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Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Mulls Cheap PCs Supported by Ads, Subs (theregister.com) 109

Posted by msmash from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.
The Register: A number of job postings -- including this now-closed ad from late September for a principal software engineering manager -- are looking for engineers and others to become part of the "newly formed Windows Incubation team" whose mission is to "build a new direction for Windows in a cloud first world."

The lofty goal is to "move Windows to a place that combines the benefits of the cloud and Microsoft 365 to offer more compute resources on demand and creates a hybrid app model that spans from on-premises to the cloud." According to the ad, it also includes "building a Web-based shell with direct integration with Windows 365." Included in the possible models are low-cost PCs available via subscriptions, with advertising helping to offset some of the costs. (Also mentioned in the job are direct-to-cloud devices.)
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Microsoft Mulls Cheap PCs Supported by Ads, Subs More

Microsoft Mulls Cheap PCs Supported by Ads, Subs

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  • Subs? (Score:4, Funny)

    by anonymouscoward52236 ( 6163996 ) on Thursday November 03, 2022 @03:06PM (#63022503)

    Subs? Are they going to start competing with Quiznos and Subway?

  • Chrome OS with ads. Got it... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ironicsky ( 569792 ) on Thursday November 03, 2022 @03:06PM (#63022505) Journal

    So, Microsoft brilliant idea is to copy Chrome OS, and make it ad supported.

    Sounds like this will go over well.

    • Re:Chrome OS with ads. Got it... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Darinbob ( 1142669 ) on Thursday November 03, 2022 @03:23PM (#63022551)

      I can't believe that ad revenue is enough to pay for any significant part of a PC, unless it's about convincing advertisers that eyeballs are worth so much more than they really are.

      We REALLY need to stop making advertising the number one top industry, as it's a clear sign of a collapsing civilization. Maybe it means it's too hard to make money by making better products because it's easier just to advertise. Or maybe it means we have reached peak science and technology and nothing is left except to monetize it until the heat death of the universe.

      • Azure as one big clickfarm.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        I can't believe that ad revenue is enough to pay for any significant part of a PC, unless it's about convincing advertisers that eyeballs are worth so much more than they really are.

        There is a significant amount of evidence showing that most advertising is ineffective and most money spent on advertising is wasted. And yet, advertising is a $250 Billion a year business, just in the U.S.

        I guess people are a lot more stupid than I thought.

      • Re:Chrome OS with ads. Got it... (Score:4, Informative)

        by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Thursday November 03, 2022 @05:37PM (#63022841)

        I can't believe that ad revenue is enough to pay for any significant part of a PC, unless it's about convincing advertisers that eyeballs are worth so much more than they really are.

        We REALLY need to stop making advertising the number one top industry, as it's a clear sign of a collapsing civilization. Maybe it means it's too hard to make money by making better products because it's easier just to advertise. Or maybe it means we have reached peak science and technology and nothing is left except to monetize it until the heat death of the universe.

        Years ago, there were a fair number of computers sold for cheap, Subsidized by America Online, maybe a few others. You had to sifn up for AOL for a certain number of years. So this isn't really anything new. And it isn't the age of 2500 dollar computers that were obsolete the moment you bought them, needing a new one in less than a year.

        So I suspect this latest brain dead idea from Microsoft will have the same fate if they implement it.

      • I'm not too sure about that. Research suggests that you are worth around $150-$200 to Google in terms of revenue, where you aren't really forced to watch ads

        If Microsoft made watching commercials a part of using your device, the revenue would be higher.

        Not to mention, the subscription model. Office 365 is around $10 a month per user these days.

        A Rasp Pi 400 is $179 + monitor (or existing TV). A regular rasp pi is under $50

        Amortized over a 2 or 3 year subscription model, they would easily pay for itself in s

        • A Rasp Pi 400 is $179 + monitor (or existing TV). A regular rasp pi is under $50

          I think you're $100 too high on RPi 400.

        • Research also suggests that advertisement doesn't work as well as advertisers think it does. No one really does the hard research to find out, because it's expensive and you can lose money. It's like medical tests: do you give out placebo vitamins for a ten year run to see if vitamin Xyz does anything? No, because it's possibly dangerous. Similarly, you can't easily say "stop advertising and see what happens". But there are cases where examining what happens when you didn't advertise for some reason (y

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by torkus ( 1133985 )

          Also consider - if MS owns the device (e.g. hardware and software locked) then they can force ad viewing. You start Excel? Full screen 5 second ad. You start Chrome? 30 second video about how Edge is better.

