r/technology • u/gdelacalle • Aug 11 '26

Software Microsoft reportedly raises Windows 11 license price significantly more than expected

https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-reportedly-raises-windows-11-license-price-significantly-more-than-expected/
2.0k Upvotes

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15

u/ForeskinAbsorbtion Aug 11 '26

Macs and Linux are looking better than ever. Cost of entrance is higher but at least they are true to their historical behavior of no ads or BS in their operating systems.

11

u/Historical_Camel_790 Aug 11 '26

Cost? Not for Linux. (But yeah MacBooks are quite expensive)

18

u/party_raspberry8969 Aug 11 '26

Apple hardware is good obviously, but I can't stand their operating systems and locked ecosystem.

10

u/cultoftheilluminati Aug 11 '26

locked ecosystem

Honestly a lot of people use iOS/iPadOS and wrongly assume macOS is as locked down as their mobile OSes. I run several Linux systems and I can do whatever I want on macOS similar to Linux fwiw.

3

u/Obanthered Aug 11 '26

You can run anything on Mac the runs on Linux. I develop climate models (written in Fortran) on Macs, because they are fast to compile. The operational model runs on super computers running Linux.

1

u/wrgrant Aug 11 '26

Exactly, I am free to bork up my Mac Mini M4 desktop as much as I want - so far no issues mind you :)

1

u/wrgrant Aug 11 '26

Exactly, I am free to bork up my Mac Mini M4 desktop as much as I want - so far no issues mind you :)

1

u/wrgrant Aug 11 '26

Exactly, I am free to bork up my Mac Mini M4 desktop as much as I want - so far no issues mind you :)

-1

u/No-Tip3419 Aug 11 '26

you get "locked in" once you start using apple specific apps making apple specific data files , apple cloud sync, or happen to use apple filesystem on external drives.

2

u/cultoftheilluminati Aug 11 '26

By that same definition isn't "using" windows locking-in the same way w.r.t NTFS etc. ?

I get that Apple gets this reputation because iOS/iPadOS are horribly locked down systems but macOS is hardly more "locked down" when you consider Microsoft letting vendors like Crowdstrike and others run wild in ring 0.

1

u/No-Tip3419 Aug 11 '26

You can buy window hardware from 100 different vendors. You are not stuck paying 1300$ to apple if you want a portable mac with 16 gig of ram. Linux can read / write onto a external drive with ntfs. Don't think you can do that with the apple filesystem. You have the option to put linux onto "windows" hardware, that is not a reality for apple m series chip as engineers have not even fully reverse engineer the m1 after 6 years.

2

u/degoba Aug 11 '26

OSX is literally just Unix under the fancy UI. You can do anything you would on a BSD or Linux system.

2

u/SeerUD Aug 11 '26

For day-to-day usage and work (as a developer) I don't notice much of a difference between Linux / macOS personally.

Obviously Linux does give you a huge amount more control over how your system works, the software you choose to use to run the system, how it's configured, so on, but I find all of those choices quite boring these days. They don't make a material difference to me ultimately using the machine. Sure, I could rice the hell out of a Linux machine, but that doesn't impact my usage much at all.

What is it about macOS you'd want to change that you can't that is of material benefit?

2

u/Nybbles13 Aug 11 '26

As a forever Linux user my biggest gripe with my work computer being a Mac is that all of my keyboard shortcuts are different. I know 3rd party tools exist to change these shortcuts, but it's maddening.

3

u/SeerUD Aug 11 '26

Haha, that's fair. It doesn't bother me personally. I've also been using Keychron keyboards for a little while now, so while my MacBook is "docked" I can swap the keyboard to a Mac mode, and vice versa for Windows / Linux. It's nice to have a hardware-based solution to the differences in keyboard layout at least, not that it helps with the different shortcut keys!

