Windows 10: Free Windows 10 Now Looks A Terrible Deal

The author is making it vague.. when it's not.

 

Wow...What a Y10K scenario...*chuckle

 

This is the situation. MS is a US Company, and there are certain accounting rules that they must adhere to. The guidelines are contained in FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board). The particular rule, discussed here, says that they must account for the income generated due to Windows 10, in the way that has been presented. They cannot report the income all at once, it must be reported over a certain number of years. The 2 and 4 years, at this point, is an assumption that MS has made so that they could account for their income using a method that conforms to FASB.
I cannot say what MS will actually do, but they have not given any hints based upon the article that is under discussion.
We just have to wait. MS, a major Corp, must first come up with an idea, get approval by lawyers and then the public relations people must determine the best way to present it.

 

The For's MS will shout rubbish, the against M$ will shout broken promise
the evil empire strikes again.
BUT
This is a pure business model problem/strategy.
I do not know what will happen two years down the line.
I am quite sure MS do not know all the answers yet.

They are changing their model seeking revenue from
- phones and tablets
- store sales
- advertising push revenue
- even a slice of the credit card revenue with store-wifi
- onedrive charges online usage.
- annual licence fees for office etc.
- Ms accounts plus onedrive will give them unrivalled volumes of data and contacts for analysis.
Hence the original marketing push.

Now the strategists, financial analysts and lawyers are more heavily involved and hence they are now being very careful about what they promise and need to make it slightly vague so it can change.

Look what happened in the UK to politicians who made manifesto promises and reneged on them.
The Libdems were wiped out. Cameron's stance on red-lines for EU exit are changing constantly.
Anybody's guess on Greek exit from the Euro as deadline after deadline is passed.

If revenue fails to materialize the model has to be tweaked or shares fall.

It is entirely up to each individual user to protect their own investment.
Don't upgrade, stay with the insider program or go with the flow and if later down the line you feel you are being ripped off revert to your own back-up model (you have one of course)
In my case I can get back to Xp, Vista(Never!), 7 or 8.1 with limited hassle.

 

Possibly the biggest PoS article I've read on W10 yet, utter scaremongering bollocks. So is this thread.

 

richc46

I think you are right on (I am not saying that because you are a mod). I think we know each other from a previous forum or even newsgroups that we use to be on.

I think Forbes should of waited for more information before publishing an article by that just my opinion. A lot of people respect Forbes, unless something has changed that I am not aware of. What I think the reason that Forbes posted the article is so they could push Microsoft to open up faster, but I don't know if that will work and again that is my opinion.

 

A quote from the article

I fixed it

 

Waited for what information? The bollocks he's written was disproved months ago.

 

Here's a different article, posted well over a week ago, that says things different.

With the transition to Windows as a service, Microsoft changes up revenue recognition

 

My understanding is that Windows 7 has 5 more years of support, or more.

Windows lifecycle fact sheet - Windows Help

 

@Gary

I can't see Microsoft ending support for windows 10 before they end support for 7 or 8.1 that wouldn't be logical.

I already posted somewhere, that I am waiting on what Microsoft say's is the lifecycle of a device is. That doesn't mean I won't continue to use windows 10. It doesn't matter, since someone gave me a windows 7 retail version. I can now run both windows 7 & windows 10, and Xubuntu on a triple boot system.

 

No since Windows 10 is the last OS they are going to release it will be interesting to even know what it's life cycle will be. It will have to be based on Build Numbers I suppose. I also have a retail Windows 7 and I plan on making at least one clone of it. I also intend to keep using Windows 10.

 

Not the last OS, just last with Windows monicker... *Wink

 

Exactly. However, the shelf life hasn't been determined, either. I'm on the fence so far, I like W10... and plan to run it on opening day, but nowhere yet have a seen an 'official' EOL on W10, in terms of support from day 1, without considering 'extra' programming, etc.
I think this Forbes article has brought into public some unanswered questions, as I do not always upgrade my PC every 2-3 years, and would like to know when I will no longer get any basic OS support, in the form of patches/fixes/upgrades.
I just built this brand new, 100% machine (PC) 2 months ago, and I think possibly like most builders, plan on it lasting 3-5 years or so before any new/major upgrades hardware-wise.
It would just be nice to know answers to some folks' questions,, when they arise, in a transparent mode.

 

I fail to see how there's any confusion.

1. Any valid Windows 10 license will be a permanent license, and will NOT expire after a set period of time.

2. If you currently do not have a valid Windows 7 or 8 license you will have to pay for a Windows 10 license

3. If you have a valid Windows 7 or 8 license that is NOT a volume license, you have until July 29th, 2016 to upgrade to a (permanent) license of Windows 10. After July 29th, 2016 you will have to pay for a Windows 10 license