          I might be exaggerating somewhat, but if they own the platform they can also exclude other ad blocking software/techniques to ensure yet more advertisements impale your eyeballs.

          For me? Zero chance of using this.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Reziac ( 43301 ) *

          I have a little bitty Asus laptop that came with Win11, and a CPU that maxes out at 6W. It cost $95 brand new, a few months back.

          Basically it's an RPi type mainboard (everything soldered on, with a couple free sockets) conveniently packaged with battery, keyboard, and screen.

          And it didn't even come with any adware/shovelware/crapware (not counting Win11 itself).

          So yes, it's perfectly doable at a price below the annual profit margin for selling all your data and bombarding you with ads.

      • It's the subscription fees that they'll make money on. First dose is 'free', then when they have you it's going up.
        After all, the data you produce is already in the cloud, so their end game might be that all users shall have thin clients, a.k.a. dumb terminals and nothing stored locally.

      • What are they going to advertise in the end? I'm already getting lots of ads for ads basically..

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Chrome OS is not ad supported. I look after two Chromebooks, neither have ads. You can install uBlock Origin and all other Chrome extensions in the browser. It's an entirely ad-free experience.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Merk42 ( 1906718 )
        Yes, that's why OP said

        copy Chrome OS, and make it ad supported

        If they thought that ChromeOS was ad supported, they wouldn't have said the ', and...'

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Xenx ( 2211586 )
        They're saying it's a copy of ChomeOS with the addition of ads, not that ChromeOS has ads. The point being that they're making it a web-first device like a Chromebook.

    • ... make it ad supported.

      The Android ecosystem is also ad-supported but on the application side.

      I've said it before, Windows 11 is designed to compete with Android (and ChromeOS).

    • Wipe it, GNU/Linux it. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by DrYak ( 748999 ) on Thursday November 03, 2022 @04:41PM (#63022735) Homepage

      So the most likely outcome for these machines is going to get wiped and a proper GNU/Linux installed on them.

      If Microsoft tries to prevent that with DRM/locked boot loaders, I hope the EU is going to have a serious discussion with them.

      Now the "subscription" part makes more nervous:
      Microsoft is propably going to frame it as "you're paying for the service of accessing Microsoft 365, the hardware is rented to you during the duration of the contract to help you acess the cloud service you are buying as part of the subscription plan".
      (So explicitely "not your computer" as part of the contract).

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by EvilSS ( 557649 )
        Sure, but you would just have a shitty bare-bones PC at that point. The "Windows 365" bit is the key part everyone here seems to be overlooking. These are not high-spec PCs with a rented OS on them, they are thin clients connecting to a PC in Azure (Windows 365). It's VDI for consumers.

        • Sure, but you would just have a shitty bare-bones PC at that point.

          Yes, and? Shitty PC is better than no PC.

          The "Windows 365" bit is the key part everyone here seems to be overlooking. These are not high-spec PCs with a rented OS on them, they are thin clients

          They are basically ChromeBook-class hardware.
          The same kind of hardware I am currently currently typing this on [pine64.org].

          You seem to be overlooking that not every one is a hardcore PC gamerz who need ability to run the latest AAA title on their laptop.

          Some people are perfectly okay with cheap lightweight hardware that can do SSH, lightweight browsing and the occasional low-spec game [reddit.com] -- my use case is almost literary the same, save for a slightly different choice of occasional

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by EvilSS ( 557649 )

            Yes, and? Shitty PC is better than no PC.

            So buy a shitty PC then? You don't think you are getting this for free do you? Maybe at cost, I doubt MS will sell these at a loss (it's not going to be XBOX profitable for them). All it would require is a low-end ARM device with network/wifi, video out, and some USB ports.

            They are basically ChromeBook-class hardware.

            No way they would need even that level of hardware for this. A Raspberry Pi could run this.

            • So buy a shitty PC then?

              That's literally what I am doing.
              And I am simply notice that MS' new offering could become yet another source of low-cost laptops.
              Buy the cheap thing, wipe the kiosk-mode Windows and Edge browser, installer proper GNU/Linux distro, enjoy it as a Firefox + SSH + {editor of your choice} + retro gaming + etc. machine.

              Maybe at cost, I doubt MS will sell these at a loss (it's not going to be XBOX profitable for them).

