Microsoft Official Confirms “Windows 10 Is the Last Version of Windows

Apple, Google, Microsoft: Where does the money come from? | ZDNet

Above link shows revenue sources for Apple, Google, and Microsoft as of about a year ago.

Apple: over half from iPhone alone; hardware total about 91%. They have enough cash in the bank to buy Intel or Citigroup outright--circa 190 billion.

Market capitalization as of 5/7/15: Apple 722 billion; Microsoft 378 billion, with only Exxon between them.

Google: advertising revenue over 90%. Market capitalization 362 billion.

Microsoft: 55% corporate and enterprise, 45% consumer/small business

The 55 is split into 47 for commercial licensing (Windows Server products, Volume Licensing editions of Windows, and Office for business) and 8 (and rapidly growing; enterprise services, notably Windows Azure and the commercial editions of Office 365).

The 45 is split into 23 for consumer licensing (OEM Windows licensing, Office for home and small business users, and Windows Phone), 14 for consumer hardware (Xbox hardware, Xbox Live subscriptions, Surface products, and PC accessories such as mice and keyboards), and 8 consumer other (Windows and Windows Phone online stores, brick-and-mortar Microsoft Stores, Xbox games and services, online advertising (mostly from Bing), and Office 365 Home Premium subscriptions).

So, licensing is 70% of all MS revenue--as of a year ago, with only 1/3 of that to small business and home users.

Hi there.

The trouble with a "Continuous update" process is that after a while how do you INSTALL the OS plus all its updates if you say buy a new computer / build a mobo etc --or want to clean install your OS again after say upgrading HDD's or other components.

If you don't at least release a sort of "Service pack" every so often it becomes almost impossible to re-install the OS and apply all the updates.

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hi there.

The trouble with a "Continuous update" process is that after a while how do you INSTALL the OS plus all its updates if you say buy a new computer / build a mobo etc --or want to clean install your OS again after say upgrading HDD's or other components.

If you don't at least release a sort of "Service pack" every so often it becomes almost impossible to re-install the OS and apply all the updates.

Cheers
jimbo

Good point.

Thanks guys for all your good thoughts. I guess the consensus is that MS is not going broke in the near future. What I am afraid though is that we get blessed with more advertising. That would not be good. I stopped watching TV in the US because I cannot stand those stupid commercials. I only hope that this stuff is not going to be propagated to the PC.

whs said:

Thanks guys for all your good thoughts. I guess the consensus is that MS is not going broke in the near future. What I am afraid though is that we get blessed with more advertising. That would not be good. I stopped watching TV in the US because I cannot stand those stupid commercials. I only hope that this stuff is not going to be propagated to the PC.

If MS decides to keep Windows 10 free I do see ads in the future. If given a choice between paying for Windows 10 or being free but with ads, I'll choose paying.

whs said:

Thanks guys for all your good thoughts. I guess the consensus is that MS is not going broke in the near future. What I am afraid though is that we get blessed with more advertising. That would not be good. I stopped watching TV in the US because I cannot stand those stupid commercials. I only hope that this stuff is not going to be propagated to the PC.

to watching TV in the US. . .big bummer. . .:)

jisr7 said:

My question (maybe silly): How big that iso would be to fit in a DVD RW/R.

The Windows installation ISOs usually fit on a DVD - they are less than 4GB.