Microsoft May Have Price Increases in Store For Windows 10 Pro Workstation, Win 10 Downgrade Customers (zdnet.com)

Mary Jo Foley, reporting for ZDNet: Microsoft soon will be adding a new edition of Windows 10 to its lineup. That edition, Windows 10 Pro for Workstations, may include more than just a new name and feature set. It also may come with a change to the way Microsoft licenses and prices Windows 10 for its PC maker partners -- who potentially could pass on these changes to end-user customers. I've heard from a couple of customers recently who've been contacted by different OEMs about the coming changes. One said that Microsoft will begin licensing the Windows 10 Desktop operating system by processor family, and all PCs sold with Intel Xeon workstation processors will be affected by this change. One customer said he was told there could be a price increase of roughly $70 per operating system for use on systems with processors with four or fewer cores. For machines with Xeon processors with more than four cores, there could be a price increase of roughly $230 per operating system, I was told. Windows 10 Pro for Workstations is going to be available around the time Windows 10 Fall Creators Update starts rolling out, which is October 17.

Comments

Makes sense

[rsilvergun]

we've got multiple administrations around the world that are either too weak to enforce anti-trust or simply don't believe in it. Now's the time to put the screws on.

Re:Makes sense

[ckatko]

I strongly believe that our nation's justice departments and congress have completely collapsed. (Read: regulatory capture)

When Enron collapsed, love or hate him, Bush Jr.'s DOJ threw their management in jail. They didn't care about effects on "the economy" or "jobs" or anything. They tossed those sum-bitches in jail.

Meanwhile, GM makes cars that kill teenagers, nothing happens. Wall Street single-handedly PUTS US INTO A RECESSION (that could have become a full on depression) and none of them go to jail. Thanks, Eric Holder! Speaking of Holder, his department SENDS GUNS TO MEXICAN DRUG DEALERS that we know for a fact were used to murder a US border agent (and possibly countless Mexicans) and NO ONE GOES TO JAIL.

Forget "cops being above the law", you want to be above the law, just pay the $49 fee to incorporate. No need to spend time getting in shape and going through the academy.

Meh

[Anonymous Coward]

The intended audience of this seems like a footnote compared to overall users. The major changes, other than the sensionalist title, are support for 4 Processors, support for up to 6TB RAM, ReFS enabled by default, and and Direct SMB support.

We are talking about extremely high machines in what is most likely a fairly niche environment. If that is the case then a $70 surcharge for that OS seems reasonable given the cost of one of those computers.

The rest of us? Likely unaffected.

Re:Meh

[loonycyborg]

People who buy high core count processors have more spare money. That's the only justification possible or needed.

Re:Meh

[zlives]

its justified same way as a hot dog cost 10 dollars at a stadium...

Price discrimination for bug fixes

[tepples]

Can you explain why [a surcharge for an extremely high-end workstation is] justified?

High core counts expose bugs and inefficient algorithms that might be expensive to fix, such as process destruction being serialized. Price discrimination based on core count applies the benefit principle to the Windows tax, allowing those affected by a particular defect associated with high core counts to foot the bill for its correction.