              The exact price will depends on how hard they want to gain market share (see: Steamdeck as another example).

              Their end game might not be specifically the ad revenue. The end-game could be becoming

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by EvilSS ( 557649 )
                I'm not saying it can't run those things, I'm saying you are just making more work for yourself vs going and buying a more open system with the same or better specs.
      • Yup - this was tried in the 90s and that was the outcome.

        • I still have an i-Opener keyboard! The unit is long gone, but for a few years it served as an X Terminal. It was a nice upgrade from the SLC I used to use with Xkernel.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by xeoron ( 639412 )
      They did kill their ChromeOS fork winX so sure why not!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      The dirty little secret is that although a Chromebook is sold as a laptop replacement it is not, even for google services. I have head google pages tell me in Chrome in a Chromebook to move to a desktop, even though the pages worked fine in Safari on an iPad.

      We have run into critical e issues in which simple webpages for desktop will not run on a Chromebook. We donâ(TM)t expect it to run on a tablet, but Chromebooks are supposed to be laptops

      MS charges huge fees for windows which means expensive pr

      • MS charges huge fees for windows which means expensive prices for cheap laptops at retail. MS also believes they deserve to be paid these fees for any computer that might one day have any of their products on it, which means that vendors create inferior laptops to avoid these fees.

        No.

        Since the days of the Netbook Microsoft was offered FREE Windows licenses for devices with modest specifications & limited upgrade capabilities.

        I can walk into a local retailer today and walk out with a $100 Asus laptop [microcenter.com] that a) can run Win11 and b) take an M.2 NVMe SSD for $100 + tax.

        Of course, it is low-spec, but it's 2021 Celeron CPU is Win 11 compatible, it's screen is 11" diagonal, and the RAM is fixed at 4 GB, but it's fine for modest use cases. It also has WiFi6, a gigabit Ethernet port, and su

    • They already did windows 8 on arm.

      Ofc it did less stuff than chromeos

  • Absolutely great idea (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rtkluttz ( 244325 ) on Thursday November 03, 2022 @03:09PM (#63022513) Homepage

    As long as the hardware isn't tied to the software. Companies need to learn that artificially crippling software so they can sell you, your time, or simply sell features back that were artifically removed has the full capability to say fuck you and load different software. And this most definitely is not theft. If you take advantage of the super cheap PC and then dump the windows crap, this is not theft. This is using your hardware the way you want to use it.

    • As long as the hardware isn't tied to the software. Companies need to learn that artificially crippling software so they can sell you, your time, or simply sell features back that were artifically removed has the full capability to say fuck you and load different software. And this most definitely is not theft. If you take advantage of the super cheap PC and then dump the windows crap, this is not theft. This is using your hardware the way you want to use it.

      Microsoft has good lawyers. I suspect you will never "own" the computer, but instead rent it from Microsoft. Any unauthorized modifications will cause you to lose access to your "cloud" data.

      • Then buy it from someone other than Microsoft. We had the "you only lease out computer" model in the distant past when the computer cost a significant amount of money build and operate. The whole point of the minis, workstations, and PCs was to get away from that model. It's a "personal computer" because you personally own it, to distinguish it from the mainframes leased from IBM or controlled by your bastard operator from hell.

        • Then buy it from someone other than Microsoft. We had the "you only lease out computer" model in the distant past when the computer cost a significant amount of money build and operate. The whole point of the minis, workstations, and PCs was to get away from that model. It's a "personal computer" because you personally own it, to distinguish it from the mainframes leased from IBM or controlled by your bastard operator from hell.

          The next step in this direction for Microsoft is for Windows to insist on "secure boot", as Windows 11 does, and not permit anyone other than authorized manufacturers to include the bits in the TPM that Windows looks for. This will mean that a home-built computer will not run Windows. The following step is for all Microsoft web sites to refuse to work with any computer not running Windows 11. At that point Microsoft will have something akin to what IBM had from the 1960s until the 1980s.

          • This will mean that a home-built computer will not run Windows.

            Excellent. Everything's going to plan...

          • The following step is for all Microsoft web sites to refuse to work with any computer not running Windows 11.

            Microsoft has conclusively lost that war, because the salesdroids expect their phones to connect to websites they use to do work, e.g. Salesfarce.

            • The following step is for all Microsoft web sites to refuse to work with any computer not running Windows 11.

