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.
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.
Something 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.
This 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!
Windows 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.
When 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.
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.
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.
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.
All 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!
This 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.
The TPM requirement, I agree seemed a bit much without enough warning to the hardware industry. It's all the more puzzling because it is trivial to install with the TPM requirement disabled.
That being said, I've done tech support forever ago, and I still help my in-laws with technology, and I get it. Microsoft is pushing improvements for people who otherwise wouldn't do anything for their security or even continuity of operations. Windows hello, for all my gripes with it, gives people a password reset and recovery option for their OS.
But to your point again, I think the TPM requirement should have been phased in more slowly.
It’s to set up a baseline feature set. Just like you can build an Android app and be confident there will be a touchscreen, motion controls, and GPS, Microsoft is trying to do the same for Windows. Otherwise, windows software will be limited to the lowest common denominator.
That said, the use cases for requiring TPM 2.0 are not encouraging. The biggest use case (aside from full disk encryption, like BitLocker) is anti-piracy tools like Denuvo.
I wonder about this but I don’t think it fits their current model too well because Windows is the vehicle for the other subscriptions like Office, GamePass, Azure, etc.
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.
I’m looking at importing a kei truck (either a Honda Acty or Subaru Sambar) currently and unfortunately the newest I can import is a 1999
The good news is I’m wanting it so that I can keep my little Kia a commuter and can stop taking it into the mountains
Edit I forgot some stuff when hammering out this reply before my break was over: Basically I was looking for a vehicle to take to the mountains often or to turn my car into the “mountains rig”. But with modern cars being modern cars I’m going to leave my car as my commuter and import a kei truck for being my “mountain rig”.
Curious, would an Acty do well enough in the mountains? I’m probably just thinking of the circus that is I-70 west of Denver and maybe you had something else in mind, but wiki says these things have 656cc engines. I totally get that people overestimate what they need, and these have a lighter body, but that seems like it would be pushing things!
They’re surprisingly capable little vehicles offroad.
They may have about 660cc engines and about 40 HP (Acty is 38 and Sambar is 45) but they only weigh about 1800 lbs, have 4wd, rear mounted engines, locking diffs (in the Acty Attack), and crawler gears (in the Sambar and the Acty Attack). Oh and a really short wheel base (less than 6ft).
And the parts are plentiful (though need ordered from abroad typically).
70mph is a pipe dream for them but 55mph is something they can typically do all day. So the right lane on highways is your home, but I’d be avoiding highways whenever possible anyways due to the prevalence of brodozers.
As a fun little aside, one of my friends is planning to buy one and put a liter bike motor in it for the lols. I can’t wait to see the results but that will be sometime in July at the earliest due to shipping times of the kei truck.
Currently 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.
Watch 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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