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Microsoft Is Readying a Consumer Microsoft 365 Subscription Bundle (zdnet.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the consumer-focused dept.

Microsoft is working on a new "Microsoft 365 Consumer" bundle that "will be the consumer-focused complement to Microsoft's existing Microsoft 365 subscription bundle for business users," reports ZDNet. From the report: A couple of recent Microsoft job postings mention the consumer subscription bundle, which Microsoft has yet to announce publicly. One job posting for a Product Manager for the "M365 Consumer Subscription" notes: "The Subscription Product Marketing team is a new team being created to build and scale the Microsoft 365 Consumer Subscription." The job description says the product manager for this service will help "identify, build, position and market a great new Microsoft 365 Consumer Subscription."

The job post notes that the team behind Microsoft 365 Consumer oversees the Windows platform, the Microsoft Surface device portfolio, Office 365 consumer plans, Skype, Cortana, Bing search, as well as the Microsoft Education team. If I were betting on what Microsoft 365 Consumer might include, I'd think some variant of Windows 10, Office 365 Home, Skype, Cortana, Bing, Outlook Mobile, Microsoft To-Do and maybe MSN apps and services could figure into the picture. Maybe this subscription will be tied to Surface devices only? Maybe a monthly leasing fee for Surfaces will be part of the bundle itself?

92 comments

  1. Office is dead! by Darkling-MHCN · · Score: 1

    Long live office!

    1. Re:Office is dead! by JMJimmy · · Score: 2

      I can't get away from Microsoft fast enough

    2. Re:Office is dead! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also for all of the naive, stupid, short-sighted fanbois who said Windows 10 would never become subscription based:

      Told you so.

    3. Re:Office is dead! by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Especially if they're pushing subscription software.

      I don't "subscribe" to software. No apologies. Sell it to me, or get stuffed.

    4. Re:Office is dead! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep, on our office only the Outlook and Powerpoint are still in use. I have not opened Word this year at all. Ever since MS started screwing around the UI, people just could not use the applications anymore and moved to alternatives. Now most of the documentation is in wiki pages on intranet, instead of in word documents.

      Their push of network shares to some sharepoint/teams/onedrive and whatever sped up the transformation also, as currently the document files just can't be found anymore after they are saved once. Now the only way to find a document is to have link to it in a mail in outlook as search tools are useless in sharepoint.

      All this transformation has happened because MS has itself made their software impossible to use. Office was not perfect, but it was intuitive and had features people used and needed. Now it is just a unusable piece of spyware, which is converted from work tool people paid for to MS own marketing tool.

    5. Re:Office is dead! by Uber+Banker · · Score: 1

      I'm curious what you're using as alternatives?

      You mentioned Outlook and not Exchange, and didn't mention Excel, so I'm imagining not a corporate set-up?

    6. Re:Office is dead! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't "buy" sw. Give it to me, or get stuffed.

      And office is too low quality. Can't work with that, especially not "word".

  2. Yes please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    LibreOffice just isn't cutting it for me here at home. Please load up my machine with something that sends telemetry remote servers and throw in some advertising too if it's not too much trouble. Oh and send me a bill every month. Thanks!

  3. Sign me up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can't wait to pay rent on the same software I used to only buy once! Except now with more spying, er, "telemetry".

    Adobe and Microsoft are doing a better job advocating for free software than the FSF these days.

  4. End of personal computing by 110010001000 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Corporations REALLY want to move everyone to a monthly rental model in order to satisfy their CFOs need for predictable quarterly income. This is really the end of personal computing since it will all be tied to the cloud and the Internet. Eventually ISPs will require your device to be one of the approved rental model systems in order to connect to the Internet at all.

    1. Re:End of personal computing by olsmeister · · Score: 1

      People will be 'cutting the cord' on their computers just like they are today with their television if it gets too bad.

    2. Re:End of personal computing by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      Everything old is new again. Paternalistic corporate thieves like Satan Nerdella want us to go back to the "dumb terminal" era, 1970s style.

    3. Re:End of personal computing by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      This is really the end of personal computing since it will all be tied to the cloud and the Internet.

      Unlikely. What you are forgetting is that every action has a consequence. I find it far more likely that this is going to really increase support for alternatives like LibreOffice.

      Eventually ISPs will require your device to be one of the approved rental model systems in order to connect to the Internet at all.

