Poll: Windows 10 - Whats the Motive?

[Pr0]

Tinfoil hat time, everyone get out your favorite conical alien mind control ray deflecting head wear and snap it on at a jaunty angle.

Anyways the question is....what is the motive of Windows 10. And I'm not some anti-Microsoft luddite that spends their time compiling linux kernals or running software environment emulators to ensure I can have compatibility with the latest games on my copy of FreeBSD.

I've been a Microsoft user since DOS and OS/2, Windows has always quietly been part of what I've done since early adulthood and every time it needed a major update...like 3.1 to 95, 95 to 98, 98 to XP, XP to Windows 7...every single time I've had to pay a new single user license for the software.

Now here we are coming up on Windows 10..and its not only free but they're jamming all kinds of other things into it to ensure that its not only free but extremely attractive to have as well.

I don't get it. Its not as if Windows has ever really lost touch with the home PC market. Apple does, for example, have a small share of the home computing market but its never grown beyond about 20% market share, for Intel based computing Windows has never had a drastic problem with being the OS of choice for billions of machines world wide for nearly 3 decades now.

Why free? What offsets the cost of this decision? How do they financially justify validating even pirated copies of Win 7/Win 8 with Windows 10 and validate not charging anyone anything?

There has to be something on the back end of this and it can't be an attempt to try to sell more Windows phones cause seriously...who needs a Windows phone? Android has that well in hand really, for the rest of the planet that isn't buying Apple in that market.

So whats the catch here? Who is paying for my copy of Windows 10 and why? Because lets be fair, someone, somewhere, has to be paying for this, even if it is as cut and dried as Microsoft making the OS free so it can be a loss leader to help them gain even more market dominance...but lets be fair, again, in the desktop market...Windows has never had that much of a problem remaining dominant.

Are they just looking for the biggest tax break in the history of the planet or something?

So as my gran said...nothing good is cheap, easy, or free. So obviously when something is too good to be true...like a free brand new OS, I find myself wondering why that can even be an option.

 

[Zhukov]

a) Maintain market dominance. I don't have any figures on hand and I can't be bothered looking them up, but you mentioned Apple getting about 20% market share. That's a sizable chunk, enough that Microsoft might want to counter it.

b) Encouraging people to upgrade from older version. As in, much older versions. There are a lot of PCs out there still running XP and it has got to be a pain to keep up support for them. Rather than try to convince people that, no really, it's totally worth spending money on this new OS that improves jack shit for the average user, they may have decided to simply hit the reset button by giving it away free.

I actually suspect it's more of (b) than (a).

However, note that I am unashamedly talking out of my arse here.

 

[The Madman]

I imagine it's all about ensuring Windows continued dominance of the home PC market against its competition. The actual money made from home PC users buying copies of Windows is probably dwarfed by the continued advantages of everyone having to play nice with them since upwards of 3/4 of PC use Windows, and seeing as services like Linux are on the rise while Apple continues to grow, releasing Windows 10 for free to ensure Microsofts continued dominance of the market seems a safe strategy.

That would be my bet at least.

 

[Albino Boo]

You are ignoring the business to business sales which is where the real money is. The windows 10 versions that will be free will not integrate into active directory. AD is the system that allows highly centralised management of client pcs and thus reducing the total cost of ownership. The Win8 enterprise is a very different beast to the Win8.

The Win10 retail is a step towards the model that google uses with android. They are trying to get into the lucrative tablet/phone market with a platform that you can develop for both desktop and mobile.

 

[Dismal purple]

They are obviously going to spy on us and control how we use personal computers to prevent piracy. Everything you do will be recorded and sent to Microsoft because it will be an always-online OS. And if anything that looks illegal happens you will be permanently locked out of your computer and banned from every website that has a Facebook Like button.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Windows still has the stranglehold on the business and government user market. If it's a PC that is routinely used by a person within a few feet of the machine, it has a 95% chance it will be running Windizzles. They aren't giving Win 10 away for free to them, so their isn't any losses there.

