Microsoft is fucking butthurt no one wants Windows 11 so they're stopping the sale of Windows 10 licenses this month

[Kalsarikännit]

I will not download Windows 11, I will not live in the pod, I will not eat ze bugs.

Jokes aside, I'm sick of Microsoft, I'm sick of Windows. Ubuntu isn't as bad as the last time I used it, I'm considering moving over for my main PC. The software I use is Linux compatible, my concern is just my games. Tech's really concerning me since the whole Cloudflare stuff, so much of tech is pretty much locked into a duopoly. Do I use Mac or Windows? Steam or Epic? Visa or Mastercard? I'm gonna cling to Win10 for as long as I can.

Personally, I just have two SSDs. One with Linux, one with Win10. I use Linux 95% of the time, but there are a couple games my friends and I play that necessitate Windows. I just swap which SSD I boot off. Check the Proton database for compatibility.

 

[Never Scored]

About 40-50% of prebuilt computers in China were shipping with Kylin, and the PRC was planning on investing more into the project when windows 10 was announced. The lack of regional pricing (and the dependence on a US corporation) was an area of deep concern for the communist party. A government backed OS with a billion potential users and a robust compatibility layer threatened the foundation of their business model, monopoly. They did the same thing whith the sub $200 segment when OEMs started selling alternatives to Windows so they could compete on price - Microsoft reduced the license cost to nothing, and gave a rebate if you made sure their cloud services were included - anticompetitive bundling.

Did I say anything to contradict any of this? It's basically exactly what I said they were doing. Giving Windows away for free to lock people into their ecosystem.

Except they don't give it to you for free.

If you have an existing computer with Windows 10 and they give you an upgrade to Windows 11 at no up front cost, you just got Windows 11 for free.

We can argue semantics all day, but the fact of the matter is they don't give a shit about profiting off Windows as long as it helps them sell their cloud services and based on your post you seem to think the same thing. Honestly, I don't know what the point of your reply is. You listed some examples of how they give it away for free or next to nothing to get people into their ecosystem seemingly to refute the assertion that they care more about getting people into their ecosystem than selling Windows.

 

[Smar Mijou]

When Microsoft finally forces everyone off desktop-native Office, I'm not switching to Linux. I'm going to swallow cyanide.

Methinks the enterprise customers will put the kibosh on that for a while... much like they extended the lifeline of WinXP and Win7 support.

 

[Matt Damon]

As for the really odd argument Matt Damon keeps bringing up: Yes, applications not being written for Linux is a problem with the developers of those applications, not Linux. Do you hold it against Sony that the PS5 can’t play Super Mario Odyssey? If that’s what you want to play, then get a switch. But that’s not an inherent flaw of the PS5.

If I really want to play Mario, I'm going to call all the Sony fanboys telling me "just buy a PS5, bro, it's so much better; you don't need Mario when Crash Bandicoot is just as good" faggots too.

Boom, perfect logical consistency of my argument. Retard.

 

[TheBigZee]

We can argue semantics all day, but the fact of the matter is they don't give a shit about profiting off Windows as long as it helps them sell their cloud services and based on your post you seem to think the same thing. Honestly, I don't know what the point of your reply is. You listed some examples of how they give it away for free or next to nothing to get people into their ecosystem seemingly to refute the assertion that they care more about getting people into their ecosystem than selling Windows.

They didn't give licenses away to get new, profitable customers. They gave them away to deny current customers alternatives.

 

[Never Scored]

They didn't give licenses away to get new, profitable customers. They gave them away to deny current customers alternatives.

OK? I didn't really differentiate between the two practices in my original post. This started off with me pointing out that their actions indicate they are willing to give away Windows for essentially nothing to get people using their subscription based apps in response to a post where you seemed to claimed they care if people buy a Windows license or not. Now it seems you're trying to say they do basically give it to people for free, but only to lock them in and deny them alternatives.

I only ever said they are willing to give Windows away to get people onto their subscription based apps because that is more profitable than trying to sell Windows, and thus don't really give a shit if your copy is licensed or not. Obviously the purpose to doing that would lock people into their own ecosystem and shut out the competition. It's like you're arguing with an imaginary post I didn't make.

