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Is Windows 9 the start of 'Windows as a Service'?

Bateluer

Bateluer

Lifer
http://www.winbeta.org/news/microsoft-building-testing-and-updating-windows-9-very-different-way

Saw this pop over at Reddit. There's some interesting take aways from it.

"I've heard Microsoft built a new real-time telemetry system codenamed "Asimov" (yes, another Halo-influenced codename) that lets the OS team see in near real-time what's happening on users' machines. This is how Microsoft may be able to measure how successful the features it "flights" with different user groups are. One of my contacts said Asimov is a system that the Xbox team originally built and used during its development process," Mary Jo Foley stated.
Click to expand...

One would think that in a Post-Snowden world, that would be a major no-go though. Especially in a corporate environment; I don't know too many organizations that would want to introduce a security hole of that magnitude into their network.

There's some discussion about Windows 9 being the last major release for a while of Windows, moving to a system of rolling updates. My question then is, will users have to pay a regular subscription fee to get these OS updates?

Microsoft has brought up the possibility of subscription Windows multiple times, and each time its been met with derision and scorn from users across the board.

I may be in the minority, but the only thing keeping me with Windows is PC gaming. And if I have to pay a regular monthly fee for the OS for that, then I'm moving over to Linux Mint and Wine.
 
Good. Bundle Office with it and I'll sign up Day One. Its a pain in the ass fiddling with clean installs and paying for new licences. You pay bills and other services by the month/year, about time the OS moved to it. Its like cheques, why? Its 2014 already.
 
escrow4 said:
Good. Bundle Office with it and I'll sign up Day One. Its a pain in the ass fiddling with clean installs and paying for new licences. You pay bills and other services by the month/year, about time the OS moved to it. Its like cheques, why? Its 2014 already.
Click to expand...

You're doing it wrong then. A clean install is something you do about . . . once. Unless you suffer a hardware failure. Or bought a W8 OEM laptop.

Why do you believe the OS should move to a subscription model? With the market as it is today, seems that such a move would hurt their customer base even more. As I said, unless you're PC gaming, there really isn't much reason to stick with Windows in 2014. Nearly every common task can be done cheaper, more securely, and with 'less' hardware in a Linux distro. And with Google throwing its weight with Chrome OS and Valve throwing its weight with Steam OS, I honestly don't think its a good idea for Microsoft to continue to alienate its customers.
 
Bateluer said:
You're doing it wrong then. A clean install is something you do about . . . once. Unless you suffer a hardware failure. Or bought a W8 OEM laptop.

Why do you believe the OS should move to a subscription model? With the market as it is today, seems that such a move would hurt their customer base even more. As I said, unless you're PC gaming, there really isn't much reason to stick with Windows in 2014. Nearly every common task can be done cheaper, more securely, and with 'less' hardware in a Linux distro. And with Google throwing its weight with Chrome OS and Valve throwing its weight with Steam OS, I honestly don't think its a good idea for Microsoft to continue to alienate its customers.
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Good point. Windows have 2 selling points left: Microsoft Office and games, both of which are under pressure from all sides. Introducing a subscription fee might be the straw that break the camel's back.
So, Microsoft being Microsoft, this is probably exactly what will happen.
 
Bateluer said:
You're doing it wrong then. A clean install is something you do about . . . once. Unless you suffer a hardware failure. Or bought a W8 OEM laptop.

Why do you believe the OS should move to a subscription model? With the market as it is today, seems that such a move would hurt their customer base even more. As I said, unless you're PC gaming, there really isn't much reason to stick with Windows in 2014. Nearly every common task can be done cheaper, more securely, and with 'less' hardware in a Linux distro. And with Google throwing its weight with Chrome OS and Valve throwing its weight with Steam OS, I honestly don't think its a good idea for Microsoft to continue to alienate its customers.
Click to expand...

I don't think the majority of Microsoft's customer base is anywhere near capable of moving to Linux as a full time OS, and I say this as a dual Windows/Linux user. I am still holding out some hope for Steam's solution, but I don't see SteamOS being a real viable alternative for some time yet on the gaming front.

I wonder if this rumored subscription service is more of an enterprise level thing anyhow. I guess we'll see.
 
DaveStall said:
I don't think the majority of Microsoft's customer base is anywhere near capable of moving to Linux as a full time OS, and I say this as a dual Windows/Linux user. I am still holding out some hope for Steam's solution, but I don't see SteamOS being a real viable alternative for some time yet on the gaming front.

