Now you will pay every year for Windows XP.........DOH !

[narzy]

god I hate the media sometimes!

what msft is going to do is open up the OPTION to purchuse windows XP, or buy a subscription, the subscription is less expensive however if you decide not to "pay your bill" windows will go into "reduced functionality mode" where you can view but not write, or modify the disk. they are doing the same thing with the next version of office.

 

[Double Trouble]

It's a bad deal especially for corporations from a cost perspective, but more importantly from a logistical and functional perspective. Any business is gonna shoot that one down in a heartbeat.

Users don't want to be going through hassles once their computer is already installed and working -- much less pay a once a year (or month or whatever) fee.

I was a little surprised that the street didn't really punish MS for this stupid idea.... some of the analysts seem to think this might work for MS.

 

[Shuxclams]

I can set up a Linux box that my 3 year old son can play on.......... and I will too.







SHUX

 

[Pyro]

I think some of you guys are exagerating when you say linux is NEVER going to be a viable alternative. Just look how far it has come in just six years (v1.0 was released in 94). It makes quantum leaps in easy of use, functionality and so on every year. two years ago only programmers could run it on their desktop, today you average techie will have no prob coping with it, what about two years down the line?


as for your email surfing granma, because linux is so flexible, in can be concealed and made to run on web pads, PDAs and whatever the hell else you want. Conclusion? Never say never with linux -- you just don't know. Today M$ is acknoledging that linux is a threat, tomorrow it will probably start their propaganda machine against it.

 

[Tripleshot]

narzy

Hello my young friend. Do not confuse this tactic with good business policy. What MSoft is doing is "Renting" its software just like the phone company "rents" you dialtone each month so you can make a phone call for pizza. Renting leads to regulation and taxation. Then some congressman will get disjointed noses and try and rectify the mess by forcing Msoft to sell its assets rather than rent them.

I have been checking the marketplace lately and I have found NO ONE who is supporting the concept of "renting" Msoft Office or anything else.!

Like has been said,BG floated an idea and it will not succeed. Sorry Billy Boy,you gotta do better than this to keep your customers happy.

 

[BDawg]

Get Mac OSX. Microsoft has copied it to a T, so they won't be too different.

 

[JellyBaby]

<< Watch for them to drop the idea before the OS is released. >>

Russ,

I agree and the intent of this pre-announcement could simply be to drive up Windows 2K sales in the short term. From what I?ve read both it and Office 2K are selling so poorly it'll show up in the next quarterly reports like a stain of blood on your new, bleach-white carpet. Scare 'em into buying Win 2K now to &quot;lock in&quot; on that great, one-time price. It's your last chance, you know.

 

[Whitedog]

Hopefully, I'll be using Windows 2000 for the next 4 years. People are still using Windows 95 you know

 

[Splork]

Here Here Whitedog!

 

[LaBang]

hahaha. i can't wait for Mac OS X!

 

[Pyro]

Whats the big deal with OSX anyway? its just BSD marketed with a UI that's made for 6 year-olds (coincidently, a 6 year old kid has the same IQ as the average mac user )

I guess Apple finally realized that they just cant write any good software so they decided to add a few graphics to BSD. And now Macheads are hailing it as the second comming. Sad really.

 

[emjem]

The business world is saying that the software market is a dead &quot;profit duck&quot;. So the software houses are scrambling to devise new ways to generate profits. What could be more attractive than copying the telephone billing concept?

Here's what a typical monthly bill will look like:

$ 5 XP os Value Package
$ 3 MS Word use
$ 4 MS Excel calculations
$ 2 Outlook Mail Control
$ 3 Q3 Gaming
$ 9 MP3 Downloads
$ 8 Entertainment Package
$ 5 CD Burner Software use
$11 Miscellaineous
----
$50 total for this month
$ 4 federal excise tax
$ 1 state connection fee
$ 1 911 funding
$ 4 anti-hacking tax
$ 1 virus protection act
$ 2 free computers for the poor act
$ 1 computer educational act
$ 5 shipping &amp; handling
$10 late payment fee
----
$79 total due this month

Pay via Microsoft Web Site -- This is done without sending any information about your computer

 

[LordMaul]

MS is going stupid. Just another money making scheme..(Like they need the moolah! So, they loose a million or so bucks with the recent happeneing --- BIG WHOOP DEE FSCKING DOO!)

 

[BatmanNate]

Looks like it's Linux for me..

 

[MillionaireNextDoor]

smart of microsoft to finally take subscription-based services into consideration like AOL did and still do. not smart of microsoft to make it apparent that they would get more money in the long term. also not very smart to not do it in the beginning; the first windows for $5 a year or something like that.. win95 for $10 a year, win98 for $15 a year, and so on.

 

[JellyBaby]

emjem,

LOL! Nice post but you forgot to mention the quarterly price hikes.

btw, anybody else worried this will kill innovation? If M$ can just sit still and watch the dough pour in where's the incentive to better their products? I suppose you could argue they're stagnant now... Argh.