              Microsoft has conclusively lost that war, because the salesdroids expect their phones to connect to websites they use to do work, e.g. Salesfarce.

              Perhaps Microsoft will offer a license to phone manufacturers which permits them to connect to Microsoft web sites.

        • Why do you think Microsoft wants to sell commodity hardware? MS wants to optimize the software to better support cloud models - they aren't looking for hardware engineers, they're looking for software integration experts.

          • Why do you think Microsoft wants to sell commodity hardware? MS wants to optimize the software to better support cloud models - they aren't looking for hardware engineers, they're looking for software integration experts.

            I don't think Microsoft wants to sell commodity hardware. I expect they will pressure the manufacturers to make their affordable PCs be Microsoft-only. For example, they might offer a discount on the Windows license for every locked-down PC the manufacturer sells.

      • As long as Microsoft call it a sale, I think they cannot renege and claim the PC is still their property.

        And if it is possible, many of us would switch it to Linux right away and not care about cloud access. These people might prefer offline backups anyway.

        • As long as Microsoft call it a sale, I think they cannot renege and claim the PC is still their property.

          And if it is possible, many of us would switch it to Linux right away and not care about cloud access. These people might prefer offline backups anyway.

          Microsoft will, of course, not call it a sale. Unlocking a Microsoft computer might be illegal, so it would have to be an underground procedure.

          • What a fantastical new reality you've imagined - why would MS enter this hardware market, and why would they want your used, 3-4 year-old low-end PC?

            • What a fantastical new reality you've imagined - why would MS enter this hardware market, and why would they want your used, 3-4 year-old low-end PC?

              I don't think Microsoft has any interest in my low-end, 3-4 year-old PC. I do think they are interested in having an audience that cannot escape their advertisements. They want a world in which everyone runs WIndows because the best games, and the best productivity software, runs only on Windows, and they are the gatekeepers, setting whatever price they think the market will bear for advertising time.

          • As long as they clearly advertise it as rental, I have no problems with that. What pisses me off is Microsoft's habit of sneakily trying to take more and more control of PCs someone else has bought and paid for.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by uncqual ( 836337 )

      Perhaps they lease it to you under a five year lease and the terms of the lease preclude you altering the underlying hardware or preinstalled software except through MS channels. Perhaps the lease gives "end of lease options" - one might be to send it back to MS at your expense and another might be to keep the machine and do what you like with it.

      If you violate the lease, the lease could require you to return the machine and, in addition, pay "liquidated damages" which might be far more than the full value

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      This has actually been happening for decades. Back in the mid 90s PCs came with several tons of crapware installed. Trial versions, ads, browser toolbars (remember those?), 50 free hours of AOL... All used to subsidise the cost of the computer itself.

      You could just uninstall it, or better still wipe the OS and install a fresh copy.

      I guess the difference today is that iOS exists. It's locked down, and can't be removed or replaced without extensive hacking that invalidates your warranty.

    • Why bother? There's no shortage of cheap word/excel/outlook portals.
      Hacked or not, it'll be the experience of sub-$200 worth of parts.
      With the bonus of no updates.

    • TPM 2.0 for a reason, BIOS on "subsidized" (realistically, they will want this on EVERYTHING, let's be real) machine will have shit like that unable to be disabled and therefore your crippled hardware will only run what they allow - from the OS up.

      • TPM 2.0 for a reason, BIOS on "subsidized" (realistically, they will want this on EVERYTHING, let's be real) machine will have shit like that unable to be disabled and therefore your crippled hardware will only run what they allow - from the OS up.

        Yes, that is why you would probably need to re-flash the BIOS to unlock the computer.

        • Funnily enough, Chromebooks have the "turn the screw on the board to allow unauthenticated reflashing" as standard. While Microsoft insists on ever heavier firmware lock downs. I guess Microsoft is still trying to get back it's evil crown from Google. That or Google is so content that it will get ad revenue from you regardless of firmware that they allow the standard to exist.

  • I expect there will be a market for removing the Windows lock that these computers will have, to allow running an ad-free operating system. Liberating a PC might be as simple as cruashing the TPM chip, but more likely it will require re-flashing the BIOS.

    • You obviously don't understand how the TPM chip now required by Windows works.

      • You obviously don't understand how the TPM chip now required by Windows works.

        I was thinking that the BIOS might look for a TPM chip, and, if it can't find one, do a normal boot. However, Microsoft would probably insist that the PC not boot at all in that case. Thus, you would have to replace the BIOS to get an unlocked PC.

