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Windows Operating Systems Software

The Unintended Consequences of Free Windows 10 For Everyone 277

Posted by timothy from the dogs-and-cats-living-together dept.
Ammalgam writes: Microsoft seems to be really driven to pushing over a billion people to the new Windows 10 platform as soon as humanly possible. In the latest push to make this happen, the company has basically decided that (somewhat off the record), pirates can come in the side door and it really doesn't matter what the state of their Windows license is, they can get Windows 10 for free. To get deep into the weeds on how this is happening, you have to read Ed Bott's excellent article on ZDNET – "With a nod and a wink, Microsoft gives away Windows 10 to anyone who asks." However, on Windows10update.com, Onuora Amobi asks whether the cost benefit analysis has been done and if this deluge of new members will have a detrimental effect on the Windows Insider Program.
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The Unintended Consequences of Free Windows 10 For Everyone More

The Unintended Consequences of Free Windows 10 For Everyone

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  • But will it be free? (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    John Thompson, the guy that runs Microsoft, said it will not. He hinted that it will be subscription only. We need to answer that question first before going off on tangents about the effect of something we're not sure will happen.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      That man really needs to be more careful with what he says. He keeps contracting the C-level guys at Microsoft that work for him, and he even contradicts himself pretty often. I know he was hired just because he's friends with Obama, and that gives Microsoft a lot of influence in the White House, but he is just in way over his head.

    • there's no subscription in the sense you think. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by gl4ss ( 559668 ) on Sunday June 21, 2015 @04:50PM (#49957899) Homepage Journal

      he's senile or out of loop of what his approved or ms approved tactic leads to.

      the tactic is fairly simple, to get as many users to windows which is post win 7. that is, to get as much users to sign up for ms accounts and more importantly to use the store to download their software.

      that's the "subscription". not anything else.

      and giving away windows licenses to people who ask? that's been a microsoft tactic for half a decade now at least. if you have a smallish business, home/edu user or whatever and have been paying windows(not counting bundled with your laptop or whatever) then you're in minority by now. they've been shoveling the shit out as marketing tactic for a long time now. giving away windows 10 licenses to beta installers is not surprising at all.

      and heck how many of those don't have already a windows 7 or 8 license that would be eligible for upgrade anyways? very fucking few. in the west practically everyone who has a new enough computer to run windows 10 already was covered to get it for "free".

      and yes we are quite sure windows 10 will launch as non subscription just a normal thing and that it will be free for win7 and up upgraders. the microsoft pushed ad through the windows update has made that painfully clear for everyone who actually uses windows and thus might give a shit about windows 10 anyways.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        he's senile

        That's scary since Obama almost appointed Secretary of Commerce. Source:

        http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/27/nation/na-commerce-secretary27

        Imagine a Secretary of Commerce that communicates so poorly and with so many contradictions. My wife is a Principal Strategist with Microsoft for Azure and Office365, and even she doesn't know if Ten will be free and/or require a subscription after one year. She should know because it greatly affects their planning.

      • Re:there's no subscription in the sense you think. (Score:4, Insightful)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Sunday June 21, 2015 @06:20PM (#49958299) Homepage Journal

        Can you elaborate on that? I'm a home user, how do I get a free Windows 8.1/7 licence from Microsoft? You said they were giving them away to people who ask...

        You are right about the subscriptions though. It's all about driving people to the Windows Store, and making that into the kind of cash cow Google Play or Apple's store is.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by bored ( 40072 )

          Probably not what you mean, but http://www.microsoft.com/en-us... [microsoft.com] and then after 90 days use the slmgr rearm trick.

          I'm not sure about 8.1 enterprise but other versions have allowed this trick 3 time, then you boot from a disk, clear some registry keys and start the whole process over again. Or ignore the "your windows isn't genuine" if you use one of the OEM keys you can find via google.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by rioki ( 1328185 )

            That is what you call piracy, not Microsoft "giving away Windows to everybody who asks". Your approach is no different that sourcing one of the rogue MSDN keys.

    • Re:But will it be free? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Junta ( 36770 ) on Sunday June 21, 2015 @06:48PM (#49958413)

      They keep using 'Windows as a service' and 'supported lifetime of the device' which strongly hint at subscription.