 

[UnixFreak]

The thing is, people are starting to get more comfortable with their computers (the general public) its not just for geeks anymore.. in the last ten years the home computer has become as common as a TV or microwave.. this is a far cry from even 5 years ago.. and they are starting to realize the company that helped them out so much, and used to be like a god, is not so great... look for m$ bashers 5 years ago, and you had a select few, compared to now? Even people who use windows every day have something negative to say about the product, or the companies practices... and people are going to start looking for other options.. Linux has exploded with popularity in just the last year, and I can forsee it coming close to dominating the desktop in two years.. I couldnt say that two years ago. When I first started to use it, you had to be a CS major, a genius, or a major geek to use it, now, I believe the &quot;average&quot; user can install and use it just fine, the GUI and general useability has come a long way.. yet it still retains the power, should you need it. Sure, gramma may have a hard time with it, but gramma has a hard time with windows, you cant really expect to spring this concept on older people, and expect them to understand it right away.. this must all seem crazy to them.. (just wait and see what our grandkids spring on us when we are 80) But, linux is headed towards desktop domination, and stuff like this only helps..

 

[joohang]

Linux is nowhere close to being an attractive consumer OS.

- It is definitely designed for &quot;geeks&quot;
- There are too many flavours of Linux.

Ever imagined what it would be like to support software on Linux? You'll need to get used to the interface for 5 different versions of Linux and there will be another distribution out of nowhere.

People have enough trouble even with Windows and Mac. Linux needs some serious work done to be considered a viable consumer OS.

 

[joohang]

I am not fully agreeing with the &quot;subscription&quot; of Windows, but I don't think it is as bad as many people think.

People pay for Windows any ways, whether it's with a computer purchase, an upgrade version or a retail version. Unless you pirate Windows, which is ILLEGAL, it is very likely that you (or a regular computer user) would upgrade Windows at least every two or three years.

Also notice that Windows XP is also targeted in the business market, as it is an upgrade to Windows 2000. Considering the hefty licensing costs, subscription seems to be a pretty good idea for business machines.

Unless Microsoft marketing folks are absolute idiots, subscription fees should be much cheaper than retail pricing.

In the long run, I figure it is cheaper to use Windows this way.

P.S. I am just speculating here. Feel free to argue against me (hell, all posts above this one are against the idea of subscription) but just don't flame me.

 

[KiLLaZ]

The cheaper/more popular/more hyped/etc the computer gets, the more &quot;less-knowledgeable&quot; own computers. MS can very easily take advantage of these people. I mean, I see people going to CompUSA all of the time and buying stuff that you can get for twice as cheap online... can we stop them? no.

 

[Pretender]

<< What MSoft is doing is &quot;Renting&quot; its software just like the phone company &quot;rents&quot; you dialtone each month so you can make a phone call for pizza >>

The difference is that the phone company has to pay money to service the lines if there's ever a problem (terrorists blowing up phone poles, etc), to maintain the infrastructure, powering, etc. Microsoft, on the other hand, gets a few doped-up programmers to make a nice GUI and release it. Any upkeep on their part is mainly just tech support (I think the $20 a minute they charge for us to call their line takes care of that expense), and bug fixes (I have a suspicion that they make the bugs on purpose so it looks like they're actually doing us a favor when they release bug fixes). I wouldn't try to compare the phone company and microsoft, except that they are (or were) monopolies.

And Russ:, why would the OEMs care? They'd probably pay less in licensing fees to microsoft, and as long as the customers buy the computers (the more graphical and easy something is, the more the idiots like to buy them up), the OEMs probably wouldn't care less.

 

[wxman]

Looks like its finally time to buy more MSFT stock.

Bring it on baby!

 

[Raspewtin]

This is more reason why liberating M$ software seems like not only okay, but the right thing to do. BTW, I wonder why no company has made software that can run Windows program but is not Windows. Basically, a compatible operating system. I would think there would be a huge market for this. I'm not a OS programmer, so maybe there are technical limitations?

 

[JellyBaby]

joohang,

Do you honestly believe per-year charging will end up costing us less? This is M$ after all. The subscription system empowers MS and takes away end-user liberty. MS can hike rates at any time. Users won't be able to skip an OS generation. It's designed to maintain a steady revenue stream.

This in concert with the product activation annoyances would all but guarantee their OS market share shrinks. Enter .net maybe? I still don't have a solid idea what this is but again it must benefit M$ first and us second and peripherally.

 

[Sunner]

joohang, seems like you dont know much about Linux.
You do realize that the various distributions are compatible, right?
Same binary format, same libs, same kernel(though the version might differ of course).
What differs is mostly just how its preconfigured, what software is included etc.
Redhat comes with Gnome, SuSE comes with Gnome, but Mozilla, StarOffice, etc will worth on both.