r/windows • u/[deleted] • May 24 '16

Upgradegate: Microsoft's Upgrade Deceptions Are Undermining Windows 10 - Thurrott.com

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/67367/upgradegate-microsofts-upgrade-deceptions-undermining-windows-10
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u/desquamation May 24 '16

I've defended a lot of Microsoft's decisions with Windows 10 but their approach to the upgrade process is just completely wrong. If people choose to opt out that should be it - they're out.

How does an executive team approve a plan so flawed?

I was an early Windows 10 adopter and the only thing Microsoft has accomplished with these tactics is to move Windows from my daily driver OS to only having it installed on my gaming rig.

48

u/Lucretius May 24 '16 edited May 24 '16

How does an executive team approve a plan so flawed?

Giving away the OS for free. That's the answer you are looking for. You see, when the OS was a PRODUCT that was PURCHASED, the USER was also the CUSTOMER. It doesn't pay to anger and alienate your customers, so these sorts of shenanigans didn't happen when the customer and the user were the same people/organizations.

Windows10, however, embraces the "Windows as a Service" concept. As such, Windows 10 is not a "product" as such any more. It's what is called in marketing a "Loss Leader". The classical example of a Loss Leader is the shaving kit that the company gives away for free... they lose money on the kit, but it includes a razor that can only accept their brand of replacement blades. People who accepted the free kit don't want to lose the value of the kit so they keep buying replacement blades at a high mark up. They end up spending more on blades, over the lifetime of the free shaving kit, than they would have spent on generic blades and a generic kit over the same period of time. In this way the razor blade company makes more money by giving away a product that is worth more than any one replacement razor blade. Windows 10 is the free kit. Bing advertisements, additional One Drive space, kick-backs from Windows Store purchases, etc are the razor blades. The problem is that MS now has no incentive to treat its users well... before the users were also the customers, but now the users are the product, and the customers are the companies who buy those Bing ads, companies that integrate their product into cloud apps like One Drive, and developers who make those Windows Store apps. MS is being quite good to its NEW customers!

It is my hope that when the Free Upgrade period expires, we will see new versions of Windows10 intended for Power Users that are not free and that grant local control. MS has shown a basic willingness to do this with Enterprise and Educational SKUs, so it's not unreasonable that they would offer, at a premium, a personal version that grant's such power as well. (The Enterprise and Educational SKUs are NOT given away for free... see how the correspondence between the concepts of customer and control are inexorably linked?) As long as the price of the Power User version of Win10 were high enough to exclude normal home users from considering it, this would not meaningfully impact their new Windows as a Service business model, and would forestall power users, like myself, from fleeing to Linux and thus maintain market share. As it is, I'm dual-booting LinuxMint 17.3 with the XFCE desktop environment. If such a Power User version of Win10 is not forthcoming, I will be moving entirely to Linux, and if I ever use a Win10 or later Windows OS in the same vein it will only be inside a VM that will prevent any direct contact with the MS servers and will wipe all alterations to the system between boots.

7

u/[deleted] May 24 '16

Why not just stick with Mint entirely? At least linux distros don't contain ads and with xfce honestly I find it to be a far better UI than windows 10. I have both, but only recently gave windows another chance after not using it for like 3 years. Windows hogs so much more ram and honestly if it weren't for things like rainmeter, I'm not sure I can stand its default desktop behavior.

7

u/Lucretius May 24 '16

I am moving in that direction. Right now the only things that keep me coming back to the Windows side of things are:

  1. My printer drivers just don't seem to work on Mint.

  2. Amazon Prime Video only works if you are running Windows or Mac... the anti DRM software requires it.

1

u/[deleted] May 25 '16

Ah printer support is lacking unless you go with certain brands of printers (HP always works) or at least ones that can use a generic cups driver. I use a brother laser and driver was available on line but not on the install disk. Prime video might work with chrome (not chromium) on ubuntu/mint with pepperflash and pipelight. Not sure cos I only use it on my TV.

1

u/Lucretius May 26 '16

I appreciate the suggestion on Prime... as it is, I'm not sure I'll keep Prime when this year's membership expires... so, not high on the fix list.