      On the financial side, they have done something with a strong hint about what they means: they declared they will defer a license revenue purchase and only count a part of it a year until the projected useful life of the hardware device is over. So they need to come out and be explicit, but it seems nothing really changes from the customer side and they play accounting tricks to transform their revenue to resemble a subscription offering.

      So all signs currently point to Windows 10 being more of the same. Their upfront price is large enough and in pracitce gets thrown out with the hardware it was running on.

      So they gussied up some fancy accounting and marketing and suddenly they look like they are a 'free' platform to customers and subscription to investors. Nothing however really changed in any real fundamental way.

      • Re:But will it be free? (Score:5, Informative)

        by King_TJ ( 85913 ) on Sunday June 21, 2015 @09:56PM (#49959153) Journal

        You know... it's funny because a few weeks ago, I made the point on Slashdot that I, too, believed Windows 10 was Microsoft's vehicle for moving people to a subscription model for their OS upgrades. But I was immediately modded down as a troll.

        I have lots of reasons to believe this is so, though - including attending a conference a few months ago where several Microsoft business sales reps were in attendance. They made it clear that moving forward, Microsoft is strongly focused on serving everything to you via the Cloud. They made the off-handed comment that the next release of Windows Server will likely be the last one you can actually buy to install on your own hardware. The future, according to them, lies in subscribing to everything hosted on Microsoft's Azure. You need a print and file server? Fine ... spin a new one up on Azure and configure as needed, and pay the monthly fee to keep it going as long as you need it. Same for SQL, SharePoint Server and more. And just the other day, they announced an internal restructuring of Microsoft's CRM/ERP software division (Great Plains Accounting software, basically) so it will go under their division doing Enterprise Cloud computing initiatives.

        It sounds to me like Win 10 puts the "mechanism" on everyone's computer that will allow MS to push future OS updates to it via the Internet ... not just patches or "Service Packs", but complete new versions of the OS. They don't HAVE to do things that way, obviously ... but it sets the stage for a change to that deployment method.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by armanox ( 826486 )
          If they do something like that on the server side there will be a lot of negative feedback...And a lot of money moving (back?) towards Red Hat, Oracle, and IBM.

        • Exactly what I was thinking as well. They want to give away windows 10 to as many people as possible so they can eventually hijack all those people and lock them into a subscription to "Windows".

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          For business users, yes, it's already going this way. They realized a while back that running their own hardware was more expensive than just paying someone else to run it in the cloud, the only problems being trust and internet connection bandwidth. In fact something similar has been happening for a long time in IT, with companies offering remotely managed boxes you install at your own facility. We have remotely managed IP phones, and for many years Cisco offered remotely managed routers and switches.

          For h

  • side door? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Anyone is invited. You beta-test = your payment is a free license.
    That sounds like the front door to me, not some questionable/obscure side door.

  • WindowsME 2.0 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Billly Gates ( 198444 ) on Sunday June 21, 2015 @04:29PM (#49957783) Journal

    About 1 billion users will start to cry for 7 and even 8.1 back!

    I am letting everyone know that I have been tested this on a Pc at work and on a VM in my virtual lab. Avoid this release like the plague! No RSAT tools, a VLAN change can crash it, install will corrupt itself, Windows updates break to the point a DISM image fix is required, and the list goes on and on.

    The odd thing is we are just a few weeks before release and there is no change freeze yet??! MS laid off their QA team so they only add features and fix them after enough people complain on the internet with their discussion app.

    I am sticking with Windows 8.1 for at least a year. Bloodstone which is the first bug fix update will come out next fall if rumors at www.neowin.net are correct. Another update will hit next summer. Maybe just maybe it will be stable enough??

    For me even Windows 8.1 is not stable. I do a dism and a WindowsUPDATE FIXIT every freaking month! Literally after 2 years 8.1 still corrupts itself with updates.

    Windows 7 the best most stable MS OS ever. If I were not an IT professional in charge of being up to date for myself and my employers systems I would still be on it. If you are not an IT admin or help desk jockey reading this stay on 7 for a few more years and let myself and the countless 1 billion fix the OS for you before it is time.