For the consumer, It's both a PR stunt to apologize for Metro/8's start screen and to get Win 10 on as many PC as possible. MS (along with every other bastard company) is trying to branch into app stores, software subscriptions and advertising.[footnote]Hopefully, just the "cover your screen with crap you don't need" kind, but I am still weary they will also go with the "collect browsing and program information to sell to third parties" kind.[/footnote] They are willing to let people get 10 for free so both former Win 7 and 8 users will have access to the built in MS store from Win 8 (a revamped version, I think) but will forget about 8's garbage UI. From there they can sell more stuff to people who can't figure out how to use a search engine to find useful programs (or can't do their own research on software companies they never heard of).

I'm waiting until the early adopters find out how bad the ads and privacy concerns are before I upgrade. Even then, MS might be giving people who wait a false sense of security by going easy on their ad plans until the waiters also upgrade at the end of the one year free upgrade window. I doubt whatever happens will be super bad, but we are talking about a company that tried to shove a touchscreen centric UI down our throats and tried to push a horrendous DRM scheme on its newest game console.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Market control.
If all computers in the whole wide world run Windows that is what anyone will ever know, what anyone will ever care to use, what everyone will continue using as long as they use computers.
It may look like a loss to you but home users spend only very little on OS and they do so infrequently(once per 5 years), but once people have a system absolutely rely on it's brand and from there on in, that is a money fountain will not cease to squirt.

 

[Anti-American Eagle]

I suspect it's so they can monitor everyone who upgrades through some form of mandatory data collection. Why else would they throw "legitimate" copies at pirates? Something funny is going on with this and I'll be watching from a safe distance until someone figures out what it is.

 

[Metailurus]

Tinfoil hat time, everyone get out your favorite conical alien mind control ray deflecting head wear and snap it on at a jaunty angle.

Anyways the question is....what is the motive of Windows 10. And I'm not some anti-Microsoft luddite that spends their time compiling linux kernals or running software environment emulators to ensure I can have compatibility with the latest games on my copy of FreeBSD.

I've been a Microsoft user since DOS and OS/2, Windows has always quietly been part of what I've done since early adulthood and every time it needed a major update...like 3.1 to 95, 95 to 98, 98 to XP, XP to Windows 7...every single time I've had to pay a new single user license for the software.

Now here we are coming up on Windows 10..and its not only free but they're jamming all kinds of other things into it to ensure that its not only free but extremely attractive to have as well.

I don't get it. Its not as if Windows has ever really lost touch with the home PC market. Apple does, for example, have a small share of the home computing market but its never grown beyond about 20% market share, for Intel based computing Windows has never had a drastic problem with being the OS of choice for billions of machines world wide for nearly 3 decades now.

Why free? What offsets the cost of this decision? How do they financially justify validating even pirated copies of Win 7/Win 8 with Windows 10 and validate not charging anyone anything?

There has to be something on the back end of this and it can't be an attempt to try to sell more Windows phones cause seriously...who needs a Windows phone? Android has that well in hand really, for the rest of the planet that isn't buying Apple in that market.

So whats the catch here? Who is paying for my copy of Windows 10 and why? Because lets be fair, someone, somewhere, has to be paying for this, even if it is as cut and dried as Microsoft making the OS free so it can be a loss leader to help them gain even more market dominance...but lets be fair, again, in the desktop market...Windows has never had that much of a problem remaining dominant.

Are they just looking for the biggest tax break in the history of the planet or something?

So as my gran said...nothing good is cheap, easy, or free. So obviously when something is too good to be true...like a free brand new OS, I find myself wondering why that can even be an option.

Apple envy. Plus they probably want to eventually push whatever they can into a subscription model.

If Linux finally breaks through to become something other than for web servers and hobbyists, it will be due to Microsoft's policies rather than the various linux offerings being any good.