I wonder if this rumored subscription service is more of an enterprise level thing anyhow. I guess we'll see.
Click to expand...


I only use Windows for PC gaming(Steam,Origin,online gaming etc),at 51 I do use Linux(self taught on Mint and Ubuntu) and have no issues using Linux full time,would be great if Linux became a mainstream gaming OS or got DX12, but we all know that is wishful thinking by me.
 
I think the always-listening user-feedback system is only at play for the Tech Previews and possibly other testing. I don't expect that to make it into the retail releases (including enterprise editions), due to the privacy factor. That would prove to be a major misstep and backfire terribly. It does, however, sound like a terrific feature for testing code and features that have not been locked in the development cycle.
 
BTW, because I'm sort-of following a liveblog of the reveal event:

They have finally decided that Ctrl-V in a Command Prompt is a thing that makes sense! 😀
About damn time.
 
Mem said:
Mixed feedback already on Win10 over at OcUK,http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=26982624&posted=1#post26982624 .
Click to expand...

I'm not really understanding the mixed feedback. It's just people complaining to hear themselves complain.

They are improving ideas they had built upon, and also returning to focus upon original desktop metaphor.

Now "Metro" apps finally have a true home, and a good name: Universal apps. You can have your X86 applications of yore, and right next to them, universal apps that will apparently work on your Xbox One, your Windows Phone (oh... right), and your desktop/laptop/2in1/tablet.

Virtual desktops and a good multi-task overview like Expose or Activities Overview are a very welcome, and long overdue addition to Windows. And they, thankfully, have really appeared to nail down the interface for that quite well.

The Task View is far improved from the original multitasking pane you got when swiping from the left, and is leagues ahead of the Win-Tab view, which was ridiculous.
 
Windows Insider Program signup tomorrow


well link won't show - so just google Windows Insider Program
 
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Yes, I agree. It looks like a good improvement to Win 8.1 and I am looking forward to testing it out for sure. We probably will end up going to this version after 7.
 
destrekor said:
I'm not really understanding the mixed feedback. It's just people complaining to hear themselves complain.

They are improving ideas they had built upon, and also returning to focus upon original desktop metaphor.

Now "Metro" apps finally have a true home, and a good name: Universal apps. You can have your X86 applications of yore, and right next to them, universal apps that will apparently work on your Xbox One, your Windows Phone (oh... right), and your desktop/laptop/2in1/tablet.

Virtual desktops and a good multi-task overview like Expose or Activities Overview are a very welcome, and long overdue addition to Windows. And they, thankfully, have really appeared to nail down the interface for that quite well.

The Task View is far improved from the original multitasking pane you got when swiping from the left, and is leagues ahead of the Win-Tab view, which was ridiculous.
Click to expand...


People complaining is how feedback starts 😉 ,personally I've no issues with what I've seen from Win10,looking forward to installing it next year.
 
Chiefcrowe said:
Yes, I agree. It looks like a good improvement to Win 8.1 and I am looking forward to testing it out for sure. We probably will end up going to this version after 7.
Click to expand...


Bringing it all together was the idea and goal from Win8,however it was obvious it was going to take time on fine tuning/improvements etc and no single OS with a major change was going to be anywhere near complete in that direction with one revision.

I expect Win11 to carry on where Win10 left off,obviously some users can be impatient and expect it all on day one.
 
Mem said:
Bringing it all together was the idea and goal from Win8,however it was obvious it was going to take time on fine tuning/improvements etc and no single OS with a major change was going to be anywhere near complete in that direction with one revision.

I expect Win11 to carry on where Win10 left off,obviously some users can be impatient and expect it all on day one.
Click to expand...

Yep, I remember all the talk about Microsoft unifying the app experience between the Xbox One and Windows 8... and then that fell apart.


I have one demand for Windows 10: please, Microsoft, do something with Windows Media Center!

As it remains the only viable solution for DRM CableCARD-sourced content, it kind of sucks when the platform is like a wasteland. The application works wonderfully, but there's no expansion. At least some additional features provided by Microsoft would be great.

If they are unifying the system and can leverage Xbox One development, I think it's time that Windows Media Center finally got some significant overhaul.

We have to resort to numerous third-party hacks and tricks to get things decently optimized for the living room, and, I still cannot believe that with this wonderful ability to host a 10ft UI on the OS itself, this whole media center experience was completely ignored.

