Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded
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Direct Windows sales make up a very small amount of revenue for MS. Their real money comes from the OEMS.
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@pchiodo said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
Direct Windows sales make up a very small amount of revenue for MS. Their real money comes from the OEMS.
And that's just within the OS space, which isn't their money maker or future. They are rapidly prepping for a free OS future as it is diminishing revenues (especially on the desktop) with more and more cost for them to maintain. Hence this entire move of getting people to a "zero cost upgrade desktop" so that the OEM really becomes the only revenue for it whatsoever and we expect that to go away really soon, too.
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@scottalanmiller Do you think we'll eventually see this in Win Server OS versions as well?
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@thegr81337 said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
@scottalanmiller Do you think we'll eventually see this in Win Server OS versions as well?
I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't, and simply improve the CAL system so as to get to the point of just 1 installable for any scenario and then CALs for the use case or service you are deploying.
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@thegr81337 said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
@scottalanmiller Do you think we'll eventually see this in Win Server OS versions as well?
That's way more of a long shot. The profits and management of the server OSes is very different than that of desktops. Over time, I think that they will make those free as well, but long after the desktops. Desktops take a huge amount of effort for small money, servers take far less effort for more money. Quite a different financial dynamic.
But their "real" money comes from sources like Azure, Office 365, MS Office, and such... all of which benefit from the OS being free and more wide spread. Moves like MS SQL Server being ported to Linux are definitely highly suggestive of a larger strategy towards the higher profit apps and away from the lower profit OS.
I think the real barrier for MS is getting their OS to be open source. Closed source is more expensive to maintain and puts all onus on the vendor. Open source fixes that. But they have so many licensed components and legacy code that it will take forever to get that worked out.
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@DustinB3403 said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
@thegr81337 said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
@scottalanmiller Do you think we'll eventually see this in Win Server OS versions as well?
I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't, and simply improve the CAL system so as to get to the point of just 1 installable for any scenario and then CALs for the use case or service you are deploying.
I expect that they will phase out the CALs. The moves to cloud based computing mean that profits can come from other vectors that are easier and more straightforward to monetize.
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So "Micorsoft Server 365" eventually, but no time soon because of technical (code) limitations and it's too much of a cash cow already under the current system, right?
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Something that Microsoft hates is that companies that steal software or that know how to maneuver around licenses really well have much higher profits than those that don't. The companies who are MS' best customers are the ones bleeding compared to their competition either by being less skillful at licenses, or just by trying to not break the license agreements. It's unfair to them, and screwed MS too, that the good, honest customers struggle to compete against the crooked ones. Of course, that's always the case with any business situation, cheaters have a leg up, but it is one that MS is attempting to fix where they can.
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@thegr81337 said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
So "Micorsoft Server 365" eventually, but no time soon because of technical (code) limitations and it's too much of a cash cow already under the current system, right?
That's a little different. Moving to a subscription based licensing model seems likely long before the licenses become free and/or open. They can move to an O365 Server license model today if they chose, it would just be disruptive to their customers who barely figure out the current licensing model.
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@scottalanmiller said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
@thegr81337 said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
So "Micorsoft Server 365" eventually, but no time soon because of technical (code) limitations and it's too much of a cash cow already under the current system, right?
That's a little different. Moving to a subscription based licensing model seems likely long before the licenses become free and/or open. They can move to an O365 Server license model today if they chose, it would just be disruptive to their customers who barely figure out the current licensing model.
There's a lot of benefits going subscription based licensing. Yeah it costs more, but there's so much more. Great if you need it, but if not, too expensive.
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Windows 10 as a service is already a thing for enterprise and it seems like recent consumer versions have been leaning more that way as well. Everyone's getting on the Netflix / gym membership subscription model these days. I'm not a fan but I get it.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/3094785/yes-windows-10-subscriptions-are-coming-at-least-for-enterprise.html -
@JustRob said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
Windows 10 as a service is already a thing for enterprise and it seems like recent consumer versions have been leaning more that way as well. Everyone's getting on the Netflix / gym membership subscription model these days. I'm not a fan but I get i
Well right now, Windows for consumers is already a subscription plan, just a free one. They've already made the move. It's already free (once the initial purchase is made.) Basically if you get an OEM machine, that's it, it's free for forever.
