Win10 is free.. what part of free don't you understand at this stage?? The article pointed out the the "life of a device" is expected to last from 2 - 4 years meaning that some users will upgrade their PC Etc and have to get a copy of Win10. But that will not apply to existing users of Win10 who still are using the upgrade.
I don't want to get into an disagreement with you BunnyJ. Did you the read Forbes Authors comments in the comment section? He still stands by what he said. I always though of Forbes as a reliable source. The underline is the authors response to the commentator's statement that is italicized. I quoted it below for you.
Keep in Mind I didn't say I agree with the article totally here is what I said in My first post
I think people are reading too much into the PowerPoint slides and nothing has really changed: you get to upgrade to Windows 10 for free (which is unpresented), you get feature updates for free up to 4 years (which is actually 1 year more than usual) and after that you have to pay for the new features (equivalent of buying the new Windows version) but you continue to get security updates (i.e. the usual extended support) if you don’t and past 2026 you can hold on to it unsupported just like many do with XP.
I like this angle and it would be nice to think it responds specifically only to features and everyone gets it for four years but the reality is this covers ‘upgrades’ – a deliberately vague term – and defining by ‘customer type’ means it is very likely we’re talking 2 years for Home users and 4 years for Pro users. With 3 weeks to go before release the fact so much of this remains up in the air is no longer defensible.
There are some parts of the Forbes article I agree with and other parts I don't
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 itUltimately thecompanyauthor of this article is either playing us or its naivety is now bordering on idiotic
Quote