 

[Hoplon]

There a couple of actually really good business reasons.

To start, getting everyone on to legitimate versions of the OS and updating, all the feed back from something like a billion or two home users? makes a better OS and gives them the second really good reason.

App market. More people on your platform. More people that can buy. Even a dollar each a year is a shit tonne of cash.

Third it's a way in to china and India. the traditional sales model won't work when your OS cost a months pay.

 

[TechNoFear]

Why free? What offsets the cost of this decision? How do they financially justify validating even pirated copies of Win 7/Win 8 with Windows 10 and validate not charging anyone anything?

To get more users and ensure they retain the ones they have.

There has to be something on the back end of this and it can't be an attempt to try to sell more Windows phones cause seriously...who needs a Windows phone? Android has that well in hand really, for the rest of the planet that isn't buying Apple in that market.

What if the app you just bought could be used on your PC, tablet, console and phone?

No more buying a copy for each platform and manually ensuring each platform has the same data.

 

[Lilani]

-snip-

I think Microsoft is trying to rebrand Windows, very likely as a subscription or service-based OS. Many big computer programs are becoming subscription-based, like Adobe Photoshop and other design programs, and it looks like that is the general direction all software that gets regularly updated is heading. Instead of buying the newest version in full when it comes out, you simply pay for a monthly or yearly subscription and get access to the program and updates so long as you're subscribed.

Also, to get it launched, Microsoft has enough assets that making money quickly isn't a top priority. So the idea of making it free at first could be just to get people to adopt it, making it as easy to get as possible so that people don't cling to the older OS's just as people clung to Windows XP well after Windows 7 and 8 were launched. People are still going to cling to their current OS's, but I imagine at least a few will adopt...eventually.

Their financial justification is that piracy is less of a theft problem and more of a service problem. People often pirate things because it's easier--the benefits from piracy outweigh the benefits of buying legitimately. Buying an OS legitimately not only costs a lot of money upfront, but also often comes with bloatware and updates the user might not like, and finding legitimate copies can also be hard for people in unusual or remote regions. So by making Windows 10 free they're trying to bridge that service gap and make adopting the legitimate copy easier than pirating a copy. They'll find a way to start making money later, don't forget that for a moment. But at the start they just want to get people roped in so that when they do start finding ways to make money, it becomes a greater hassle to switch to something else than to just stay with Windows 10.

As for how they'll make the money, I feel like adding a service or subscription fee to the basic package might be a bit too douchy even for them, but they might offer some "deluxe edition" which costs a small fee and has extra features. Or, God Forbid, advertisements. *shudder* I think I'm going to stick with my Windows 7 until I'm almost completely certain their plan for making money isn't through advertisements tied to the OS itself. That would be...a nightmare. Apple would win the OS war right then and there.

 

[Hoplon]

As for how they'll make the money, I feel like adding a service or subscription fee to the basic package might be a bit too douchy even for them, but they might offer some "deluxe edition" which costs a small fee and has extra features. Or, God Forbid, advertisements. *shudder* I think I'm going to stick with my Windows 7 until I'm almost completely certain their plan for making money isn't through advertisements tied to the OS itself. That would be...a nightmare. Apple would win the OS war right then and there.

I'm 99 percent certain the money angle is covered by the app store that is part of win 10, and those apps will be able to work on any win 10 device, games if the hardware meets minimum requirements (probably based on the xbone or a tablet)

 

[babinro]

I'm still a windows 7 user but I thought Microsoft had a storefront/app store of some kind built into windows 8. If my memory is correct than wouldn't this be reason enough to potentially justify a free windows 10?

It's essentially the Free to Play gaming microtransaction model. Get as many people access to your storefront as possible and rely on the small percentage of whales to financially compensate you.