      You sound like my brother, a real cynic who thinks all people will accept any awful condition. For some people it's true but there are enough people fighting such blatantly evil corporate bullshit that such a thing would never succeed.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    4. Re:End of personal computing by ctilsie242 · · Score: 3, Informative

      This is already happening. Look at your DOCSIS modem. For most ISPs, it has to be on an approved list, and they flash their firmware onto the device, even if is owned by you. I wouldn't be surprised to see "AV" software forced into all Internet connected devices, which scanned for pirated stuff and unlicensed movies, under the guide of "anti-terrorism".

      The thing about the business love affair for monthly stuff is twofold:

      1: Shareholders will sue if stuff gets charged off for other expenses, so companies have to minimize CAPEX costs (payroll, equipment, etc), and move to OPEX, so they can keep the same numbers as the previous quarter. Moving to the cloud means that they don't have to worry about having to buy new stuff every 3-5 years and lose profits. Even if a company does a "forklift", which costs them almost an order of magnitude more, because it is a monthly cost, and the trendy thing, they get a free pass. Plus, it allows for people (rackers/stackers, OS/Ops people, etc.) to be laid off, making them look better on Wall Street.

      2: Businesses who sell stuff love monthly subscriptions. Companies highly feared lock-in with mainframes, but they are embracing a technology where they -have- to pay no matter what, or else they don't run. To boot, there is no real way to effectively port in or out of the cloud without major internal redesigns, and those can be impossible.

      The good thing is that this has been moving people to open source software. For example, password programs like 1Password and mSecure require monthly commitments, whether or not you use their cloud offering, when in previous versions, you just bought the app and stored the databases yourself. Now, people move to KeePass and other F/OSS software, just because they are tired of the greed involved. Some companies even run completely on Linux now, desktop, directory, and all. When some company demands a SAM audit for a Microsoft true-up, they can laugh in the person's face, since nothing MS goes in the door, and machines are sent from the factory with no OS on them.

    5. Re: End of personal computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SAAS = Software As A Service.

      Software development is so fast paced that it no longer makes sense to purchase a specific version. As long as you subscribe, you get version X. And it's about break even when you factor in amortization.

    6. Re:End of personal computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh just stop with the overreacting. Any insightful points you could be making get drowned out when you start with the "end-of-the-world" extremism.

      Unless someone finds a way to prevent Linux from being downloaded and running on something a person can get a hold of (even if it's just a Raspberry PI), then personal computing will never end. Hell if personal computing diminishes (not dies) it's going to be due to people not wanting to use traditional computers anymore and instead preferring to do most of their tasks on their mobiles.

      What is it with Slashdotters being so ruled by their emotions and not able to calm down and think rationally...

    7. Re:End of personal computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I find it far more likely that this is going to really increase support for alternatives like LibreOffice.

      Get back to us when Liar Office's grammar check flags the phrase "This here grammar check don't work none." Every single word processor outside of the Star Office forks flags it.

    8. Re:End of personal computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Corporations REALLY want to move everyone to a monthly rental model in order to satisfy their CFOs need for predictable quarterly income. This is really the end of personal computing since it will all be tied to the cloud and the Internet. Eventually ISPs will require your device to be one of the approved rental model systems in order to connect to the Internet at all.

      Well it all started with steam and smartphones, once everyone saw smartphone/appstore and the success of steam, wow and league of legends... the urge to lock everything down became uncontrollable.

    9. Re:End of personal computing by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      They will also demand copyright on the content produced on their operating by their software and you not only should pay rent to access them but also copyright fees on the content you created that they most empatically do own, stop paying rent and they instantly deny you access. I can imagine the squeals when they double the rent, which they will do.

      It's not like everyone wasn't warned over a decade ago and most foolishly choose not to listen. Infinite greed, infinite profits and you can bet they will be demanding a percentage of all money spent via their their computer in your home, pay a bill with a credit card, their computer handled the electronic transfer, they are entitled to a percentage of the money, else, you never know all you details might leak and your account emptied.

      Now you have to rent the probe, fell good yet about M$ watching you masturbate.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    10. Re:End of personal computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And, for those who don't know, the 1970's "dumb terminal" was essentially a standalone useless nothing. Keyboard and monitor, minimal boot to a direct mainframe connection. Without a mainframe connection, it was useless as any kind of local machine. GUI subscription mainframe = thin clients plus the Cloud. WYSE and DEC VT320 were common text-only dumb terminals in use. Terminal emulation software includes the lesser DEC VT100 but same idea of text-only with no formal GUI interface to the mainframe connection.

    11. Re:End of personal computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Eventually ISPs will require your device to be one of the approved rental model systems in order to connect to the Internet at all.