 

[Matt Damon]

I only ever said they are willing to give Windows away to get people onto their subscription based apps because that is more profitable than trying to sell Windows. Obviously the purpose to doing that would lock people into their own ecosystem and shut out the competition. It's like you're arguing with an imaginary post I didn't make.

He needs to frame the narrative that way to maintain Microsoft as the embodiment of all evil in the universe. If they're simply going to a pseudo-freemium model with Windows, their business strategy suddenly starts looking sorta justifiable and reasonable and comparable with the rest of the industry, including commercial Linux distros.

The conversation really isn't about your arguments anymore - it's about avoiding cognitive dissonance.

 

[Never Scored]

He needs to frame the narrative that way to maintain Microsoft as the embodiment of all evil in the universe. If they're simply going to a pseudo-freemium model with Windows, their business strategy suddenly starts looking sorta justifiable and reasonable and comparable with the rest of the industry, including commercial Linux distros.

The conversation really isn't about your arguments anymore - it's about avoiding cognitive dissonance.

It feels like I said, "McDonald's makes their food cheap so people will go there to buy food."

And he repilied with, "That's not true! They only make it cheap so you won't buy the competition's food!"

But like, both these statements are literally saying the same thing in a different way. lol

 

[byuu]

The whole non-genuine 10 upgrades are about not losing the Chinese market:

The move is an unprecedented attempt by Microsoft to get legitimate versions of its software onto machines of the hundreds of millions of Windows users in China. Recent studies show that three-quarters of all PC software is not properly licensed there.

Terry Myerson, who runs Microsoft’s operating systems unit, announced the plan at the WinHEC technology conference in Shenzhen, China.

“We are upgrading all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10,” he said in a telephone interview with Reuters. The plan is to “re-engage” with the hundreds of millions of users of Windows in China, he said, without elaboration.

Microsoft tackles China piracy with free upgrade to Windows 10

Microsoft Corp is making its biggest push into the heavily pirated Chinese consumer computing market this summer by offering free upgrades to Windows 10 to all Windows users, regardless of whether they are running genuine copies of the software.

www.reuters.com

China has their own Linux distro that is used for most government PCs, and comes preinstalled with most PCs sold in China.

 

[Smar Mijou]

The whole non-genuine 10 upgrades are about not losing the Chinese market:

Microsoft tackles China piracy with free upgrade to Windows 10

Microsoft Corp is making its biggest push into the heavily pirated Chinese consumer computing market this summer by offering free upgrades to Windows 10 to all Windows users, regardless of whether they are running genuine copies of the software.

www.reuters.com

China has their own Linux distro that is used for most government PCs, and comes preinstalled with most PCs sold in China.

You know it's bad when an entire nation's culture is so entirely based around counterfeiting and thievery, the biggest tech company in the world just says "Fuck it" and gives it to them for free.

 

[The Ugly One]

Microsoft views their Windows income as stemming from hardware replacement now, not major version releases. The covid purchase surge fucked up their cash flow preictions (and was going to wreck the OEMs in a year or two). The hardware requirements were calculated to obsolete just enough hardware.

The big-money buyers of computer hardware are IT departments, who purchase on fixed cycles. The lockdown surge was driven by corporate IT departments buying laptops for their employees, not consumers, and now that the WFH transition is over, demand is weak, and expected to continue to be weak. The hardware requirements are being driven by those same IT departments.

Except they don't give it to you for free. We know very little about the current licensing agreements with the major OEMs. The fee structure is suspected to be based on how soon the consumer will need to replace the device.

Windows Enterprise and 365 VMs drive their Windows revenue. Consumers are secondary.

Microsoft is walking a tightrope trying to maintain lock-in, and they're willing (for now) to accept lower revenue from the windows division to do it.

This entire post seems to be based on fantasies about what the computer market is like rather than any kind of deep knowledge about how Microsoft works.

 

[Aidan]

The whole non-genuine 10 upgrades are about not losing the Chinese market:

Microsoft tackles China piracy with free upgrade to Windows 10

Microsoft Corp is making its biggest push into the heavily pirated Chinese consumer computing market this summer by offering free upgrades to Windows 10 to all Windows users, regardless of whether they are running genuine copies of the software.

www.reuters.com

China has their own Linux distro that is used for most government PCs, and comes preinstalled with most PCs sold in China.

