Hell freezes over: Microsoft makes Windows free....

Hi there
be careful what you wish for -- this is probably a trick by Ms to get money by selling the services -- for example subscription based Software such as Office 365 etc. Amazon for example almost GIVE away their kindles but make the revenue by flogging the e-books.
Another ploy -- give away the software but lock people in with long period service contracts.

I hope this isn't sneaking in subscription software by the back door. Ideally Windows should be totally open source like Linux -- but Hell REALLY WOULD freeze over before that happens. !!

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
be careful what you wish for -- this is probably a trick by Ms to get money by selling the services -- for example subscription based Software such as Office 365 etc.

Click to expand...

But is this subscription software really such a bad deal? I mean for $99 a year, you get 5 complete copies of office. Not the Home and Student version, not the Business version, but the entire office suite. That's a $300 package at Amazon.com (for 1 copy). Amazon.com: Office Professional 2013 Key Card 1PC/1User: Software. So, if you needed 1 for your desktop and 1 for your laptop, that would cost your $600 to buy the software outright. You could do Office 365 for 6 years for that price and have 5 installs. And they let you share your Office 365 subscription, so you could split the $100 between 5 people and it would cost a whopping $20 a year. Seriously, where the hell do I sign up? You cannot beat that deal. No piracy, no torrents, no questionable activations, always on the latest versions, more OneDrive space, Skype time, etc.

jimbo45 said:

for example almost GIVE away their kindles but make the revenue by flogging the e-books.

Click to expand...

I used to buy hardcover books when they first came out. They would cost me $18 to $29 depending upon the book. For my kindle, those same books were $9.99. It wasn't until Apple got into the book market that the price of e-books rose. Even then, it's still cheaper than the newly released hard covers.

Always remember. . ."Nothing in this world is really free. . . .

Not surprising considering google has done this with android and look at its marketshare. How do you combat open sourced, free software? Leverage a damn solid platform for no cost on the two major used form factors right now. You eat the cost in the short term for the licensing fees, but in the long term you get a larger marketshare, more app downloads, more Xbox Music and Video subscriptions, more Office 365 subscriptions, more Bing (and Cortana) usage, and more opportunities for developers. Losses get made up elsewhere.

This is why we don't underestimate Microsoft.

Lee said:

Always remember. . ."Nothing in this world is really free. . . .

Click to expand...

Right and it has also been said, "There ain't no free lunch."

Interesting...

One company wants to give away their IOS for free and people get suspicious. This company isn't that nice since they'll make up the lost revenue somewhere else, later down the road.

Another company had been giving away their IOS for free and making up the revenue somewhere else for years. Be that apps, services, your privacy, etc., but that's just fine.

Wasn't competition good for people?