        • This is all wishful thinking. A system that is locked down would use UEFI and not a BIOS. If they want to get creative for a cloud based system the UEFI could lock down the system if the OS fails to call home and confirm the CPU. There are myriad of ways to lock down the system but the point is it will be a commodity device worth a few sheckles, hardly worth the time and effort to crack it open.

          • This is all wishful thinking. A system that is locked down would use UEFI and not a BIOS. If they want to get creative for a cloud based system the UEFI could lock down the system if the OS fails to call home and confirm the CPU. There are myriad of ways to lock down the system but the point is it will be a commodity device worth a few sheckles, hardly worth the time and effort to crack it open.

            Don't be too sure of that. It might not be worth the labor to unlock the PC in the United States, but in some poor country a fellow with a UEFI flasher might be able to make a good living selling low-end (by United States standards) unlocked computers. When I got into the computer business, a big computer (the room-sized IBM 7090) had what would today be counted as 128 KiB of memory.

  • 2 vCPU 4 GB RAM 64 GB Storage $32.00/month + any data costs

    • Two cpu cores, 4 GB RAM, 64 Gig eMMC storage, a display, keyboard, trackpad, WiFi6, a gigabit Ethernet port, battery, case, AND a Win10 (upgradeable to Win11, it has TPM 2.0) COA for $100, and you own the hardware outright.

      Asus Laptop [microcenter.com]

  • Microsoft Mulls Cheap PCs Supported by Ads, Subs

    Submarines cost *way* more than PCs ... :-)

  • This is stupid (Score:3)

    by mspohr ( 589790 ) on Thursday November 03, 2022 @03:31PM (#63022569)

    You can already buy really cheap computers... $100-$200 (Chromebooks, etc.) that do everything most people need (Internet, WP, etc.).
    Who is stupid enough to tolerate ads?

    • Everybody buying a Windows machine today? Honestly, even there you can get pretty darned cheap systems. Some of the cheapest Windows 11 systems at Best Buy last couple weeks have been in the $250-300 range, and they're perfectly functional for day-to-day. You won't be programming much on them, and certainly not playing the latest games, but email, browsing, home finance? Sure.

      I think the important "innovation" they are looking for is ad revenue that pours money into their coffers for tacking on a continuous

    • That much? You can probably find something on Craigslist for less than $50. Even a Core 2 Duo (given Linux and enough RAM) is perfectly adequate for such basic uses.

    • Your internet is ad-free? How'd you do that?

      We accept ads on radio, on TV, in print, on the side of public roadways, etc, why is this such an incredible idea?

      • That's the thing isn't it? Everyone is bitching about ads or subscriptions but radio and TV are ad driven. We got to the Netflix world and suddenly it's a subscription cost. Now the streaming companies are fully saturated and finding the monthly fee isn't enough so are either raising them or adding advertising. Capitalism is about finding the next sale, the whole system is a pyramid scheme that is government sponsored and endorsed by each an every one of us.

  • #FuckNo (Score:3)

    by Chas ( 5144 ) on Thursday November 03, 2022 @03:39PM (#63022601) Homepage Journal

    Sorry, we see enough adcrap in EXISTING Windows.

    We don't need seizure-inducing levels of ads.

    • People wonder why prices continue to rise. As well as everything else, paying for ads has to contribute. When some schmuck makes millions on youtube someone has to pay for it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Chas ( 5144 )

        "But prices go up!"

        Yeah. But I don't insist someone subsidize me.
        Or make me jump through hoops to subsidize myself.

        If I want a machine, I'll buy/build a machine.
        Having someone push ads on me is unacceptable.
        Having someone push MORE ads on me because they think I'm just dumb enough to want a lower price AT ANY COST?
        No Thank You!

  • Did Satya Nadella recently see the IT Crowd and think "this is exactly how I want the Windows experience to be"?

    https://youtu.be/YDNmyyrEZho?t... [youtu.be]

    • Even worse, they gave her the box that holds the internet, so she's emotionally invested in it.

    • Nadella just participated with Zuckerburg in a dog and pony show for the metaverse... he's obviously already sold his soul.

  • I was shocked to see this first hand today, that is on quite a critical machine; wasn't air gapped or anything but still, wouldn't expect to see two hamburgers in the search box from the taskbar. Trying to confirm this is Enterprise I click Start and get a quarter of the screen with hamburgers (I guess it was lunch time or something). Unbelievable.