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@scottalanmiller said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
@JustRob said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
Windows 10 as a service is already a thing for enterprise and it seems like recent consumer versions have been leaning more that way as well. Everyone's getting on the Netflix / gym membership subscription model these days. I'm not a fan but I get i
Well right now, Windows for consumers is already a subscription plan, just a free one. They've already made the move. It's already free (once the initial purchase is made.) Basically if you get an OEM machine, that's it, it's free for forever.
it's weird (for me) to think of that as a subscription, but get what you are saying...
We've been that way since the beginning with Windows and updates, free subscription (at least for the version you purchased - now it's even better - you not only get security updates, you also get version upgrades).
With computer purchases being spaced out further and further apart, MS's ability to make money based only on the sales of a license at the PCs start of life possibly doesn't provide enough to MS to keep that department alive/worthwhile. Moving to a paid subscription plan (which I don't think will ever actually be accepted by home users for their devices - but who knows, time will only tell) might be a requirement, else we start to see things die off, like Windows being killed off, heck Chrome OS could be killed off for the same reason. Google is likely supplementing Chrome O/S through their ad revenues... but if we see those start to decline (there are many conversations out there now about how many browsers are starting to put in blocks to cut down on tracking - and google of course is freaking out about it and how it will affect their revenues.
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@Dashrender said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
Google is likely supplementing Chrome O/S through their ad revenues... but if we see those start to decline (there are many conversations out there now about how many browsers are starting to put in blocks to cut down on tracking - and google of course is freaking out about it and how it will affect their revenues.
No ads on ChromeOS that you don't already see on other platforms.
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@Dashrender said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
and google of course is freaking out about it and how it will affect their revenues.
Duck Duck Go remains happy. I wish they'd make a ChromeOS competitor!
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@scottalanmiller said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
@Dashrender said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
Google is likely supplementing Chrome O/S through their ad revenues... but if we see those start to decline (there are many conversations out there now about how many browsers are starting to put in blocks to cut down on tracking - and google of course is freaking out about it and how it will affect their revenues.
No ads on ChromeOS that you don't already see on other platforms.
I don't mean ChromeOS has more ads, I mean google's ad business is supplementing the ChromeOS division.
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@Dashrender said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
@scottalanmiller said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
@Dashrender said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
Google is likely supplementing Chrome O/S through their ad revenues... but if we see those start to decline (there are many conversations out there now about how many browsers are starting to put in blocks to cut down on tracking - and google of course is freaking out about it and how it will affect their revenues.
No ads on ChromeOS that you don't already see on other platforms.
I don't mean ChromeOS has more ads, I mean google's ad business is supplementing the ChromeOS division.
Kind of. But ChromeOS is created to shore up the ad business by making you less likely to look at other ads. But ChromeOS and Android are merging and that's a profitable business.
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@scottalanmiller said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
But their "real" money comes from sources like Azure, Office 365, MS Office, and such... all of which benefit from the OS being free and more wide spread.
I'd shorten that to say the "real" money comes from Azure (or at least, will do in the future). All other Microsoft products are now merely tools to sell Azure. They are now a hosting company rather than a software company.
I now work in Microsoft Dynamics, and it's not about what companies use to run their business applications, it's about where their business applications are hosted. Microsoft are happy for you to run Salesforce (ostensibly a competitor), if you run it in Azure.
I don't expect them to do much with their server OS, as I don't think they see that in their future. Desktop OS is important, because you need a desktop to access the cloud - but it's only important in as much as it is used to sell Azure.
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@Carnival-Boy said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
Desktop OS is important, because you need a desktop to access the cloud - but it's only important in as much as it is used to sell Azure.
But you can access Azure just as well (or better in many cases) from Ubuntu, ChromeOS, Fedora, macOS, etc. In many cases, their desktop OS is actually a detriment to their Azure business because it is mired in legacy apps that don't work [well] on cloud. Whereas all the other OSes tend to be far less mired in legacy apps and more cloud friendly in their ecosystems.
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@scottalanmiller said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
@Carnival-Boy said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
Desktop OS is important, because you need a desktop to access the cloud - but it's only important in as much as it is used to sell Azure.
But you can access Azure just as well (or better in many cases) from Ubuntu, ChromeOS, Fedora, macOS, etc.
Of course, but you can push users towards Azure by controlling what users see on the desktop - think pre-installing Skype or Edge or the Microsoft App Store. Google do the same for their OS. Amazon are probably the most explicit in practically giving away Amazon Fires just to push Amazon services.