      That's how the old Bell telephone monopoly (aka Ma Bell) used to work here in the United States from about 1940 until 1956 and to a lesser extent continuing until 1984. From the wiki article on the Bell System

      "Bell system telephones and related equipment were made by Western Electric, a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Co. Member telephone companies paid a fixed fraction of their revenues as a license fee to Bell Labs...As a result of this vertical monopoly, by 1940 the Bell System effectively owned most telephone service in the United States, from local and long-distance service to the telephones themselves. This allowed Bell to prohibit its customers from connecting phones not made or sold by Bell to the system without paying fees. For example, if a customer desired a type of phone not leased by the local Bell monopoly, he or she had to purchase the phone at cost, give it to the phone company, then pay a 're-wiring' charge and a monthly lease fee in order to use it."

      The government has already squashed that business model once with antitrust actions so it seems unlikely that they would allow local ISP monopolies to bring it back.

    12. Re:End of personal computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can you put that in English please?

    13. Re:End of personal computing by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 2

      Terminal emulation software includes the lesser DEC VT100

      Great, rub it in. When I grew up we could only afford a VT-52, you insensitive clod!

    14. Re: End of personal computing by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 1

      SAAS = Software As A Service.

      Are you sure? In my experience it's been most Shit as as Service.

    15. Re:End of personal computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Luckily there's an anti-dote.

      Yeah, yeah, cue the whiners who will complain about how useless and inferior it is, but the fact is that it's more than good enough, and whining is only a measure of how spoiled you are; after all, people used to make do with a pencil, and there was a time when a VT-100 was considered state-of-the-art. And people got shit done anyway.

      This is actually a pretty clear case of "we have to hang together or we'll all hang separately", because if we do, there's very little the rent seekers can do.

    16. Re:End of personal computing by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      This is really the end of personal computing

      Nope. It's the end of a couple of greedy arsehats.

    17. Re:End of personal computing by Order_66 · · Score: 2

      Take a look at the state of windows software today and compare it to 10 years ago, are the consumers better off today than they were back then?

    18. Re:End of personal computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There was a an exception although I only know about it by reading wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datapoint_2200
      It had a CPU, RAM, storage, I/O and thus "accidentally" worked as a computer as well :)

    19. Re: End of personal computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On he contrary sticking with a particular version makes perfect sense if it does the job you need it to. Nowadays an "Upgrade" is really likely to break/remove basic functionality or ship with a totally mangled GUI because some 10 year old hipster decides it's "kewl".

    20. Re: End of personal computing by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Yes. Vista sucked ass! Windows 10 is much faster, secure, and reliable in comparison

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
    21. Re:End of personal computing by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      This is already happening. Look at your DOCSIS modem. For most ISPs, it has to be on an approved list, and they flash their firmware onto the device, even if is owned by you. I wouldn't be surprised to see "AV" software forced into all Internet connected devices, which scanned for pirated stuff and unlicensed movies, under the guide of "anti-terrorism".

      That'd be fucking stupid given that a consumer bought DOCSIS modem usually doesn't see any traffic that the ISP doesn't see anyway (yes, you can buy DOCSIS/Router bundle devices, I have one myself, but most consumer bought DOCSIS modems are standalone and have to be plugged into a separate router. So the DOCSIS modem has no access to your internal network that anyone outside of your network doesn't already have.)

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    22. Re:End of personal computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your brother is more right than you. Look at our world. I mean really look at it. People in general are clamoring for tighter security, more protection, more rules, and running headlong towards the rental model for all things. The number of times I've been lectured I'm wasting money owning my own vehicles (usually for ten plus years after paying them off) instead of leasing, or owning a home instead of renting is so high I can't even begin to tell you. And there are a LOT of computer users that really, truly and honestly believe that not owning the computer is better because then they can remain utterly clueless about how it works and just get a replacement model when something fails rather than take five minutes to figure out what they did wrong to cause the problem.

      You call him a cynic? Sounds like a realist to me.

    23. Re: End of personal computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The number of times the latest update (which will be auto-required/auto-installed with SAAS) breaks the fuck out of something the second it's installed says you're dead wrong in mission critical situations.

    24. Re:End of personal computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I find it far more likely that this is going to really increase support for alternatives like LibreOffice.

      Get back to us when Liar Office's grammar check flags the phrase "This here grammar check don't work none." Every single word processor outside of the Star Office forks flags it.

      Or you could be a damn adult by studying and improving your personal grammatical ability on your own and quit relying on algorithms (developed by a few authoritarian humans hell-bent on dumbing down language) to tell you how "most" of the audience who you know better than them "will" interpret the meaning of your words.