    • Re:WindowsME 2.0 (Score:4, Informative)

      by FlyHelicopters ( 1540845 ) on Sunday June 21, 2015 @04:32PM (#49957803)

      For me even Windows 8.1 is not stable. I do a dism and a WindowsUPDATE FIXIT every freaking month! Literally after 2 years 8.1 still corrupts itself with updates.

      The problem might well be on your end then...

      I have Windows 8.1 on many computers, it is solid as a rock, I have no complaints.

      My main work machine is still on 7, only because I have it setup just so and I'm happy with it, but all my secondary machines have 8.1 on them, with a single XP box for testing purposes.

      10 is just fine, relax...

      • Ditto. My 8.1 machine at home had its first blue screen 18 months after update from 8.0. The single most stable release of Windows I've ever had.

        Mostly I use it for a proprietary terminal program, browsing mostly with Chrome but also IE, Office 2003 apps, and Blender, FreeCAD, Slicr, and some similar stuff. No problems. And I use the classic interface unless I drift too close to the right edge of the trackpad.

      • 8.1 is not nerely as stable as windows 7. Do you have any microsoft surface devices? I too have had update related problems, as well as directaccess vpn foobaring itself, graphics bugs, network funnyness such as drives dropping randomly offline and just general instability requiring reboots. We have about 20 machines with win8 compared to 100s with win7 and the win8 machines definitely have more issues, sorry to say.

        Its always good to be extremely apprehensive about windows releases. If you remember all the

    • is 7 the New XP?

    • Re:WindowsME 2.0 (Score:5, Informative)

      by mykepredko ( 40154 ) on Sunday June 21, 2015 @04:42PM (#49957865) Homepage

      Billy,

      Aren't your comments the same sage advice that should be used with each new version of Windows?

      I am doing 95% of my development work on Win7 simply because, like you, I believe it's the best version of Windows available for use right now (I always liked the stability of Win2k), but I just did a Google search on "Initial Windows 7 bugs" and there are numerous problems (including incomplete installations, unable to access optical media, theme change problems, etc.) all with the recommendation to wait a year+ until it gets stable.

      Unfortunately, Microsoft has the mindset to get it out and then fix the problems (with some bean-counter probably saying that they should only spend money/resources on the problems that users actually care about) instead of doing it right before shipping.

      • Re:WindowsME 2.0 (Score:5, Insightful)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Monday June 22, 2015 @04:43AM (#49960369) Homepage Journal

        Is Microsoft worse than any other major OS vendor, or even any other major software vendor?

        New versions of OS X seems to have fairly severe issues like wifi not working at launch, and Apple has a much smaller range of hardware to target. Linux occasionally throws out some critical data destroying bug by mistake (remember the EXT4 thing with config files?)

        Microsoft really screwed up with trying to extend DOS into a 32 bit system, and then again by failing to realize that ordinary users would be running highly networked operating systems, but that was all more than a decade ago. XP was what, 2002? These days, apart from annoying UI changes (just like Gnome/KDE/OS X/iOS/Android) they seem to have mostly sorted themselves out, and certainly don't seem to be any worse than other vendors.

    • i think the problem might be you, or a buggy release you are running

      I have been running 10 betas since day one, and i have not had any major issues with it. Loads in VMs just fine. updates go through with no effort (and havent broken anything except for one time it did hang on reboot and a powercycle fixed it, never happened again

      I love windows 7 as much as any microsoft product deserves, but 10 is looking like its going to be real good when done

    • Oh. My. God.

      You're been beta testing a complex piece of software and it has some bugs?

      Say it ain't so!

      Windows 8.1... maybe you're doing something wrong? I don't know of anyone the floor in the building I'm in that has had any PC issues in the last year. They're all using 8.1 or were upgrade from XP to 8.1. There's been the odd cheap Chinese Lenovo hardware failure, but no OS failures.

  • I don't think it means what you think it means (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mykepredko ( 40154 ) on Sunday June 21, 2015 @04:29PM (#49957785) Homepage

    When I read through TFA, it sounds like the offer is being revised and updated every time somebody points out a loophole or potential gotcha to the lawyers.

