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Microsoft Will Sell Office, Windows as a Bundle (axios.com)

Posted by msmash on from the convergence dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft announced plans on Monday to start offering Windows 10 and Office together in a single subscription service. Microsoft 365, as the service is known, will also include security and management tools and come in two flavors: one for large enterprises and the other for small-to-medium businesses. The company didn't say how much it will charge for either version of the service.

11 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. Not just no. by Chas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    HELL FUCKING NO!

    I am NOT going to rent my OS from Microsoft. Not now. Not EVER.

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
    1. Re:Not just no. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      One too many cups of coffee this morning?

    2. Re:Not just no. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      look at that low sid
      he's a grognar that probably still writes in perl and doesn't have anything on his gnu/linux system that isn't 100% free
      shake that cane at the times, pops

    3. Re:Not just no. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Linux users: the vegans of the computing world.

    4. Re:Not just no. by thegreatbob · · Score: 5, Funny

      They can, but how far and how long depends on a number of factors.

      --
      There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
    5. Re:Not just no. by Chas · · Score: 5, Interesting

      However I am not paying month-to-month for it...

      The difference is simple, but profound.

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    6. Re:Not just no. by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hey there Bob, nice computer you have there, running our Windows 10. Would be a shame if something.. happened to it, now wouldn't it? Oh by the way we're doubling our subscription fee starting next month, just so you know..

      ..or did that scenario not occur to you? How would it make you feel, if your computer refused to boot one day, instead displaying a message from Miscreant-o-soft, demanding additional payments from you? Pretty shitty, I'd hope. That's what we're fighting against, at all costs. Personally if it was a choice between Miscreant-o-soft and no computer at all, I'd go with no computer. Luckily there's myriad flavors of Linux out there so there's still choice. Otherwise Microsoft is leaning in the direction of not being much better than ransomware authors.

  2. Makes things simpler by amalcolm · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nice ... now I only have one bundle to avoid buying

    --
    Time for bed, said Zebedee - boing
  3. Re:I still use Office 2010 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    if you find a pattern that libreoffice is failing to catch, please submit a bug report with as much detail as possible. You too can be a valuable contributor to libreOffice. In fact, I don't think we have any native speakers on the team, so support will only come with help from you and people like you.

  4. Why the least informative link? by ET3D · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's the announcement at Microsoft. It's for enterprises only, and I think MS previously offered Windows as a sub for them, so bundling Office makes sense.

  5. That does it for one-off licensing... by ErichTheRed · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I guess it's been coming for a while. From their perspective it makes total sense - keep everyone on a single version of Windows and Office, force all the consumer users to accept every OS and application update, etc. The average consumer is used to the subscription model now - many are on Office 365 and almost everyone pays for their mobile phone every month. I can't say I'm too happy about the idea of having to rent the operating system as well as the office software running on top of it, but hopefully they'll realize they can't trap everyone in that cycle.

    This seems to be the ultimate desired state -- collect revenue on a permanent basis little by little, rather than rely on enterprise agreements and one-off software purchases. It's going to be a big shift though, Windows client licenses have been sold to OEMs for ages, and buying a new computer means it comes pre-licensed for the life of the machine. Windows Server licenses have been either one-off purchases or covered under much bigger enterprise agreements. If you shift to a monthly fee, who pays it, and what happens if you don't pay?

    Being in the IT industry for a while gives an interesting perspective...this is officially the point where we start swinging back toward an IBM mainframe style model. IBM still rakes in massive amounts of money by selling companies a mainframe, keeping it fed with parts and software, and charging monthly for the use of computing power. They used to be pretty much the only game in town, and the PC/x86 ecosystem was the break from that. Microsoft's got this going on the Azure side, and now will have another revenue stream on the device side, so we're back to central control of everything. I guess it makes sense because consumers are used to locked-down phones. But, I wonder if as PCs become a niche product for doing actual work rather than consuming entertainment, how many businesses will be happy with having to buy the same software over and over for eternity?