    25. Re:End of personal computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Corporations REALLY want to move everyone to a monthly rental model in order to satisfy their CFOs need for predictable quarterly income.

      Huh? Dividing the price of sw by the expected amount of months it will last isn't 'predictable'.

      Or go for free sw. Like rental, but cost is 0.

    26. Re: End of personal computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wish I could mod this up. I've found with development mismanagement there's never time to do it right but always time to do it wrong over and over and over and over. THAT is your "fast-paced" development, a rapid series of screw-ups. On the other side of that, the subscription model makes possible a thin list of features that never increase or improve. State of Pennsylvania has fallen, and keeps falling, for that that one...

  5. Fuck this idea... by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 4, Insightful

    'guess I'll be sticking with Windows 7 or some variant of Linux indefinitely if M$ wants to ram a monthly subscription to Win 10 down my raw gullet.

    1. Re:Fuck this idea... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      with shit being pulled like this, and with the whole up-your-ass approach windows 10 has....

      you know damn well that windows 7 will see no extension in support and life cycle like xp did. if they could cut it (and 8.x) off NOW, it would already be dead-and-buried.

      microsoft was right: "windows 10 will be the last windows you ever buy"..

      what they didn't say back then was that the next one would be a rental.

      what they are blind to the facts then and now is, linux is real and is poised take a not-insignificant number of windows 7/8 users away when the time comes. while many (perhaps most, even) of the rest will just say 'fuck microsoft' and stick with their phones and tablets or get a chromebook.

    2. Re:Fuck this idea... by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 0

      I dunno, you have withstood a lot of abuse to stay on Windows this long, so I don't foresee you switching to Linux. You clearly like the abuse more than freedom of choice.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    3. Re:Fuck this idea... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But office.com requires multiple tens of minutes to open a file, and I don't think most people are that patient.

    4. Re:Fuck this idea... by Ormy · · Score: 1

      I am still on windows 7 purely for gaming reasons, I will never go near windows 10. My sincere hope is that AAA-games will run natively on linux (with similar or superior performance to windows) before they stop supporting DirectX11 (i.e. windows 7). At that point I will happily switch to linux and never look back.

    5. Re:Fuck this idea... by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Microsoft365 is just WIndows + Office 365 together. If you don't want to pay for a subscription then don't.

      Some users don't care about computers and just need to run spreadsheets for work and have their kids run book reports and do their taxes etc. Office 365 is like $60 a year for 4 devices.

      I used to think it was a good value with Skydrive which is now OneDrive but since the cost of 1 TB hard drives are cheap maybe not so much. So far Office is still top notch as LibreOffice is amature.

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
    6. Re:Fuck this idea... by Uber+Banker · · Score: 1

      Run Linux on the machine, and run Windows as a standalone should you need to use Office instead of Libre. It's not ideal, but, especially for presentation Libre lags Office.

    7. Re:Fuck this idea... by StormReaver · · Score: 1

      If you don't want to pay for a subscription then don't.

      You seem to think that you will have a choice within the Microsoft prison. Microsoft apologists are like lobsters in a cooking tank who think they can just move to another tank when the water gets too hot.

    8. Re: Fuck this idea... by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Windows never will be a SAS. MS would be sued by OEMs and users will leave for other platforms. Microsoft 365 is volunterary. This has been repeated here for many years now

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
    9. Re: Fuck this idea... by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Or our bosses don't pay us to hang out on Linux. Not everyone gets to be a senior Unix admin.

      Or we want to play a game and I loose that freedom in Linux.

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
    10. Re: Fuck this idea... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The good news is that you picked an excellent week to start sniffing glue.

    11. Re: Fuck this idea... by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      What a bullshit argument. You don't have to be admin to learn Linux, just like you don't have to be a Windows admin to learn Windows. Also, if games are your thing then they make consoles dedicated for such endeavors. There are also tons of Linux games and loads more work with WINE. If you absolutely must play a game then there are VMs you can run Windows in.

      The only reason to stick with Windows now is if you like the abuse.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    12. Re:Fuck this idea... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Been on windows since 3.1, ordered a laptop last year that was supposed to have 8.1 on it but came with 10, wiped that shit and installed Mint. Never looking back.

      There's no windows-exclusive game or other software that I care about enough or is irreplaceable enough to subject myself to that cancer.

  6. Still doing it wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm still not sure why they don't just _give_ away their Office product for non-commercial use.

    If teach the workforce to use your product, they'll prefer it over the alternatives, and you'll thus naturally dominate the workforce marketplace.