    Reading this, it seems to make more sense to me to:
    1. Make Windows 10 Open Source and available to everybody
    2. Charge for patch notification/installation. "For $10/year, we'll keep your copy of Windows current and in tip-top shape." For your average user, this would probably be a deal, and, I believe, is equivalent to the license fee Microsoft gets when the PC is first sold. For corporate users, this means they are outsourcing some IT responsibilities. For the technical user, they can maintain their workstations themselves and contribute fixes to the things that are important to them.

    Sounds like utopia.

    • Re:I don't think it means what you think it means (Score:4, Insightful)

      by rhodium_mir ( 2876919 ) on Sunday June 21, 2015 @04:53PM (#49957915)

      A large majority of home users running Windows with zero patching because they don't want to pay for it sounds like utopia to you?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bondsbw ( 888959 )

      But this would be *gasp* a SUBSCRIPTION plan!!!

      The HORROR!!

      At least, that's what I believe because I'm from Slashdot and that's what they tell me to believe.

      • Re:I don't think it means what you think it means (Score:5, Insightful)

        by gstoddart ( 321705 ) on Sunday June 21, 2015 @05:23PM (#49958035) Homepage

        Well, I'll tell you the problems with a subscription model.

        First off, it's a nuisance. I've bought a new PCC which came with an OS. It's a done transaction. I have no intention of then providing my credit card and billing information to Microsoft. It's just not happening.

        And then there's the expectation that eventually it becomes extortionware -- nice OS you have, shame if something happened to it if you stopped paying us.

        Again, not happening. We just don't trust companies to not screw us over. Especially not Microsoft.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by bondsbw ( 888959 )

          It depends on the subscription license model. For example, with MSDN you get perpetual use licensing where you can continue to use products after the subscription expires. You just do not receive feature updates and you no longer get support.

          And then there's the expectation that eventually it becomes extortionware -- nice OS you have, shame if something happened to it if you stopped paying us.

          Slippery slope.

          You know what happens? Exactly what you expect, you no longer have support or feature updates. This is no different from what happened to people who are still using XP and never purchased an upgrade.

          In fact, you could say that the traditional Windows

          • Well, having had Microsoft try to sneak in something to my Windows 8.1 which was solely for their benefit ... nagging me to upgrade to Windows 10, and embedding stuff to measure how bad of a job they did ... I simply don't believe or trust that this will be no different than before.

            Because Microsoft is actively making changes to push us to Windows 10, has said that Windows 10 Home will not be able to defer updates, and have more or less decided they'll be the ones calling the shots.

            So, I don't think it is a

      • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday June 21, 2015 @06:20PM (#49958301)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by bondsbw ( 888959 )

          In any event, MS would be ill advised to open source anything. As soon as they do, they are no longer the only source for updates, and once they are no longer the only source for updates, they will no longer be the *best* source for updates, since it is likely that a young upstart company with some intelligence behind it is going to be able to run rings around MS.

          It would still be the only official source for updates. Windows would almost certainly not accept third-party sources by default.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Jiro ( 131519 )

      If Microsoft charged for patches, they wouldn't be able to force patches on people. Forcing patches lets them do lots of things that benefit themselves and are bad for the consumer, including forcing ads, remotely disabling certain hardware if they have a dispute with the manufacturer, retroactively removing features (See; Sony PS3 Linux), imposing restrictions that consumers didn't agree with, etc.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Altrag ( 195300 )

      And exactly the opposite of what MS wants:
      1. Open sourcing it completely is pretty unlikely. There's still a lot of proprietary code in there, even with the various shared source programs, and much of it is licensed from other vendors and even MS is in no position to just arbitrarily release other peoples' code.

      2. MS wants people to keep up to date. Every time someone gets a virus or an incompatible driver update or some other BS, they blame Windows for being crappy. In many cases, the issue they're havi

  • wtfsrsly (Score:5, Insightful)

    by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Sunday June 21, 2015 @04:30PM (#49957791) Homepage Journal

    Whether the CBA has been done? Are you fucking serious? If there's one thing Microsoft has done, it's the CBA. Whether it's based on well-founded assumptions is another question.

    However, if you actually tunnel down into that article, they don't actually speculate about the CBA at all! They actually just show that they don't understand what they're talking about. Here's what the relevant paragraph from TFA actually says:

    This all comes down to cost benefit analysis. Hopefully someone at Microsoft has done the analysis and decided that it makes more sense for the company to open the gates wide than it does to preserve the integrity of the Insider Program.