  • I mean, it didn't work the first time. Why do they think it'll work ~this time~. And now, PC's are a lot cheaper (comparatively speaking) than they used to be.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    Both "free" PCs and free internet were promoted around the turn of the century, and neither promotion was considered a success.

    The free PCs were, IIRC, considered more to be a free loan in exchange for getting ads, but once the project was abandoned the customers were allowed to keep the PCs. Credit where credit is due, that was a classy move.

    • The best thing about NetZero was that after signing up and connecting once with their crappy software, you could extract all the settings necessary to just use it as a regular dial up connection. Some guys I worked with and I figured it out and got free dialup for quite a while. Then high speed internet became available in my area and I never used it again.

    • I was about to mention this as well. Nothing new under all the sun. I miss certain aspects of the dialup days, especially the period where I had broadband but sites were still optimized for dialup.

    • Who remembers the ad bars that paid you? They were great, toss together a quick mouse movement simulator in visual basic and let it sit there 24x7 showing ads and getting paid. Such nonsense.
  • Any business model that sells PCs for less than the cost of the parts is going to have a problem, i.e. people disassembling them and selling the parts at a profit.

  • Everyone missed the important part in TFS (Score:3)

    by EvilSS ( 557649 ) on Thursday November 03, 2022 @04:53PM (#63022757)
    "building a Web-based shell with direct integration with Windows 365." These are not PC's so much as thin clients. Windows 365 is a flat-rate cloud based Windows desktop running in Azure. So yea, liberate it all you want, you already paid for it since it's just a glorified terminal, most likely running on ARM to save costs.
  • I'm sure some clever bunny will come up with a fix that'll tell Microsoft that the ads are being served but only the user knows that they aren't actually being shown. Then the only thing annoying the user will be Windows! ;P

  • Everything old is new again (Score:3)

    by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Thursday November 03, 2022 @05:03PM (#63022781) Journal
    Back in the day you had 'mainframe computers' and you dialed in over telephone lines with a 'dumb terminal', and the remote mainframe did all the work, your 'terminal' was just a display device. But I don't expect you kids to remember things that happened before you were born . xD
    That's more or less what they're talking about. A slightly smarter 'terminal' and it boots up over the Internet and runs everything on Microsofts' servers.
    Only dumbasses will fall for this, especially when you're going to get more and more ads shoved in your face.

    • The automatic syncing with Chromebooks and the future Windows 365 Offline are an evolution of the terminal model, everything runs local but is transparently synced. The ads are just an option for the extreme low end, the real draw of windows 365 Offline is hardware independence. Change your laptop, enter your Windows 365 credentials and after a short bit of caching you have your old environment back.

      Of course they will need to hide much more of the underlying hardware and OS for that to be possible. Can't v

  • The cloud just means someone else's Linux box (or a VM running on one).

  • then they took our expensive ones too.

    Included in the possible models are low-cost PCs available via subscriptions, with advertising helping to offset some of the costs.

    And yup, they actually crossed out "helping to increase already scandalous profits" and substituted that last phrase with a straight face. They also crossed out "soon we will own ALL of everyone's data and ALL of everyone's privacy" - but they didn't replace it with an ad-friendly euphemism because they couldn't think of one.

  • Same thing was made before by Microsoft (Score:3)

    by xwin ( 848234 ) on Thursday November 03, 2022 @06:28PM (#63022935)
    The longer I am around the more I see people repeating the same failed ideas:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
    This was made by Microsoft of all people. There is also this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
    Now security is much better than before so these devices will go into landfill instead of being re-used by hackers.
    This model was tried several times and always failed because it is hard to make money back when you give something of a substantial value away. People who need a free PC don't have that much disposable income to spend on advertised products.

  • Said nobody.

  • 1990s called, and they want their stupid idea back.

    If you're an old fart like I am, you might remember some early PC companies that sold "discount" PCs that had obtrusive ads plastered all over the screen that you couldn't dismiss. They were always there on the desktop, taking up lots of screen real estate. Sure, you saved some money, but the PC experience sucked.

    I knew someone who bought one of those, and it was a nightmare.

  • ...and would like their PC back.

    Gateway is on the other line.

  • looking for engineers and others to become part of the "newly formed Windows Incubation team"

    I'd say that what they actually need is a "Windows Lubrication team".

  • Are you not despicable enough already?

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