    This isn't rocket rocket science, not a natural law type science, it's shitty-fake human emotion type science...
    gg Derpmosoft

  7. We do have Libreoffice and Google Docs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Let's see. Why would I pay MS for this "365" product, especially a bastardized "home" version?

  8. Short-term gain for long-term losses. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Computer users a cheap, really fucking cheap. There will always be a class of people who will go with rent-seeking ideas like this but it will be short lived. The majority of people will switch to something free (may be pirated MS Office or LibreOffice) because money is money. They are going to end up cutting ties with most users to profit from the few that go along with it. The few that go along is an eroding base because MS Office will soon no longer be the dominate office suite that everyone knows.

    The only way this works is if the product is free for the user and they subject you to ads and steal your personal info even more and even then you have to compete with google's office suite.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:Short-term gain for long-term losses. by rastos1 · · Score: 1

      That class of cheap users represent class of customers that do not bring significant revenue and so can be seen as cost-cutting opportunity. If that happens, there will be nothing left to switch to. I'm already afraid that the next computer I will buy to replace my current machine (now ~7 years old) will not be able to boot anything but "approved OS" due UEFI and secure boot.

    2. Re: Short-term gain for long-term losses. by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Yet same ones that pay $1200 over 2 years for a $900 Samsung phone with an inflated monthly phone bill. Most idiots even finance cars and never pay full in cash??!! This was unheard of 40 years ago

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
    3. Re:Short-term gain for long-term losses. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The only way this works is if the product is free for the user and they subject you to ads and steal your personal info even more and even then you have to compete with google's office suite.

      You cannot steal personal information any more than you can steal music or films. Or are you just another RIAA advocate for those bullshit "you wouldn't steal a car" ads at the start of DVDs?

  9. SaaS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Software as a Service.

    Purchasing software is no good, there is very little to link it to your identity. And it can be sold/borrowed or transferred.

    SaaS is perfect, it requires a credit card, so it's linked to you, personally.

    Don't matter if you Register as "Tin. E P3nis" , the credit card links it to you.

    Your IP address is linked to the credit card, linked to the service with the card.

    They know exactly who you are, how old you are, where you live, who you contact, and will sell this information that you PAY to give them.

    PT Barnum was right, there is a sucker born every microsecond.

  10. Windows SAS by sdinfoserv · · Score: 3, Informative

    There you have it, the official announcement that Windows will be a subscription. Something Microsoft has been trying to accomplish since XP. Don't pay your annual MS tithe and you're the proud owner of a $1200 brick. I just bough a Surface Go to test for the office. Get the one with a big enough drive to support updates (because the 64Gb model runs out of drive space after you patch for a year), add a keyboard, mouse and pen (all extra) plus extended 2yr warrant and it is $1200.

    1. Re:Windows SAS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There you have it, the official announcement that Windows will be a subscription. Something Microsoft has been trying to accomplish since XP. Don't pay your annual MS tithe and you're the proud owner of a $1200 brick. I just bough a Surface Go to test for the office. Get the one with a big enough drive to support updates (because the 64Gb model runs out of drive space after you patch for a year), add a keyboard, mouse and pen (all extra) plus extended 2yr warrant and it is $1200.

      $550 for the pentium Gold, 8gb ram and 128GB faster ssd (vs emc),
      with type keyboard, pen and standard mouse: $700 total, $750 with the fancy mouse.

      Why are you buying an extended warranty for $500? Why are you buying anything that has a NPV calculation where the warranty makes sense? Just buy and extra unit to keep in the office as a spare and self serve the way any business's internal service department would.

    2. Re:Windows SAS by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 2

      I'm sure you can run Linux on it. I can recommend Ubuntu, and Mint wasn't bad either, and of course just about every distro has a 'live' version you can try out without changing anything.

    3. Re:Windows SAS by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Everyone as usual here keeps freaking out that Windows is now RENT ONLY???!

      Microsoft365 is just a rename for Office 365 so relax folks. If you don't want to pay for it then don't. No one is forcing you to run Office 365 or use OneDrive for your photos. Some people want this to get work done. Others do not.

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
  11. Coming Soon, HWAaS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Hardware as a service, which is really already here.

    Simply pay a "small monthly fee" for a computer.
    And Another small monthly fee for internet access
    and another small monthly fee for Office
    and another small monthly fee for storage
    and another small monthly fee for printing [ hp instant ink ]
    and another small monthly fee for scanning
    and another small monthly fee for music
    and another small monthly fee for skype...

