“Windows as a service”

[zappaDPJ]

A subscription model might be ahead for Windows 10

A few reports in trade publications have suggested Microsoft might try selling Windows as a service, similar to the way it's now selling Office through subscriptions.

The term "Windows as a service" even appeared in a Microsoft job listing that an enthusiast site found recently.

http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2024702115_briercolumn06xml.html

I've been reading this a lot just recently. I'm not sure if it's a bandwagon or if there's really some substance to it. I hope not.

[Technical Ben]

If I'm going to pay anyone for an OS as a service, it would be a Linux Distro and/or Apple, with a last resort being Android.
I'd at least know I got security and LOTS of options (no monopoly). Windows? No thanks.

[Clive]

It's what they are already doing with Office.  Apparently.   

[wecpcs]

It's what they are already doing with Office.  Apparently.   

Well I am already using it and it is good value for money. For around £6 per month you get the complete Office suite including Access which can be installed on up to 5 PC's, along with apps for mobiles, 60 minutes of free Skype calls per month and at the moment 1TB of free online storage which is just about to be made unlimited for Office 365 users.

Colin

[pctech]

This is probably related to this
http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,28950.msg682036.html#msg682036 which might mean it'll work like click-to-run Office 2013 which I have on this machine

[Clive]

Well I am already using it and it is good value for money. For around £6 per month you get the complete Office suite including Access which can be installed on up to 5 PC's, along with apps for mobiles, 60 minutes of free Skype calls per month and at the moment 1TB of free online storage which is just about to be made unlimited for Office 365 users.

Colin

I have Office 2000 which came free with the last computer I ever bought from Time.  I can install it on as many machines as I want and it does all that I want.  £6 a month equates to £72 a year which is outrageous!   

[nowster]

£6 a month equates to £72 a year which is outrageous!   

It's indeed cheaper than buying outright for the first year, then the continuing payments make it vastly more expensive for subsequent years.

[pctech]

I got mine through work and only had to pay 7.95 for it.

[wecpcs]

I have Office 2000 which came free with the last computer I ever bought from Time.  I can install it on as many machines as I want and it does all that I want.  £6 a month equates to £72 a year which is outrageous!   

For a start Office 2000 will not work on modern PC's with Windows 8 as I used to have Office 2003 that did not, which is why I changed and you cannot install Office 2000 on as many PC's as you want, it is licensed for one PC only. They only brought out the Family pack (for 3 PC's only) more recently than 2000.

Colin

[wecpcs]

It's indeed cheaper than buying outright for the first year, then the continuing payments make it vastly more expensive for subsequent years.

But the difference is, if they bring out a new version during you subscription, you then get it free of charge as an update rather than having to buy an upgrade.I only have one PC apart from my Home Server, but if you have 5 PC's in your household then that only equates to about £14 per PC per year, not forgetting all the extras that you get with it. I have already uploaded my entire photo collection to OneDrive as my Dropbox account will be losing 48GB of my space which was a freebie from Samsung which expires in a few months and Dropbox wanted £7.95 per month for 1TB.

Colin

[Technical Ben]

I'll use cloud services the day I can "freeze" my versions. When it's force updates (on GUI etc), I'll stick to physical versions.

[zappaDPJ]

I don't really have a problem with a subscription based purchasing model except that it generally works out to be far more expensive. I might for example choose to skip a version as I have done with Windows 8, something I can't do with a subscription. If it's an operating system I have to keep paying and then there's the issue that I might not want to upgrade for other reasons. I'm somewhat concerned that the subscription based model might force you into upgrading whether you want to or not.

[Simon]

Maybe it would be like an antivirus product, which still carries on working if you don't renew the subscription, but you don't receive any updates for it. 

[Tacitus]

Maybe it would be like an antivirus product, which still carries on working if you don't renew the subscription, but you don't receive any updates for it. 

My understanding re Office365 is that once you stop paying it stops working.  At one time I could get a free standalone copy under the University site licence but all they are offering now is Office 365.  Given that word processors are pretty much a mature product, I don't really see the point in renting one especially as usable alternatives exist. 

To be fair I think for most people it's Excel that is the killer app, as for many people there is no viable alternative.