 

[Benpasko]

For the consumer, It's both a PR stunt to apologize for Metro/8's start screen

I use Win8, and this bit always confuses me. You can just type on the metro screen and it pulls up what you want, like the Dota 2 champ select. In practice, I don't see how the metro ui is worse than a start menu. Of course, I broke the garbage default metro apps, so it's just my icons on the page.

 

[gigastar]

Ill be among the first to admit that MS literally giving away W10 for free sets off several alarm bells, but considering the issues theyve had in the past with people/companies still using unsupported and obselete versions of Windows, incentivising an upgrade like that makes perfect sense.

It will also enable them to drop support for W7 sooner, and not after the successor to its successors successor has been available for a while.

Either way, if the apocalypse is coming and W10 turns out to be subscription based, we will have a year to monitor the situation and i can just reinstall 7 if it comes to that.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

There is a reason here most people aren't seeing. A lot of people like me have migrated to Linux for various reasons, like my HDD with 7 on it had a mechanical failure and doesn't work any more. Also Windows 8 has been alienating people since it came out. So why do it this way? Maybe to win some of us back. Ideally I want Windows 7 again but I haven't checked recently for OEMs for it and I don't know when support for it is gonna stop. Also all of the 8 Security holes and even Steve Gibson saying that 8 was the suck. It's no wonder Microsoft is going to try to bend over backwards to get good will. Now the question is what kind of limitations will the Free version of 10 have.

Also Linux has started eating into both Apple's and Microsoft's market share. Thanks in no small part that Ubuntu is starting to get big and there are lots of flavors of Linux to please everyone. Like: all of the -buntu flavors like my Lubuntu, Fedora, Linux Mint, Arch Linux, and many many many more.

Edit: What I for got to mention. Have you all missed the huge push for games to get Linux compatible?

 

[Hoplon]

There is a reason here most people aren't seeing. A lot of people like me have migrated to Linux for various reasons, like my HDD with 7 on it had a mechanical failure and doesn't work any more. Also Windows 8 has been alienating people since it came out. So why do it this way? Maybe to win some of us back. Ideally I want Windows 7 again but I haven't checked recently for OEMs for it and I don't know when support for it is gonna stop. Also all of the 8 Security holes and even Steve Gibson saying that 8 was the suck. It's no wonder Microsoft is going to try to bend over backwards to get good will. Now the question is what kind of limitations will the Free version of 10 have.

Also Linux has started eating into both Apple's and Microsoft's market share. Thanks in no small part that Ubuntu is starting to get big and there are lots of flavors of Linux to please everyone. Like: all of the -buntu flavors like my Lubuntu, Fedora, Linux Mint, Arch Linux, and many many many more.

Edit: What I for got to mention. Have you all missed the huge push for games to get Linux compatible?

Win 7 support is till 2020.

the "huge" push is mostly all Valve because the steam OS is linux based. it's still not very firendly when installing or updating drivers, it's like building a kit car as apposed to tuning a mass produced car.

 

[SmugFrog]

Because it comes with Candy Crush...

 

[Lilani]

As for how they'll make the money, I feel like adding a service or subscription fee to the basic package might be a bit too douchy even for them, but they might offer some "deluxe edition" which costs a small fee and has extra features. Or, God Forbid, advertisements. *shudder* I think I'm going to stick with my Windows 7 until I'm almost completely certain their plan for making money isn't through advertisements tied to the OS itself. That would be...a nightmare. Apple would win the OS war right then and there.

I'm 99 percent certain the money angle is covered by the app store that is part of win 10, and those apps will be able to work on any win 10 device, games if the hardware meets minimum requirements (probably based on the xbone or a tablet)

Ah, I see, that makes a lot of sense. So long as I can still use my windows as a computer and I never have to touch the App Store if I don't choose to, I'm not totally opposed to the idea. Though God knows they'll make certain things which were standard before app-based just to force people to use it. And I don't believe this whole "fundamentally changing the OS in a way people didn't ask for and which drastically alters its functionality" thing has ever worked out for them, so we will see.