While this has been a hunch for a while among the Windows enthusiast community, a new leak seems to be further providing somewhat solidifying evidence that it could indeed be the case, that Microsoft’s next-gen OS, casually referred to as Windows 12, could be a subscription-based OS.
I have no innate issue with the subscription model for software – especially in the mobile world, it makes perfect sense for indie developers, as it’s a far more sustainable model than charging the single charge of €0.99 that Apple and Google drove the market down to. I also think it makes sense for more complex desktop software, like an office suite or some of the translation software I use. The subscription pricing usually ends up being cheaper than buying the latest version every few years, anyway.
For Windows though – I’m not so sure. Windows is already loaded with ads and adware, and it’s only getting worse. Paying a monthly or yearly fee to have ads served to me seems dystopian, at best.
Thom Holwerda,
(my emphasis)
Translation software? I’m really curious why you would want that. I would have thought you’d be against it.
Why would I be against translation software? It just manages translations, stores them, so if the same sentence or term comes up later, it’ll tell you. Especially if your client is a giant corporation or something with several translators, it ensures consistency and quicker work.
When I hear “translation software”, I think of software that translates. IIRC you previously posted articles complaining about software translations. From this description it sounds more like a database.for your work, which is fair enough. But I’m unclear what qualifies this as “more complex desktop software”? Does it really change regularly such that a subscription makes more sense than a perpetual license?
Mind you, I certainly don’t want to presume your needs needs or use cases as a translator, it’s just interesting to learn about what you do 🙂
In this article you’ve said you’d be interested in trying your hand at programming…
https://www.osnews.com/story/137115/how-the-mac-didnt-bring-programming-to-the-people/
Maybe this would be a useful application you could try your hand at? As mentioned in the comments, Gambas could be good for rapid GUI prototyping. Osnews had several articles about it back in the day:
https://www.osnews.com/?s=gambas
Just to tie the topic back to windows, here’s a link about running Gambas on windows 11 via wsl.
https://forum.gambas.one/viewtopic.php?t=1226
I guess Thom refers to CAT (Computer Assisted Translation) tools like Trados, Phrase or MemoQ, rather than translator sites like Google Translate or Deepl.
The mobile market has gotten so bad I have shifted away nearly entirely to open source ware. Now that I think about it, apart from games, that includes desktop software.
At the end of every year year I’ve a little pot ready for donations to my favorite projects. At the moment those are simple mobile tools and linux mint. In some sense, those could be considered subscriptions, I guess. Except that those projects don’t hold my workflow hostage for payments.
Let’s hope that “subscription” doesn’t mean “subscription-only”. I don’t mind if Microsoft implements the Microsoft Office model where they offer a subscription service but also allow you to buy a perpetual version of Microsoft Office, but if they go the “Adobe Creative Cloud” subscription-only model, I am leaving Windows for Mac.
I absolutely hate subscription software and the idea of little gremlins eating my paycheck every month. Why can’t just I own things and be happy? I mean, what if I need to move in with my parents for a while and don’t have a paycheck to pay for the subscriptions? Do I lose access to all the software on my computer? (answer: yes, that’s what they want, they want you to be a slave). And why should I have to pay for the latest version when a certain version does what I want and don’t want to upgrade?
And then there is the problem of sudden feature removals like Adobe suddenly removing Pantone support from Photoshop. Meanwhile, Photoshop CS6 still has that functionality. Also, my copy of PowerDVD 19 still plays Blu-Ray 3D discs despite that feature being removed from subsequent PowerDVD versions. Why? Because I own the software outright, I am not trapped in an upgrade treadmill that pretends to be a “service”.
Semi-related note: We are entering dark times for computing. You see, more and more people are realising that they don’t really need the latest and greatest computer or smartphone anymore, and they can instead treat their computer and smartphone like they treat their fridge, aka keep it until it breaks. Problem is, most tech giants not only want to maintain current revenue, they also want “growth”, which is the exact opposite of the prevailing trend. So, things are about to be aggressively “monetized” from now on. Dark times indeed.
kurkosdr
I don’t have inside information. But I’m wondering what that would look like if it came true. People buying a computer at best buy or similar would probably have a “free” year before it would switch to reduced functionality mode. A subscription would be required to re-unlock expired features.