[Clive]

For a start Office 2000 will not work on modern PC's with Windows 8 as I used to have Office 2003 that did not, which is why I changed and you cannot install Office 2000 on as many PC's as you want, it is licensed for one PC only. They only brought out the Family pack (for 3 PC's only) more recently than 2000.

Colin

The version of Office 2000 I have has been installed on dozens of PCs and laptops although not so many recently.     It certainly works with Windows 7 but I have heard that it won't with Windows 8.  I'll just have to wait for Windows 9.  Everybody else is.   

[Glenn]

You will have to wait a very long time, the next version is 10. 

[Clive]

   They are all out to get me!   

[Technical Ben]

Maybe it would be like an antivirus product, which still carries on working if you don't renew the subscription, but you don't receive any updates for it. 

I've got an idea!
The great thing about moving from our purchasing model, is that with the purchasing model you pay every few years to upgrade the version. Now we can pay every few months to upgrade the version!
With the purchasing model, you only get updates when you buy a new release. With the subscription you only get updates when you pay the subscription...

Wait a minute, this sounds less like a new idea, and more like paying over the odds for old rope! 

[pctech]

MS won't let it work like the AV model as it's not in their interest to do so and they will argue that the subs fund the continuous improvement of the product which of course means pay the teams looking for bugs and dreaming up new features that customers may not want.

I mean, who dreamed up modern UI and were they on drugs when they did so?

[Technical Ben]

Possibly. Had to do a quick setup for a customer today to get Wind 8.1 looking a bit like 7 (just loging to desktop on boot etc).

The case in point example of Windows 8 being so stupid, is the interface, just in the tutorial. Customer brings in the Laptop as they have no idea (rightly so) where to start with the new GUI. While I'm setting it to be a bit more default, it pops up with the tutorial, with no "skip" option, for gestures that may not even be possible depending on input device used, with no indication to anyone where to go to review such info.

A nice popup with "want to see new features" that, I don't know, every other windows did, would be nice! But no, someone knew we would all be looking at the screen at the exact moment it told us to "switch apps be swooshing the thingy in the corners of the whatsits" and we would certainly not have important work documents open at that time when it told us "swipe down to close" and offers no option to cancel the request.  (Ok, that last one was made up, but what are the chances it actually does do this at some point?)

Windows 8 is a very nice OS. Windows 8.1 is close to perfect. Only problem, there is more than 1 type of person. If there are 10 types of people, and you make an OS 100% perfect for one, your still wrong 90% of the time. Windows 8 did not give the consumer, the user, the options or info they needed to use the thing! 

[pctech]

Think that's the thinking behind Continium, Ben.

Just no idea why it didn't occur to them when building 8, just seems logical to adapt the interface to the detected hardware.

[Technical Ben]

Even then. It's not always the hardware. The user is also at play. You can train a user, but you need to both put in the time and also hope they will too.
There is no such thing as "intuitive" only "follows past experiences". Just getting a universal time format (varies in countries), age system (varies in cultures) or language (varies again, hence websites asking "sex/title" as it does change required language when asking questions).

Programmers noticed these are hard problems. I think GUI designers did too. I'm not sure who was to blame for 8.

[zappaDPJ]

Microsoft ends retail sales of Windows 7 and 8

Microsoft has officially stopped selling retail copies of some versions of Windows 7 and 8.

The date to stop selling the software was set some time ago and should help Microsoft move people on to more recent versions of its operating system.

Separately, statistics suggest people are finally moving away from some very old versions of Windows.

The next version of Windows, called Windows 10, is due to be released in late 2015.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-29880144

Although it may not be related, I can't help thinking this is another step towards subscription.

[Technical Ben]

Ah, I almost panicked there. Seems it's just older versions not on sale. Nothing really about stopping all versions from sale.

Though if they did, I would jump ship to Linux. Or PS4/Mac just to spite them (if I'm going to be forced out of the house, don't expect me to come running back  ).

[pctech]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-29880144

Although it may not be related, I can't help thinking this is another step towards subscription.

If they are going to do that, they need to sort out their abysmal telephone support.

Phoned MS a couple of times in relation to my technical qualification and even that was an exercise in frustration.

[zappaDPJ]

I've phoned them a few of times, I can't say I've ever found their telephone support to be particularly useful.  It seemed like I was calling an Indian call centre.

[Gary]

  It seemed like I was calling an Indian call centre.

You were, Zap.

[zappaDPJ]

Thought so