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Microsoft Extends Free Windows 10 S-To-Pro Upgrade Deadline (betanews.com)
BrianFagioli shares a report from BetaNews: Windows 10 S is a really great idea in theory. By limiting the operating system to applications from the Windows Store, it could make users safer. After all, it should limit the potential of malware since users can't download and install questionable things from the web. Of course, this will only be successful if there is a good library of apps, and I am sorry to say, the Windows Store is a failure in that regard. The biggest selling point for Windows is legacy program compatibility. Once you take that away, there isn't much left. Thankfully, the company is giving complimentary upgrades from Windows 10 S to Windows 10 Pro until the end of 2017. This will allow a person or organization to easily recover from mistakenly buying into Windows 10 S if it doesn't meet their needs. Today, however, as a sign of weakness, Microsoft extends this deadline. Buried at the end of a blog post about Surface Laptop colors, Microsoft drops the following bombshell: "For those that find they need an application that isn't yet available in the Store and must be installed from another source, we're extending the ability to switch from Windows 10 S to Windows 10 Pro for free until March 31, 2018. We hope this provides increased flexibility for those people searching for the perfect back-to-school or holiday gift." Why do I say this is a sign of weakness? Well, if the Windows 10 S experiment was going well, Microsoft would have no need to extend the deadline. In other words, if users were truly buying into and enjoying the "S" experience, we wouldn't see such an announcement. The fact that the company seemingly tried to hide this news is quite telling too. Ultimately, it signals a lack of confidence in Windows 10 S.
The same reason Windows RT failed. People buy Windows for the large application install base. Even not being able to run Chrome and be forced to use Edge is enough to not use Windows 10 S.
No, actually I say they really should look back at rolling back to the Windows 7 OS, at least in terms of over all function. Pretty much every single major change to the OS has been met with heavy resistance and little adoption. Few people like the new metro interface to the point entire new 3rd party shells are a bigger seller than most of the apps on the Windows store itself.
Let's try a real experiment, Microsofties.
You offer Win10 Enterprise under Win7's upgrade model: All telemtery can be disabled by the Administrator, every update can be selectively accepted and/or rejected at the discretion of the Administrator. And every update is fully documented as it was 5 years ago. Consumer-tier crap like Cortana and the app store can be opted out of by GPO as configurable by the Administrator. Single licenses of this Win10 Experimental can be purchased for around $200 without the involvement of a VAR.
You wanna see what the consumer adoption of that would be? Or is Nadella still a fucking coward who refuses to sell users the right to control their own hardware?