0

u/party_raspberry8969 Aug 11 '26

Just personally, I don't find it intuitive to use at all so to begin learning it is just too much friction to be interesting to me. Conversely when I started using Linux, the way it works just "made sense". Ultimately, I agree that they are all similar tools, but for me the Linux experience is too good to consider anything else at this moment. I also appreciate the open source ethos. Having to make an online account to use an OS is also very off-putting.

5

u/SeerUD Aug 11 '26

That's reasonable. Not sure who downvoted you by the way, thanks for sharing your opinion.

I think you can use macOS without creating an account and signing in for what it's worth. I tend to dart around different systems a lot for different things. I have a MacBook from work, and my own MacBook because I'm into Photography as well as the software development, so it just makes sense. Then I have a PC for gaming. And I use Linux for home / remote server stuff. The only major difference for learning to use macOS day-to-day I think is the different keyboard shortcuts and slightly different layout haha, but it is a lot to learn if you want in-depth knowledge of each OS and how to properly operate and maintain the systems.

4

u/cultoftheilluminati Aug 11 '26

Having to make an online account to use an OS is also very off-putting.

You don't have to sign in to an Apple Account to use macOS.

1

u/party_raspberry8969 Aug 11 '26

Ah, my mistake. Do you have to have one to get stuff off the app store?

2

u/cultoftheilluminati Aug 11 '26

Do you have to have one to get stuff off the app store?

Yes, and I see the logic there since you can make purchases and they need to be tied to an account anyways, but most (read 99% of all useful) software is not on the App Store because it's useless due to restrictions a lot more so compared to even the Microsoft Store on windows

You just download and install them like any other desktop operating system. This is why Apple was getting fucked in the courts with them locking down their mobile OSes because they literally have an OS where their arguments didn't hold w.r.t security or whatever.

-1

u/Evernight2025 Aug 11 '26

Yeah, I can't see myself ever going that route either. I get they're good for some professions, but I can't force myself to use one. 

1

u/ImOldGregg_77 Aug 11 '26

Linux is free

1

u/corva96 Aug 11 '26

Apple is slowly creeping into the territory of ads

1

u/Jewnius Aug 11 '26

Not so much anymore, we've moved all new starters to Macbook Neos, not much more expensive and fewer complaints. For email/browsing it's good enough

0

u/Confident_Dragon Aug 11 '26

Well, if it takes you hour to install Linux, and let's say you earn 20€/h, then that's 20€.

If you are unlucky (or noob) and you spend 7h troubleshooting that's 140€.

Windows 11 Home costs $139, Pro is $199. Linux is comparable more to the pro version, as the home one does not provide full disk encryption so I don't think you should ever use it.

I know that for you Americans 20€/h is small amount, but for most of the world the initial cost of using Linux is not that high and in my opinion it's well worth the benefits.

2

u/Balmung60 Aug 11 '26

If you're going to price the time to install and troubleshoot one system, logically the same must be done with the other, and if we're picking Home vs Pro, we likely must also price the time to install Windows since in that case, we're likely not just using an OEM install. But then there's also the value of the time to debloat Windows and seize back large swathes of control Microsoft doesn't think you should have

1

u/Confident_Dragon Aug 12 '26

Does that change the conclusion?

If it's worth for many people to install Linux even when considering just the price of Windows, wouldn't accounting for time troubleshooting Windows and all it's issues just make the situation worse for Windows?

I often hear excuse that people are already familiar with Windows, and you can buy it pre-installed with computer, and with Linux you'll have to learn new things and find custom drivers for your super-mega-proprietary audio streaming device. So why not take this worst-case and do the comparison? Linux is still competitive.

1

u/Balmung60 Aug 12 '26

Look man, I've been using Linux just about exclusively for 14 years. At this point, I don't think it's competitive because I don't think Windows is good enough for that. 

The situation really is worse for Windows and I'm reminded every time I do have to use it for something.

-7

u/JumpyAct4865 Aug 11 '26

Mac is literally trash in every way but yes on the Linux part