mentioned an issue here or there, but nothing to the extent that my dad has had issues with. Both of them run Pro by the way.

If it wasn't for the rolling release nature, it isn't a bad OS, but I'm one that just doesn't like having rolling release OSs on production rigs. I have Arch on a couple of my personal computers, but I won't run it on my main office computer.

I miss the PC revolution, I grew up during it. I'm not liking this move to dummy terminals.

Yes, Microsoft blew it with WIN 8, but that's ancient history in today's tech environment.

I actually liked 8.1. I didn't have a problem with it at all. It's the last version of Windows that I VM. I have 98, Vista, 7 and 8.1 still running in VMs. To be honest, I liked Vista as well. What some people tend to forget is that even versions like XP (which I despised) didn't start off well either. It takes an SP or two to work out the kinks.

I actually didn't miss the start menu, I know that was a point of contention for a little people, but I'm used to running vanilla Gnome (even ran Fedora on production rigs, which led me to my stance that I have now with regard to bleeding edge OSs and production computers) and that would be a show to some people if 8.1 through them for a loop. There are ways to easily getting it looking like a traditional Windows environment, but out of the box, it's definitely different.

 

[Reveal1]

This is dubious. Some are great at keeping current some aren't. The problem for me is that they have to do things to show that they deserve my paying, not pay first and then see if it's worth it. That incentive is gone and if it is something that people truly can't live without, even if they don't innovate all that much, they are still stuck with that company.

Valid point particularly with Adobe and to a lesser extent MS (Chrome and Apple keeping them honest and motivated) who have virtual monopolies. But for 2nd tier (in market share, not a comment on the quality of the SW) companies like Corel to have a chance to stay in the game (against Adobe), they are going to have to be able to establish a steady revenue to fund development to stay competitive and push Adobe.

Regarding the start menu, Win 10 has the start menu with all apps, settings, and login/logout directly accessible via the window icon in the lower left corner of the tray. They've even kept the control panel but you will need to create a shortcut to that in the tray.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

They've even kept the control panel but you will need to create a shortcut to that in the tray.

The Control Panel is a deprecated feature to be replace by Settings panel totally at some point. They keep burying it further and further within other menus. Same thing with creating a local account.

I remember after one of dad's updates, I had to run a PowerShell script to get it back for right click start menu functionality.

This is one thing that I don't like about bleeding edge. Things change very quickly. And there isn't much that the end user can do about it for the most part.

Anyone ever had that software that seemed like they changed the UI with every new release? Well, you have programs on a yearly release cycle, I can see that potentially being a problem. I can easily see MS falling into this category and with twice yearly updates (the big ones), that can be a really quick turn around.

Don't get me wrong, some things should be done and they have to keep current (I see some Plasma stuff in their UI of late, or at least what looks like to be hints of it), but when it gets in people's way of doing work that's where it becomes a problem.