What will be the Windows equivalent to “drink verification can?”

So there is already a thing with Windows 11 where you can, as part of a Microsoft 365 subscription, upgrade your Windows 11 machine from Pro to Enterprise.

The idea of having the base OS be a subscription is really just a stones throw away.

… but the Pro -> Ent activation process is really a PITA and often randomly PC’s will revert back to Pro after they’ve been ugpraded, so I guess we’ll have fun with that.

They’re seemingly making windows less and less enterprise friendly. Which I thought was their bread and butter. It’s crazy since they’re not even competing with other OS on a price level. Linux is free and MacOS is free but with hardware. It’s like MS is purposely tanking Windows I don’t get it.

I’m looking forward to the Year of the Linux desktop ™️

I have been using computers since before there was an internet. I have used DOS and now Windows 10. Is there a good place to learn about Linux with a GUI and which one I should purchase? I’m so tired of M$.

Edit: I am primarily a PC gamer that uses Steam and this is what has kept me from using another OS in the past.

I don’t believe for one bit that windows will move to a pure subscription based model. They are greedy, but not stupid.

What’s more believable is that the base OS will be the same as usual, but if you want fancy AI assistants in your OS, you must subscribe, with the justification being that MS must pay for the servers running the models you’re using.

I actually rather like win 10. Win 11 I’m holding off on until they fix the taskbar.

If they go subscription, I go Ubuntu.

Bahahaha okay. Linux here we come!

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It’s Linux time then.

I hardly think MS is going this route. It maybe for AI stuff they are pushing in the OS and not the OS itself

We need to support true open hardware or less ACPI-WIndows first one. MS can do whatever they want with their OS BUT it should not mess with hardware.

I expected Framework to be a FOSS first laptop but eventually, it just became a wintel derivative.

They are doing the same with Windows that they did with Office. Win12 will come as either one time purchase or subscription based but over the course of 10 years they’ll push harder and harder on getting people into the subscription version. Once it has enough uptake, and it will get there, they will then start pushing the “Why run it on local hardware when you can put it in our cloud and access it from anywhere?”.

They’re already doing the Virtual Desktop thing in both M365 and Azure now so it’ll be a pretty easy transition when comes.

Wondering how will F2P games with anti-cheat react to the news. Knowing that much of their player base may jump ship to Linux to avoid the subscription fees, will they relent and start using less invasive anti-cheat programs, or will they try to adapt specific versions of Wine / Proton to work in rooted mode?

I would happily subscribe to an operating system for a fair price, as long as it’s stable, compatible, has timely security updates and - and I highly doubt MS will do this one - without any bloat-, nag- or crapware. Make your default browser a browser, not a spying shopping coupon Bing AI mess. Let me choose the search engine the start menu uses (or use none at all), stop telling me to sign into OneDrive every chance you get, fuck off with your widgets, etc.

If I pay, you have no business trying to fuck me over, Microsoft.