    Computing Bill: $500/Mo
    Cycle Charge: 0.00001/cycle
    Stoage Charge: 0.0001/byte
    Bandwidth Charge:

    So, the mainframe era comes again.

    1. Re:Coming Soon, HWAaS by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 4, Informative

      Buddy, do you not realize that this goes far beyond Microsoft or computing devices in general? The Rich want everyone to rent or lease everything and own nothing of value. Look for this, you'll see that it's true. Basically another form of feudalism. Discourage and/or prevent average people from owning anything with any real value by placing barriers in their way. When everything is leased or rented, those things can be taken away with little or no notice, and when you're poor, substantial legal representation is out of your reach financially, so you can't fight it. When you can't, for instance, own your own home, you can't build equity in it as you pay off the loan, therefore you can't borrow against that equity, so you're stuck with just your income. The credit rating system is rigged also, so your ability to borrow money is limited. This and other things are what are destorying the middle class in the U.S., leaving a vacuum in it's place, so there's only 'The Poor' and 'The Rich', with no way to cross that gulf because no middle class. Also note how hideously expensive it is to get a college degree, and it's getting harder and harder to get student loans, and even if you can you're struggling to pay them off for years and years -- assuming that is your degree is even worth anything in todays' workplace, which all too often it isn't.

    2. Re:Coming Soon, HWAaS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The plan of "Keeping people poor and not letting them own anything" has not, historically, worked out well for the rich. It might work OK-ish for the first generation, but then the subsequent generations become increasingly criminal, depraved, undisciplined, abusive, sadistic and masochistic. Lots of historical precident there of tragedy repeating over and over and things happening we can't have a very unpolite conversation about.

      I am very skeptical about the "Rich screwing the poor" by force line due to that; I would assume the rich are very motivated not to have their entire blood line made extinct. The fundemental problem is people have taken an adversarial view of government. Government is an investment. You make an investment of $5 a month in the EFF to keep your Cellphone and Internet bills sane. You have to spend money to keep your money, and mercifully today, it's just money. Not 2 or 3 generations ago we were trading lead.

      Quite literally the "Haves and Have nots" mentality is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Stop believing in that.

      Microsoft's plan from Day 1 was to establish a monopoly, and unfortunately for them, they are up against the Hackers Ethos on this one by getting involved in the open source community. The problem with rent-seekers is they don't know anything about anything, except how to rent-seek, and they actually do things like set up college degree's in rent-seeking like MBA's, thinking their rent-seeking is so awesome it deserves students. In reality, these people are about as smart as a box of rocks; take a smart person, put them to a unethical or immoral persuit, the net-result is "Why would you do something so stupid when you could have so much more?". You can steal candy from a baby or you can work a job and buy boxes of Candy.

      Ultimately, rent-seeking organizations don't innovate, and they tend to attract rent-seeking management both as customers and in operations, which ultimately means the management doesn't understand the company they are running or the market. That leaves the security doors wide open and the organization unable to deal routine problems.

      We're in for another red-triangle shirtwaist factory fire. Someone's going to compromise their infrastructure, and destroy the hardware on a large scale. E.G. EternalBlue mixed with a hypervisor exploit that overwrites board firmware so CMOS chips have to be unsoldered, flashed, and resoldered to work, or worse.

      It's best to get independant now and make sure you own what you run. Not because of the expense, but because of the impending tragedy.

    3. Re:Coming Soon, HWAaS by Ormy · · Score: 2

      The plan of "Keeping people poor and not letting them own anything" has not, historically, worked out well for the rich. It might work OK-ish for the first generation, but then the subsequent generations become increasingly criminal, depraved, undisciplined, abusive, sadistic and masochistic. Lots of historical precident there of tragedy repeating over and over and things happening we can't have a very unpolite conversation about.

      I am very skeptical about the "Rich screwing the poor" by force line due to that; I would assume the rich are very motivated not to have their entire blood line made extinct.

      Whilst 'the rich' may appear intelligent, cunning and inventive in their methods to screw the rest of us over in the ways Rick mentioned (and they are screwing all of us exactly as Rick says), they are still too dumb to learn from the basic lessons of history. It's also complacence, they feel so powerful that nothing bad will ever happen. I can't wait for the day history does come around again and bite them in the ass.

    4. Re:Coming Soon, HWAaS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can't wait for the day history does come around again and bite them in the ass.

      Every time that happens there's open war with lots of blood and beheadings, so I'd rather not see it in my lifetime.

    5. Re:Coming Soon, HWAaS by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      I can't wait for the day history does come around again and bite them in the ass.