    The author goes on to speculate that "if hundreds of millions join the Insider Program just for Windows 10, their participation and active feedback levels will be tremendously low" and that "It will make it a lot harder for Microsoft to nurture and mine this group for good information because the data sample size will grow exponentially." But this is a lot of cockery that shows that the author doesn't understand data reporting. Most low-quality information will be readily characterized; the users will have given incomplete or terse information, for example, and you can simply "throw away" any such reports unless they pertain specifically to an issue you care about — in which case, someone is going to loot the database specifically for problem reports which are relevant to the case at hand. And presumably, if the quality is going to suffer so badly, Microsoft already has a significant corpus of higher-quality problem reports to compare new ones against to determine whether they're worth looking at.

    However, the author has also apparently missed the full import of the Windows 10 experience program, which has unprecedented levels of snoopery built into it. Now that Microsoft has gone through the hardcore cadre, they open the floodgates to the general population so that they can collect more automated testing data. As users attempt to run their programs on Windows 10, Microsoft gathers crash reports that tell them not just what users are running, but how to shape Windows 10 to serve the majority as regards backwards compatibility.

    TL;DR: Everything about the idea that Microsoft hasn't run the numbers on this thing is stupid.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by msobkow ( 48369 )

      You raise an interesting point about the automated "testing" data, which is also a very convenient way of monitoring the "flood of pirates" that join the program. You can bet those automated tests tell Microsoft what programs were installed, which were running, and which was active. With someone who was pirating the OS, you can bet they didn't pay for those applications, either, giving MicroSoft valuable information about which software they need to write "crack detectors" for and deploy them as "securit

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • set it up in a VmWare... and it's horrid....horrible....unusable...wretched. What were they thinking!
    Windows 7 was finally a stable and decent OS after the Vista fiasco and then they decided to take away the start menu and replace it with...uselessness.

    It was this downhill trend that turned me from a Windows developer since Windows 3 (yes 3 LOL) to OS X. Today I downloaded the Eval copies of both the Enterprise and regular editions and I'll suppose I'll wait until next week to eval them but after wasting a

    • Re:Just spent a Weekend TRYING to Use 8.1 (Score:4, Interesting)

      by gstoddart ( 321705 ) on Sunday June 21, 2015 @05:32PM (#49958095) Homepage

      Honestly, install Classic Shell, follow the instructions you can find on the intertubes to make the Metro crap almost completely go away, get rid of their stupid start screen altogether, disable the Windows store and the apps ... and then just realize that the crap Microsoft has "innovated" is useful for touch screens, and beginning users and get on with their life.

      Windows 8.1, once you remove the crap interface stuff Microsoft put into it, is a stable platform with a Start menu, which looks like it has for years.

      I had to track down what update Microsoft snuck in as an "important update" which immediately started nagging me to install Windows 10 so it would leave me in peace. I fully expect to have to do that again because I'm sure Microsoft is going to try to decide for me that I really did intend to upgrade.

      Sorry, Microsoft. It's my computer, not yours. I'll fucking decide when to upgrade the OS, and I'm not using my time and resources to be a damned beta tester for you.

      Out of the box, Windows 8.1 is nothing but crap interfaces optimized for tablets, but terrible as a desktop. Get rid of the Metro crap and run Classic Shell, and it's pretty nice.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by FlyHelicopters ( 1540845 )

          Or, for the same amount of effort and frustration, just install one of the Linux variants and try an OS where at least you don't get charged for the privilege of being abused...

          Nice idea, I keep seeing people saying that...

          But Linux doesn't run Windows programs and there are a LOT of Windows only programs.

          Until that changes, Linux isn't an option...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dave420 ( 699308 )
          And then realise you have to install a VM because you can't get your required apps to work, and WINE doesn't support them. Then you have the worst of both worlds! Nice!
  • Where you would buy the cheap "upgrade" CD for the new version of the OS, and when it asked you to insert the CD from the old version for verification that this wasn't a new instal, you just pointed it at its own root directory for an immediate pass.

