How long before Windows becomes a subscription service?
How long before Windows becomes a subscription service?
Everything is turning into disgusting subscription services. Most recently I saw home printers that required a monthly subscription service in order to print.
So, how long before Windows is a subscription? They have already brought ads into Windows.
Yes, I think I'll sign up for the...hm, the "Casual Gamer" tier, which allows 2 hours per week of gaming. Although I could always watch an ad to unlock 30 more minutes.
I am seriously considering buying an older car (2017) that doesn’t have the tracking or connectivity in it. (Aside from CarPlay). I don’t want to pay twice for my heated seats. And buttons. I want buttons.
38Same here, I don’t want a new car for the same reasons. I’m hoping when I go back into the market to find a gently used car from the early teens.
6Straight up I used to think I wanted a new car since mine is from 2007, I now won't buy anything newer
In fact the cars I'm currently looking at are from 1999 and earlier
4Currently driving a 2010, and dreading the day it eventually dies. Simply because it means I’ll lose my physical buttons, and the car will apparently have fart-sniffing sensors built into the seat cushions so the manufacturer can track what I had for my last meal. And disabling that tracking will apparently kill the radio, cruise control, brakes, and power steering.
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Exactly the same reason I am trying my hardest to keep a 2005 Corolla alive.
Thankfully, it's a 2005 Corolla, so it's going well so far.
3Watch out for direct injected cars, which is virtually all of them now except for electrics. Many don't have traditional fuel injectors in the intake manifold anymore, and because of poor PCV systems, oil vapor carbonizes on the intake valves, causing problems. This is generally around the 40k-50k mile mark, potentially sooner if people don't drive their cars on the freeway for extended periods after startup. Some newer cars have addresses this by adding supplemental fuel injectors in the intake (some audis, some Toyotas) but it's not a widespread practice, of it will ever be.
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Yes, I think I’ll sign up for the…hm, the “Casual Gamer” tier, which allows 2 hours per week of gaming. Although I could always watch an ad to unlock 30 more minutes.
Please drink verification can
23In case anyone reading is unfamiliar with the reference / one of today's lucky 10000:
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It already is.
For years, I was predicting that the TPM 2.0 requirement for 11 was going to mean that Microsoft would end up extending the security update end-of-life for years, just like they ended up doing with Windows 7.
However, what I didn't predict was that instead of making that available to everyone like they did with 7, they're now going to make consumers pay for the benefit of continued security updates on Windows 10. They're just using it as an opportunity to demand more money.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/extended-security-updates
Individuals or organizations who elect to continue using Windows 10 after support ends on October 14, 2025, will have the option of enrolling their PCs into a paid ESU subscription. The ESU program enables PCs to continue to receive critical and important security updates through an annual subscription service after support ends. The Microsoft Security Response Center defines the severity rating for security updates.
They used to only charge organizations for this, now they've decided the regular users have gotta pay, too.
19All the way back to Windows NT Microsoft sold extended support for business customers while security updates stopped to the home customer. For the past several major releases Microsoft has a five year mainstream release, 5 year extended support, and then a paid extended period for business. That was the same for Windows 7 as far as I can tell. Honestly, it seems like selling individual esu's is giving the individual more options. I mean, I don't get it personally. But if I had some reason to absolutely stay on Windows 10, I would appreciate the option to pay for security updates for years 11, 12, 13+ of the OS.
That being said, I'm not sure who these people are that both love Windows 10 to the point of staying with it past regular support, loath Windows 11, and don't want to give Linux a try. Like, barring weird technical requirements, that's a Venn diagram that I just can't square.
And I'm aware of the shenanigans Windows 11 pulls, but also know the savvy or opinionated user can disable most anything undesirable that makes it different from Windows 10. It's a bit clicky, but you can disable or hide most things. And if it's the principle of the thing... Get thee to a nixery!
7This is all pretty valid, but the reality is that the TPM 2.0 requirement is literally entirely arbitrary, at least when it comes to consumer-level Windows.
I understand the ease of just making both business and consumer versions have the same requirement, because the enhanced security literally won't matter for the average consumer.
So in effect they lost years of use of their hardware because of an arbitrary limitation. There's plenty of consumer hardware that otherwise meets the Windows 11 specs but only lacks the TPM 2.0 chip.
I only wish more people would consider Linux as an alternative.
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Honestly Im not really sure how profitable that would be for them. Most people dont really think about their computer OS much, they use windows because thats what they know how to use, because their computer came with it and they've not tried anything else. Businesses might think more about what they use, but their employees know windows and training them on other things would take time and money, so they too use windows. But if windows becomes a recurring subscription instead of something you buy bundled with the computer itself, then that would force people to think more about it, and potentially seek alternatives, like Linux or whatever else might come up. More use of those alternatives would lead to more software being made that supports them in order to not lose those sales, which in turn makes non-windows OS's viable to more people, which would cause more people to actually switch to them, and so on. This could eventually lead to business customers eventually deciding it would be viable to try something else, which could ultimately lose Microsoft money. Being the "default" OS gives them an effective near-monopoly on that market, they would be pretty foolish to risk that I would think, especially when as you already mentioned, other ways of monetizing those home pc users like ads, or for that matter selling data to advertisers, already exist.
17Something that the OP might be missing is that yes, subscription upsells are scummy, but the provider quite often can tout a long laundry list of things they feel justify the subscription, like cloud storage or constant support. If they're not actually providing that, or literally no one finds the items useful, the backlash would not be relegated to enthusiasts on Lemmy.
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7I mean, isn't it already? You gotta pay the upgrade every few years, and they only give it away when the new product is worse than the old product.
6Windows 10 doesn't stop booting based on a subscription status.
7Yet.
4
I'd give it 12 months.
6Windows is just the vehicle to distribute their yearly subscription of the office package. It's already a freemium model. You can't outrace greed with your worst-case musings.
3I'd say about the same time Linux installations trend up aggressively.
3Yeah I've been thinking of getting linux now because i can see the subscription coming.
Just need to get my pc running again first
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I think it would be similar to Office.
For example, there would be Windows with a subscription for the activation key. You would continue to get a period of free use (14 or 30 days maybe) before requiring an activation key.
Manufacturers would bundle new hardware purchases with 24 months of credit or something like that, so most people wouldn't notice a change at first.
However, Windows "Classic" would still exist and allow one-off purchases, but may have some limitations to updates or features over time.
3When a large proportion of their user base no longer believes/ knows/ cares that they actually have a choice. Or that a small hit in convenience or familiarity is worth the gain in liberty and personal freedom.
2This kind of already exists. Microsoft 365 is basically office 365 with an included Windows license (and a few other perks) . I don't know if they're pushing it in the consumer space, but they seem to be trying to get businesses to switch.
It's only a matter of time before that becomes normal, I'm so excited for the days when computers come with a trial of ms365 and force you to pay after it expires. Or better yet, buy "extended coverage" to get double the time for triple the price!
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