If the Store is to be unified, I am excited about the potential to see Xbox-centric apps finally land on the desktop. Think about it: if I can use a media remote and navigate to apps from ESPN, HBO, Netflix, Amazon, etc, I can have an entire DVR cablebox with all the additional content I am after.
I mean, sure, I can get an Xbox One to get all that multimedia content, but... that doesn't address the aspect of a CableCARD DVR.

If all I want is the media, the easiest solution is a Roku, which is what I had to resort to, as the multimedia app selection on Windows 8 remains lackluster. So I use WMC for cable, and while Netflix is great on Win8, power consumption is still a consideration, so I still switch to the Roku.

They butchered screen sharing with WMC and Windows 8, and I cannot understand why they would not want to improve upon that. With the X360, you could use that as an Extender and watch what you recorded, or watch live tv, through your WMC PC on the network. Windows 8 broke all third-party Extenders, which at the time had dwindled to one model from Ceton. And then Microsoft did not even add Extender support on the Xbox One, so... if you dared to be modern and never had a 360 in the first place, you cannot stream DRM content in your own household. How quaint. It's not like every other aspect of the cable industry has caught onto that concept. It seems Microsoft now only maintains WMC for the sheer fact that it feels obligated to, yet seems to be clearly signalling that it's too tired to carry the torch any further and just doesn't care.
 
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Totally agree with everything you said, even though I don't use media center. I have before and it is great when it worked - and xbox integration would be a big drag for some I think. Hope they are listening!

destrekor said:
Yep, I remember all the talk about Microsoft unifying the app experience between the Xbox One and Windows 8... and then that fell apart.


I have one demand for Windows 10: please, Microsoft, due something with Windows Media Center!

As it remains the only viable solution for DRM CableCARD-sourced content, it kind of sucks when the platform is like a wasteland. The application works wonderfully, but there's no expansion. At least some additional features provided by Microsoft would be great.

If they are unifying the system and can leverage Xbox One development, I think it's time that Windows Media Center finally got some significant overhaul.

We have to resort to numerous third-party hacks and tricks to get things decently optimized for the living room, and, I still cannot believe that with this wonderful ability to host a 10ft UI on the OS itself, this whole media center experience was completely ignored.

If the Store is to be unified, I am excited about the potential to see Xbox-centric apps finally land on the desktop. Think about it: if I can use a media remote and navigate to apps from ESPN, HBO, Netflix, Amazon, etc, I can have an entire DVR cablebox with all the additional content I am after.
I mean, sure, I can get an Xbox One to get all that multimedia content, but... that doesn't address the aspect of a CableCARD DVR.

If all I want is the media, the easiest solution is a Roku, which is what I had to resort to, as the multimedia app selection on Windows 8 remains lackluster. So I use WMC for cable, and while Netflix is great on Win8, power consumption is still a consideration, so I still switch to the Roku.

They butchered screen sharing with WMC and Windows 8, and I cannot understand why they would not want to improve upon that. With the X360, you could use that as an Extender and watch what you recorded, or watch live tv, through your WMC PC on the network. Windows 8 broke all third-party Extenders, which at the time had dwindled to one model from Ceton. And then Microsoft did not even add Extender support on the Xbox One, so... if you dared to be modern and never had a 360 in the first place, you cannot stream DRM content in your own household. How quaint. It's not like every other aspect of the cable industry has caught onto that concept. It seems Microsoft now only maintains WMC for the sheer fact that it feels obligated to, yet seems to be clearly signalling that it's too tired to carry the torch any further and just doesn't care.
Click to expand...
 
Bateluer said:
You're doing it wrong then. A clean install is something you do about . . . once. Unless you suffer a hardware failure. Or bought a W8 OEM laptop.

Why do you believe the OS should move to a subscription model? With the market as it is today, seems that such a move would hurt their customer base even more. As I said, unless you're PC gaming, there really isn't much reason to stick with Windows in 2014. Nearly every common task can be done cheaper, more securely, and with 'less' hardware in a Linux distro. And with Google throwing its weight with Chrome OS and Valve throwing its weight with Steam OS, I honestly don't think its a good idea for Microsoft to continue to alienate its customers.
Click to expand...

The last thing I'll do is upgrade an OS. Its a recipe for disaster. Linux is irrelevant. Its a geeky toy. Its not mainstream. I run it on a basic server and the last thing I want to do is inflict in on my desktops. Its still a fragmented mess and all over the place. Windows is finally unifying. I run it on my phone, my tablet, my desktops, my laptops. A single licence I could buy and renew at will would be PERFECT.
 
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