GrumpyCanadian One of the things that has kept people on Windows is that it tends to be pre-installed on the system when they unpack it. Many people don’t care to do actual work to replace it, or pay for licences. If Microsoft starts charging a recurring fee to use it, in addition to serving ads, ramming software customers don’t need or want down their throats and helping themselves to user data, that may well change.
We have to take into account that we’re on a tech forum. I’d assume that most people here are familiar enough with a computer to install their own OS, or build their own PC (or at least more likely to than the average population). So people here, might be more likely to care about how their computer works, how their data might be used in terms of privacy, and are particular about how they have things set up.
Most people don’t care, and don’t want to care, how their computer works. They just want it to work with as little effort as possible. To some degree, if they were given iOS first, or Linux first, or Windows first, or a Chromebook first, they’d have learned as much as they need to get by and stuck with whatever they had. I imagine the idea of a very easy cloud-based system where your settings and files follow you is very appealing to a lot of people.
I don’t really think that the average user would care that much if Windows switched to a subscription model. But I think the issue is that Windows upgrades have been essentially free for a while now. Adding a fee might be a tougher sell. More likely it will be Free as in Facebook.
urbanriot The business market is mostly already there but residential is going to be tricky because if Microsoft charges for what Google already does for free, a lot of people will reject it. Google can do it because they have Google search and Google’s ChromeOS directs people to their money maker. Microsoft doesn’t have this… so how will they make money from the consumer market without pissing people off?
Yeah, that is tricky. Probably the big thing that Microsoft still has is software compatiblity. But for the most part, I think you can get like 95% of things done with cross-platform software, or web-based tools. I switched to Linux a while ago, and while I did have to find different programs to do the same things, there’s very little that I cannot do without Windows. It hasn’t affected my usage personally, but there are still a few things that people seem to need - usually Adobe products, CAD software, etc.
And then, for residential usage, there is still cross-over with business usage. If you, let’s say, use Microsoft Word all day at work and are super-familiar with it, would people really want to take the time to learn LibreOffice of Google Docs, just to avoid a subscription fee? (a word processor is probably a bad example, but there is other software that would be more problematic). Still, I think it’s easy to underestimate how unwilling people are to learn new things.
The other issue is legacy users versus new users. People that have used Windows all their lives will have issues with changing to another OS. But, a lot of kids are growing up on Chromebooks. So, Microsoft would probably have issues pulling them into a subscription service.
ElQuintron Not to sidetrack too much, but I’d say spin up a few distros in a v/m now, to figure out which you like like better and which ones do what you like well. That way you won’t be overwhelmed when the time comes. I’d bet this is going to be a when, not an if.
Yeah, that was kind of my logic with trying out Linux. I kind fell for the fearmongering about Windows 8 potentially being a walled garden. So I tried to learn Linux a little bit. Then when Windows finally pissed me off, I was already in a little bit better of a position to switch.
Also, I would say, while using Windows consider finding alternatives for some of the software you use. Try to switch to software that is cross-platform. It’s much easier to switch your OS if you can keep using most of the same software.