It kind of reminds me of “windows 365” today. To this end I looked up what happens when it windows 365 expires…
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/commerce/subscriptions/what-if-my-subscription-expires?view=o365-worldwide
The local government offices are using microsoft 365 today. Honestly I don’t like the idea of my local government being so dependent recurring billing with a single corporation. At least in the past they could own proper licenses without being held hostage to future payment. I feel this is such a bad idea. I assume microsoft exploited the tendency of politicians to say “yes” to short term discounts while putting future administrations on the hook for long term reoccurring expenses when it’s no longer going to be their problem.
Most PCs have something similar, where they ship with a trial AV software bound to expire after a month or two, so it’s not out of the question. My guess is that if Microsoft decides to go down that route, the pre-installed copy of Windows will lose its activation status and it will be the same as running an unactivated copy.
Microsoft Windows subscription? Hell no. What’s next, CPU and GPU makers going to make chip features subscription-based too? You want more threads or faster clock speed? Subscribe. You want ray-tracing enabled? Subscribe. Subscription everything is the kind of sh*t that fuels revolts, and I don’t say that as a joke.
It’s already happening:
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-software-defined-cpu-support-coming-to-linux-518
Yeah, I knew it was happening with server chips but I was referring to consumer-grade CPU/GPU’s. Full clock speeds? Pay me. Full bus bandwidth? Pay me. DLSS/FSR enabled? Pay me. That’s just on the hardware side. I could absolutely see companies like Take Two Interactive saying, oh you want DLSS/FSR enabled in GTA 6? Pay me. You want higher fps unlocked? Pay me. Capitalistic greed has no bounds.
On an unrelated note but equally infuriating to me is… I got gas at a station I don’t normally go to. The pump featured a big full-color screen that played video advertisements the entire time at an obnoxiously loud volume. There was no way to mute or turn it off. By the time I was done fueling I wanted to Hulk-rage tear the pump out of the ground. And did I get a discount for the pain & suffering I had to endure? Of course not. I’ll probably never be at that station again but if I am and I see someone has broken the screen or ripped the speaker out, I won’t be the least bit surprised.
I’ll tell you why I do not like the idea of this.
Over the last 10 to 15 years in the industrial, technical sector, we’ve seen more and more combinations of hardware and software move to subscription models. At first it seemed reasonable, it reduced the upfront cost of many high end hardware systems so you could pay just a little or even nothing up front, but a bit more in total spread over a reasonable operating lifetime.
But over time the relationship between hardware and software changed, and so did the costs. The subscription software model started locking people into specific solutions, and then all of the sudden the hardware moved into an exclusive closed the loop and those costs rose. So now the hardware was less specialised but more expensive up front, and the cost of the subscription software over the life of the product meant total costs had risen in some cases by as much as 300%. The initial advantage of the subscription model morphed from a cash flow benefit into a burden of obligation, the subsidies turned into a poison chalice!
en-shit-ti-fi-ca-ti-on
When Adobe first announced their subscription model I thought it sounded like a very reasonable move. Taking these big, expensive software packages and allowing people to essentially rent them for a month or two for a project and then cancelling seemed like a good way to earn some revenue from people who would probably otherwise just pirate. Over time though I’ve been disillusioned. They’ve removed the option to buy outright, used dark patterns to try to lock people in to long term plans even when they didn’t intend to do so and generally jacked up the price so that people who would have bought the software outright previously are paying much, much more now.
Subscription software sounds good in theory, but it’s too much of temptation to greed for companies to be trusted with it. If Windows moves to a subscription model that affects home users then it’s time for antitrust action to break up Microsoft.
This, again.
Windows Central has published an article saying that these configuration options are already in the latest Windows 11 versions, and are related to a new Enterprise IoT SKU that is now available.