      Every time that happens there's open war with lots of blood and beheadings, so I'd rather not see it in my lifetime.

      Sure. I'm with you there, AC. But I'd also hope enough people in positions to do something about it are informed enough and thoughtful enough to really comprehend what's happening here, and put a stop to it before it's set in stone and our species has to go through yet another iteration of this stupid loop. We, as a species, keep taking two steps forward and one step back -- and occasionally one step forward and two steps back; for once it would be nice if we'd just keep taking nice steady steps forward and skip the whole backtracking thing.

    6. Re:Coming Soon, HWAaS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Imagine this for a cell phone :
      - you spend $20/month in perpetuity (or $30/month, or 20 EUR/month...)
      - get a reasonable phone with repairs, exchange for a working one
      - when your phone goes unsupported you get a new one
      - small amount of app store credit (to spend on applications, music, newspapers...)
      - carrier neutral (because you don't buy cars from the toll road company), alternately a carrier actually makes its own phones (like some cable boxes and routers)

      This could be unnecessary, but when you spend 100 EUR on an Android smartphone and own it, I don't feel like you're really owning it much - google and facebook crapware, supported for three months.
      All choices are bad or expensive in this market anyway.
      The one good aspect in theory with a phone lease like : incentive for the phone to be supported. The vendor doing this would get more money if the phones last longer don't they? In some markets the ISP has routers and set top boxes, getting updates for a decade.

  12. I opened a Powerpoint document today... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and it took over twenty minutes. Microsoft is going to fail since most people won't wait that long.

  13. And a huge middle finger to them by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 2

    There.

  14. Fuck them sideways with a rusty chainsaw by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 2, Informative

    NEVER going back to Windows now, NEVER. Libre Office/Open Office serve my needs just fine, and no Microsoft bullshit.

  15. I'm laughing so hard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...I can't even finish this stupid post...

  16. Gone fishin' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Microsoft is facilitating fishing expeditions for "those" kinds of humans, using the Cloud. The destruction of people's lives will continue until moral improves.

  17. Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So they're re-skinning the pig again, so what?

  18. Well by oh-dark-thirty · · Score: 1

    of course they are.

  19. FUCK OFF WITH YOUR SUBSCRIPTION SOFTWARE by argStyopa · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest.

    --
    -Styopa
  20. Don't we already have that? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not sure what the OP is talking about.
    There's already a 365 consumer suite, and you can already get a surface with Office 365 subscription in one monthly payment.
    It's called Surface All Access.

  21. I'm not worried by Voyager529 · · Score: 2

    I don't see this being a long term success for Microsoft. Let's take a look at this bundle...

    Office - MS would be foolish to not keep this a separate subscription. Besides, kids are coming up with Google Docs and Gmail is a de facto standard, Office can be easily avoided for anyone who wishes to.
    Skype - I know some people still use it, but for those users where FaceTime or Hangouts isn't practical, there are a dozen other options for IM and video chat.
    Windows - making an OS dependent on a subscription payment to run third party software is going to come back to haunt Microsoft. Even if they avoid spending a ton of time in court, they're going to end up receiving the ire of every third party software vendor who writes for Windows...and even if the thought is that so many people are doing everything in a browser that it doesn't matter, that's an argument for OSX or Chromebooks, and also summarily dismisses lots of VERY expensive line of business software for niche industries...and also most of Adobe's bread and butter. Now, if the argument is "no updates if you don't subscribe", the response from a whole lot of people will be, "do you mean it?!". Microsoft's updates are seen by most as a necessary evil, not something to be anticipated.
    Cortana - first off, f'k that b'ch. Second, virtual assistants tend to be associated with mobile devices. People who want one are generally already used to saying "hey Alexa" or "OK Google", and they're already used to not-paying for it.
    MSN - has literally anybody, ever, since the release of Mosaic, subscribed to a general purpose search engine? Not AltaVista, not Lycos or Excite, not Dogpile or Duck Duck Go, and certainly not Google.
    Hotmail/Outlook.com email - they're a minority player to begin with, folks who are paying for personal mail are likely paying for Yahoo or AOL or something else entirely based on inertia. Convincing users to switch from Gmail or not switch *to* gmail isn't the easiest selling point.

    Bonus: the MS Appy App store and its UWP apps aren't adopting well as it is. If they have to tell the developers they have that their audience will suddenly be limited to MS subscribers, that's going to make things even harder on both sides, while making Android development that much safer of a bet.