  • I find it hard to trust a company like Microsoft to give away an upgrade (that supposedly improves a thing or two) for free without some catch. Do they guarantee full service and support? Will there never be a subscription fee for any features? Will windows 10 never pester me with any advertisements or force software on me that I don't want? Will all the features remain active indefinitely in the future? Will the new rolling release upgrade schedule never send my PC into some infinite upgrade loop or blue s

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by m00sh ( 2538182 )

      I find it hard to trust a company like Microsoft to give away an upgrade (that supposedly improves a thing or two) for free without some catch. Do they guarantee full service and support? Will there never be a subscription fee for any features? Will windows 10 never pester me with any advertisements or force software on me that I don't want? Will all the features remain active indefinitely in the future? Will the new rolling release upgrade schedule never send my PC into some infinite upgrade loop or blue screen of death?

      If I had good faith that the answer is "yes" to all of these questions, then I'd upgrade. But I don't have this faith, so I'll rather pass this upgrade until I buy a new machine or until there is some compelling reason to upgrade.

      My suspicions are the Windows Store thing.

      Kind of like giving Internet Explorer for free back then but free Windows 10 to gain access to the app download market. Microsoft could become Steam + App Store. Plus, this probably would lead to phone and XBox sales as well.

      Plus, Windows 10 is a minor upgrade anyways. It is just some minor UI improvements. Plus, moving people from Windows 7 and 8 to free 10 makes it easier to support since they can just tell people to upgrade to 10 if they have a problem.

  • So . . . no upgrade for me

  • That even though Windows 10 is free, someone is still going to have to PAY me to install it. I bleed open source, be it BSD or Linux. Both are fantastic operating systems.

  • Except they haven't... (Score:4, Informative)

    by Junta ( 36770 ) on Sunday June 21, 2015 @06:35PM (#49958365)

    They were cagey and had some misspeaks along the way, but the final picture is shaping up: Only those who are currently entitled to a currently supported Windows release level product license are entitled to Windows 10. Full stop. In short, it seems they are trying to rework their product development scheme to simplify their offering and reduce their exposure on support lifecycles while redefining the consumer space to enable them to keep up with their competition timelines on more equal footing (all the 'supported' desktop/mobile platforms abandon users pretty quick compared to microsoft).

    The initial confusion around pirated copies: only genuine copies get to be 'genuine' Windows 10 versions. Basically the statement about update turns out to be a non-statement, though they allude to some 'attractive' offer.

    The recent confusion that any Windows 10 previewer gets it for free: "It’s important to note that only people running Genuine Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 can upgrade to Windows 10 as part of the free upgrade offer." They edited the blog post to basically say 'no you are not entitled to a free copy just because you ran Windows 10 during preview".

    So that's the strictly legal side. From a technical perspective, I wager that blog post hints at the reality that preview users will be able to get 10 for free fully activated without MS being the wiser, just without legal entitlement to do so.

    I think if MS published numbers on Windows revenue from system vendors versus retail sales, we'd see that retail sales of Windows is a drop in the bucket. It seems entirely likely that the retail pricing is like list price of a vehicle: it's there to make you feel like you are getting a better deal when it gets 'included' with a device. All these shenanigans that let determined illegitimate users run Windows 'Genuine' are not worth addressing, because the opportunity cost is just not there in any realistic view of the world. They can selectively audit folks that *would* represent an opportunity cost and that threat keeps the viable revenue stream running from the world that actually licenses Windows in significant volumes: OEMs and corporate users. Yet they do make those people go through shenanigans so there can be no mistake, that someone is knowingly violating their agreements and that is not ok, so you better buy a copy of windows, or just give a little extra money to an MS partner and get new hardware while they are at it.

    Of course the reason that the shenigans work is that MS licensing/'genuine' program is so convoluted, there are several scenarios and times when MS has no hope of masking illegitimate users without hitting some legitimate users. For example, in the 'Insider' case, it's probably the case that MS won't be able to stop a non-entitled user without also screwing over a Windows 7+ user that replaced their Windows 7+ platform with Windows 10 preview, probably losing the ability to prove to installer/activation servers they once had Windows 7+ genuine. Or maybe they could, but would require them to reinstall Windows 7/8/8.1 before update to Windows 10, which would just blemish their image just to keep it out of the hands of some people who weren't going to be giving MS money by any stretch.