I think it's foolish for Microsoft to think they can gain useful ground in China of all places. Even if China wasn't rife with piracy to a fault, it is not in the CCP's interest to have a US company's OS all over their networks. Even if there aren't any backdoors, the US government is going to have easier access to talent far more knowledgeable about leveraging Windows than China.

I was unaware China had its own Linux used throughout, interesting. The People's operating system.

 

[byuu]

I was unaware China had its own Linux used throughout, interesting. The People's operating system.

It's not as good as North Korea's Red Star OS

 

[TheBigZee]

The big-money buyers of computer hardware are IT departments, who purchase on fixed cycles. The lockdown surge was driven by corporate IT departments buying laptops for their employees, not consumers, and now that the WFH transition is over, demand is weak, and expected to continue to be weak. The hardware requirements are being driven by those same IT departments.

Windows Enterprise and 365 VMs drive their Windows revenue. Consumers are secondary.

This entire post seems to be based on fantasies about what the computer market is like rather than any kind of deep knowledge about how Microsoft works.

I didn't say the consumer market, I said consumer, singular. MSFT doesn't report OEM sales numbers directly, but you can work it out by using the %change numbers and algebra. OEM sales make up about 60% of Windows revenue.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/789019/000156459022026876/msft-10k_20220630.htm

The annual report gives the factors that impacts revenue for OEM sales:

Spoiler

Windows

The Windows operating system is designed to deliver a more personal computing experience for users by enabling consistency of experience, applications, and information across their devices. Windows OEM revenue is impacted significantly by the number of Windows operating system licenses purchased by OEMs, which they pre-install on the devices they sell. In addition to computing device market volume, Windows OEM revenue is impacted by:

• The mix of computing devices based on form factor and screen size.
• Differences in device market demand between developed markets and growth markets.
• Attachment of Windows to devices shipped.
• Customer mix between consumer, small and medium businesses, and large enterprises.
• Changes in inventory levels in the OEM channel.
• Pricing changes and promotions, pricing variation that occurs when the mix of devices manufactured shifts from local and regional system builders to large multinational OEMs, and different pricing of Windows versions licensed.
• Constraints in the supply chain of device components

• Piracy

Just because it's not a large % doesn't mean it's not the trunk of the tree. If desktop market share started to drop, I think most analysts would say sell.

China has their own Linux distro that is used for most government PCs, and comes preinstalled with most PCs sold in China.

Gee, what would happen if a substantial % of those didn't just install unlicensed windows when they got them. It's like it might... create some kind of... market for linux native software and services.

Edit: Also, if Raspberry Pis are in short supply, orgs are dumping celeron n3xx and n4020 for nothing en-masse used. The asus pieces of shit I've bought had flawless linux support.
Also, that's weird - it clipped part of the disclosure.

 

[whogoesthere]

Obscure setups is a reference to exotic hardware not software. Aside from the aforementioned obscure hardware and the associated drivers, there honestly isn't a single thing you can do on Windows that you can't do on Linux and likely far better. What is expected of you is to learn how to use the new software and learn the more efficient process. Obvious they're different binaries but aside from that there isn't much you can't do with Photoshop that can't be done with ImageMagik. Again, there's a learning curve. But like I said in my first post in this thread our entire conversation is a moot point since nobody is going to take that time. So I have exactly zero sympathy for people who will just complain without trying to improve their situation. You're unhappy with windows, fine. Move away from it.

This is what a linux tranny looks like, and why no one likes your gay fucking OS.

 

[Matt Damon]

It's like it might... create some kind of... market for linux native software and services.

Imagine giving your product away for free for decades and >98% of people still say "ugh, no thanks".

 

[Kosher Dill]

Imagine giving your product away for free for decades and >98% of people still say "ugh, no thanks".

Leave my dating life out of this

 

[Patrick Bait-man]

Let's settle this thread once and for all.

 

[Pissmaster]

Let's settle this thread once and for all.
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Mac users never get involved with Windows/Linux slapfights because they have their own slapfights between snobby Apple loyalists that look down at anyone with a Mac that's over 3 years old vs. the chads that know Macs last forever and keep using them long after Apple's pulled support (which is fffffffffffucking annoying)

 

[lolcow yoghurt]

Jokes on you, I only use TempleOS.