What Will You Do If Windows 12 Isn't Free?

I am on W10 right now but triailing Linux and will make the switch as I don't play games therefore no need for W12. I already have W11 on the work machine and I dislike it so much I am happy when I power it off and switch on the W10 PC.
 
Doughnut007 said:
I have to start the process of migrating to W11 at work this year. Not looking forward to it.
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I've got 700 machines at work an only about 400 are W11 compatible, hoping i can get to the point they're all compatible by the time W10 goes EoL as i think im going to try and skip W11 entirely in work if the timings work out....we'll see next summer i suppose.

If MS decided to make W12 subscription based, i presume enterprise would have to be able to have a perpetual way of licensing, which would 100% just be exploited to work on home desktops. Subscription based windows would just lead to a huge amount of piracy imo.
 
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mrbios said:
I've got 700 machines at work an only about 400 are W11 compatible, hoping i can get to the point they're all compatible by the time W10 goes EoL as i think im going to try and skip W11 entirely in work if the timings work out....we'll see next summer i suppose.

If MS decided to make W12 subscription based, i presume enterprise would have to be able to have a perpetual way of licensing, which would 100% just be exploited to work on home desktops. Subscription based windows would just lead to a huge amount of piracy imo.
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Quite possibly.
If it were to be a subscription my guess would be it gets added into the 365 SKUs.
And user rather than device based.
 
Doughnut007 said:
Quite possibly.
If it were to be a subscription my guess would be it gets added into the 365 SKUs.
And user rather than device based.
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Ah good point. Not a bad way to do it if they do..... though i'll remain hopeful that they don't. I hate the way everything is a subscription model now *shakes fist angrily at broadcom for ruining vmware*
 
mrbios said:
Ah good point. Not a bad way to do it if they do..... though i'll remain hopeful that they don't. I hate the way everything is a subscription model now *shakes fist angrily at broadcom for ruining vmware*
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It's frustrating but if the price point is there it may be ok.
The annoying bit would be if your not a 365 shop and they effectively force you to be to license windows for business.
 
Doughnut007 said:
Provided your users are not the type to freek out over icon changes you can do exactly that.

I am probably going to do it online with a migration to intune.
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IT sent an e mail around with steps on what to do for people that are not computer literate but the first thing I did was install explorer patcher as I hate the W11 UI

I am sure some would have done lol
 
I will be in Windows 10 until i have a reason to move to 11, plus other machines i have are not 11 compatible. Work computers will stay on 10 for the exact same reasons, not to mention a lot of software we use still is Windows 7 based.

Other issue with subscription apps in the need for internet access, for us this means we don't even use O365 due to limited bandwidth.

patch management is just able doable.
 
Be interesting to see what the cost is.
But wow - everything seems to be going Subscription model now. No longer much buy once and 'own it'
Will make me look at something else finally after all these years.
 
Gimpymoo said:
Apple could make a fortune if they released x86 OSX as a paid/subscription model OS without the hardware paywall.

Unpopular opinion maybe, but despite all the talk of "will goto Linux", the majority would not as it is still experimental garbage and still needs CLI for the most basic stuff at times, which in 2023 is madness. If Linux did not do it "out the box", good luck.
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I never thought about machines that can only run x86. I have an ancient laptop and netbook that I've kept purely for testing x86 builds of Windows 10 when I need to, or to make sure certain USB sticks can boot on them. But I can't put Windows 11+ on these, so they will be forced to stay on Windows 10 until I decide to either dispose of them or put one of the many variants of Linux on.

So basically Microsoft have contributed to the landfill problem, as these otherwise usable machines will be heading to the landfill. There's not much call for ~15 year old laptops these days. :D
 
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Gimpymoo said:
Apple could make a fortune if they released x86 OSX as a paid/subscription model OS without the hardware paywall.
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They used to charge for their OS, it was pennies, I remember getting a free upgrade to Snow Leopard because my recent MBP came with Leopard, then paid £36 for Lion, then £24 for Mountain Lion due to previously paying for the last one, then £12 for Mavericks due to paying before, then came upgrade time again and the App Store told me that I no longer had to pay!
Mental considering you can legit share your install disc/download license with upto 5 people in your household legally at the time... No serial numbers, no BS registration... Nothing. Just ONE version for everyone, and a Server version for those that want it. Simples. Cant beat that.

Never had any stability issues, IIRC my original 2008 unibody MBP was on solidly for something stupid like 384 days when I checked once, never crashed/froze...

Even with hackintoshes, of which I've built since Leopard days, I've never had any issues.

Funnily enough it was hackintoshes that got me to buy a genuine mac years later after being so impressed, as the Unibody chassis/screen/touchpad was WAY ahead of it's time and no one was making laser cut milled billet ally chassis/glass trackpad/screens etc etc... Now everyone does, go figure...

Not an Apple fanboy, but when you make a chassis that good, that can literally run any os without restriction, is fully upgradable like any windows laptop, and is thin ASF for it's time, you can't say no, and it was the same price as my last Dell, the only 'trick' I did was buy the one with the smallest HDD/Ram and buy that seperately... Just like people do with PC's/laptops...

Hackintoshes are so seamlessly easy/stable to setup now thanks to the amazing community and projects such as OpenCore, that even making something that never existed on a mac like a Ryzentosh, is childs play.

So I would happily make a 1 off payment if it was along the old school price range mindset, I did love it when they decided to just give it to people for free when it was bugger all to start with, that was a nice touch. As is the no serial/registration/share it with 5 people/1 version for all/1 for server.
 
If its not subscription based and I don't have to buy a new CPU again to make the most of the OS then I'll buy it but if they go for any sort of subscription model then I am going to linux

( Already been dual booting and getting used to linux just incase #ubuntu )
 
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I already pay for MS 365 family sub, if they bundle the Windows license in and let you carry it across to other machines that would be pretty convenient as I change hardware quite often. Would hesitate to pay any more than £1/month extra for it though.
 
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