  • "pirates can come in the side door and it really doesn't matter what the state of their Windows license is, they can get Windows 10 for free."

    I own three licenses for Windows 7 Pro; two vanilla OEM system licenses, and one Dell OEM license.

    Does the above mean I can install on additional systems, not enter the serial number and go past the grace period (including the three allowed grace period resets) and download Windows 10, and suddenly legitimize those licenses, and keep the legit licenses installed on my

  • TFA is utterly void, you can skip it.
  • It seems that the author and /. still believe that hobbyists, pirates and hackers make up a significant fraction of the total number of PC users. Regular people and businesses buy new laptops and PCs all the time, and they will not be getting Windows 10 "for free". MS knows they will get just as much money, and probably save a bunch by no longer fighting with this comparatively small number of users.

  • Dear Microsoft. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Sunday June 21, 2015 @09:18PM (#49959011) Homepage

    Stop being retards.

    Make windows 10 FREE for home or personal use. Purchased License required for anything else, it's really brain dead simple and protects your income stream as business licensing is 90% of your revenue from the OS. You will still charge DELL and HP and others got the OEM licenses if they want it pre-installed on their computers. AS they would not dare to sell a PC with no OS installed to the drooling masses.

    But home users that have an IQ above 60 that can install it on their own? give it to them for free and utterly destroy the piracy of your OS.

    • That or make it much cheaper for those doing home builds. It's currently around $100 for a Windows license if you build your own machine. When you can build a computer for $400, then $100 is a lot to ask for the OS. It's probably one of the major reasons companies like Dell and HP are in business.

  • Just two quick points: 1) I do not use Windows and I never wanted a copy of Windows but I have paid for a Windows license numerous times when buying hardware. Even now in 2015 it is as good as impossible to buy a laptop that is not Windows-infected and taxed. It really is sad that it is still not possible to buy a OS-free laptop. I suspect this is partly because hardware companies are paid to bundle garbage with their Windows-installations but who knows. 2) A lot of us do not want Windows regardless of the

  • 1) Small-time pirates are not worth the time and energy to prosecute, but they support an ecosystem that makes it easier for the big fish to find the cracks and leaked license keys that allow them to pirate on a larger scale. Getting the small time pirates in the side door delegitimizes the black market and makes it more likely people dipping into that market are the people they do want to focus on.
    2) Microsoft now sees competition in the PC operating system space.as inevitable but wants to keep as much mindshare as possible to avoid jeopardizing their very lucrative place in the enterprise. Today it's still taken as a given that most workplace computers will have Windows, and people are conditioned to think they need Windows to be productive. They need to milk that cow for as long as possible, and if the bulk of individuals are more familiar with another OS, that's going to accelerate the transition away from Microsoft on the business desktop.
    3) Microsoft likely has considered making Windows free, but to do so would undermine the two Windows cash cows - the OEM "Microsoft Tax" and the enterprise market. Offering a slightly inconvenient solution which accommodates the hobbyist without allowing OEMs to preinstall or enterprises to dodge their licensing cost just makes sense.
    4) Most importantly, this is a strong signal that neither Microsoft, nor their OEM partners believe in the power of a new Windows version to drive new PC sales anymore. Going forward, we'll probably eventually see consumer versions clearly become a "Windows License" rather than a "Windows 10 License".

  • They must maintain an impression and ideally a fact of being the default OS.

    The money they make charging people for the OS is nothing compared to what they make from OEMs or corporations. MS doesn't really care.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Z00L00K ( 682162 )

      I see that this is essentially going back to what they did with MS-DOS. It was essentially overlooked that people upgraded DOS to latest version on their old machines because it at least did mean that they were tied into the Microsoft environment and would therefore purchase other M$ products.

      Just tie the users to your platform, then you have them in your hand.

      • Its more clever than that.

        As I said, the money comes from OEM licenses and corporate buyers. The market for consumer single license OS purchases is tiny. And that is what the pirates undermine. A market that actually never really made MS much money in the first place.

        If the pirate buys a new computer, they're probably going to get an OEM license of MS Windows installed on it from the OEM. Cha Ching. MS makes money there.

        And if a big corporate buyer buys a site license... Cha Ching...

        And what encourages the

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