Windows 365 (subscription) still possible

jimbo45

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Hi there

From Windows 9 Forum there's a post on the possibility of Windows being offered as a subscription service rather like Office 365.

Windows 365 Still Possible, Sources Say | Windows 9 Forums

Hopefully NOT -- I certainly shan't be interested -- I'm already covered - most of the stuff I run on Windows I can now run on Linux as well and what I can't I'll still keep a Windows Virtual Machine with the Non subscription OS.

Cheers
jimbo
 

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All I can say is I'm sticking with Office 2013 or going to other, non-MS programs. All those subscription stuff they can keep, thank you. Like it's not enough I have to handle hydro, telephone, internet, water and who knows how many other bills, I can just imagine dozen more things to keep and remember payments for. Some of them I let bank handle automatically but any that wary I have to do almost manually (e-banking).
 

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I don't see much value in getting worked up over it at this point, with 0 details rather than speculation.

I don't see Office365 as a bad thing across the board.

Sure, if you need a single copy of Office Home and Student for Word and Excel than buy it 1 time for ~$139 and be done with it.
Amazon.com: Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013 (1PC/1User) [Download]: Software

But if you have a need for say 2 copies of Microsoft Office Professional , it would cost you $399 x 2 or $798.
Amazon.com: Microsoft Office Professional 2013 (1PC/1User) [Download]: Software

For $100 per year, you can get 5 copies of Office Pro. Therefore, it would take 8 years to hit that to break even. And you get upgrades to any new versions along the way. Pay $99 for the first year, invest the remaining $700 that you saved on your 2 copies of Office and let your money make money. Time value of money. And what happens in say 2 years you find you no longer need these Office apps, with Office 365 you can quit and your total out of pocket would be $200. Try to return your copies of Office 2013 Pro that you spend $800 above and see if they prorate some of that cost back to you.

And Microsoft lets you share that Office 365 subscription with others. So, say you needed only 2 copies of Office for yourself. You could get 3 friends together to share the last 3 copies. So, at $100 a year, you pay $40 and each of your 3 friends pay $20 each. At this rate, it would take 20 years of paying the subscription to equal that original $800 investment you would have made doing it the old school way.
 

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As a very happy and satisfied Office 365 user I would gladly welcome the same subscription model for Windows; I am quite sure I would subscribe to it the first day possible if it ever came available.

The pros beat the cons many times over.
 

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Hi there

At least let people have the choice --problem with subscriptions also is that with so many bills say per month being taken by automated payments it's almost impossible to keep track of everything --OK it's not Ms's problem on how one organises one's banking / financial affairs but I know if I have ONE more single thing to pay up to I really would struggle to keep my accounts in order even though I'm by most "average W.European and Nordic" people's standards reasonably well off.

I'm sure I'm not the only one with this problem though !!.

@anybody in Finance --here's a suggestion that might make you some money. I'm not a coder so I wouldn't have a clue in how to do it -- but what about someone who designed an app which took all your regular bills so you would make ONE payment per year (or even TWO or THREE) and then they would handle all the monthly direct debits , standing orders, things like annual Road tax etc etc.

My experience with a lot of people is that we are about 85% HOPELESS in managing money sensibly. !!!! (And this IS across the gender divide too ) -- Men and women score about equally on this problem.

BTW though one thing NEVER EVER sign up for one of those "Mandate" things --it's hard enough stopping a direct debit at most banks but this new thing is almost IMPOSSIBLE to stop and as it doesn't come under the Direct Debit rules where they have to notify you of any increase of any amount they remove from your account so they don't have to notify you of changes. You can then find out suddenly an amount that you thought was 50 EUR now becomes 750 EUR -- and surprise surprise --your Bank ATM card doesn't work.!!

I don't know where you all live but we've had our problems with Banks --seems they are getting up to their old tricks again !!!

Cheers
jimbo
 

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As far as I know, people still have the choice with Office. You can buy the subscription if you want, and you can buy straight up licenses if you want.

And Office can be paid by the year, so it's not monthly. And if people save $800 by not paying for 2 copies of the software up front, they would have extra funds to spend on this subscription.
 

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I'm not sure how I feel about Windows subscription model either, but pparks1 nailed it as far as Office365 Home. Not only can you share it with up to 4 other individuals, it covers 1 PC, 1 tablet, a mobile phone plus 1TB of OneDrive storage for each person. The mobile apps are free, but view-only for local in-app/offline use. Office365 opens up local and offline editing across all your devices.
 

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I think just like Office it won't be totally subscription. We'll continue to have a choice of buying outright. The fear is that once they introduce Windows 365, then eventually that's all there will be. That may well be that's where it ends up, but that all depends on what the market or we the consumers decide. The market is a vast voting consortium within free enterprise. Buy and use any product is a vote on how well it does. In this case it's pay as you go. I realize there is also the "blind sheep" syndrome that companies take advantage of. i.e. The U.S. cellular carriers. What a scam! Legal, but a scam nonetheless IMO. $0 down and pay a lot more in the end via contract. On the other hand, it's a way for some to obtain a device that they may not be able to afford up front.

Subscription is a way for any company to expose their product where otherwise it may not be affordable as Parks somewhat explains. I think this is aimed more at enterprise (especially small), government, and institutions who might go elsewhere, especially Office with all the free alternatives we've seen in the past years.

We all know that 8.x is not doing well. 8 should've been 8.1 = Bad press = Bad reputation = Low sales just like Vista. I think that's the hump they need to get over. MS may introduce a W9 as a subscription model (or continuing to buy outright) to expose their "new direction" of OSs. "Try it. You might like it". A consumer may buy it outright after a period of time. Nothing that says they can't. This is not like the grips of a contract that I know of. They may make an offer to put the first year's subscription cost off the price of buying outright.

Bottom line is that it's all a lure to buy. It's been around an awful long time in any industry.
 

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