    So really, MS doesn't really offer a product that seems like a candidate for subscription that can't either be readily replaced, except the one that's so entrenched that requiring a subscription would either royally backfire from a user revolt, sell so poorly that it would clearly be a fool's errand, or ultimately dare the courts to step in and start regulating them.

    1. Re:I'm not worried by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Office 365 home has been around for a long time now. It is just a renamed version. Some people need it for school and work. Others don't.

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
    2. Re:I'm not worried by Junta · · Score: 1

      That goes with his point really, they have one offering where they have the clout to make a paid subscription out of and they have already done it. Even with their overwhelming dominance, most people I know are either just using an old perpetually licensed copy they got along the way or have gone to a free office suite, either libreoffice or google docs depending on whether they want online or offline experience. Those considering that MacOS or ChromeOS might be 'good enough' for their use may jump ship if they are somehow pushed into a monthly subscription to stay on Windows.

      Of course, this all may be a branding exercise and might be a bundle of Office365 with free services and no different pricing.

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  22. My sibling just jumped with joy.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At the new 800 dollar bespoke computer I built them.

    It runs Debian and came installed with every major open source CAD program, graphics program, and LibreOffice. The LibreOffice was a big hit, because apparently they had been using it on their own for a couple of years now and 'everything was right where I expected it!'

    Given that their previous device had been running Windows 10 for a few years, after migrating away from Ubuntu, it was a pretty impressive switch. Their only complaint was they had really liked the Ubuntu Unity theme when they had run linux before, and not having that made them sad.

  23. Uh! by no-body · · Score: 1

    This constant cloud-lure of the bad internet-gangs along with M$ofts 365 gunk sure sucks ass!

  24. Coders at M$ be ashamed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seriously, you're coding this shit for them.

    Be ashamed of yourselves and what you do for a job.

  25. Confused... by Junta · · Score: 1

    Windows 10,

    Not technically free, but any customer that would buy such a subscription already has a permanent copy that MS has certainly acted like updates for the OS are free forever...

    Office 365 Home,

    That would seem to be a given...

    Skype,

    A free service, so don't see how that makes any sense.

    Cortana,

    Both free *and* there are signs they are recognizing it as a flop as well...

    Bing,

    Another free thing...

    Outlook Mobile,

    As far as I know, free...

    Microsoft To-Do

    Never heard of it

    and maybe MSN apps and services could figure into the picture.

    Hahahaha

    I'm having a hard time conceiving of a Microsoft 365 offering that includes anything beyond Office 365... I *suppose* they could offer a VDI sort of thing, but I don't see that being popular, particularly since the entire design of OneDrive integration in Windows 10 is meant to provide the biggest benefit, access to data after device has failed, been damaged, or infected.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    1. Re:Confused... by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      I'd assume there'd be some cloud stuff brought in in addition to the kind included with Office: if you're going to get people to subscribe you'll want them to get used to keeping all their stuff they don't want to lose access to on your servers.

  26. More like identify, build, position the consumer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    position being bend over so we can collect all your data thus f'ing you.

  27. Too many montly bills already. by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Subscriptions actually make more sense for businesses. Automatic updates, lower upfront cost to allow more liquidity towards purchases more directly needed for the business,The ability to cancel services when the product isn't needed...

    For Home use though, it is just a suck on our income, with an other monthly bill to make sure you have money in your bank account to pay for. And for a product you may not be using all the time. I would much rather buy a copy of office for a few hundred bucks and let it become a few years out of date, where if my income gets tight I can still have the product at hand.

    Luckally LibreOffice is good enough for my home use. And my works Office account allows me to have a copy on my PC as well.
    However what I really miss is Photoshop, I really can't justify paying that much for Adobe Subscription for software that is on my PC

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  28. IF it comes with custom domain email I'm in. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If it comes with email that allows using custom domains, I'm in. I can't get away from Google fast enough and unfortunately Protonmail doesn't offer calendars yet, or I would already be on their paid service. Microsoft > Google.

  29. Inferior Product Costs More by Thelasko · · Score: 2

    Not only will it cost more in the long run, it's an inferior product because the back end is contacting Microsoft all of the time, slowing it down.

    --
    One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
  30. Monthly Microsoft bills? by Joshs922 · · Score: 2

    What home user is going to start paying and budgeting for their monthly Microsoft bill - to pay for their Microsoft Word and Excel? Seriously? We have been giddy happy Debian Linux users for years now and have not missed Microsoft at all, except for the Win7 VM we run to run Desktop Quickbooks - another great natively running application that the developer would like to permanently replace with an inferior subscription product. I'm going to get ahead of the game and switch to GnuCash for 2019 and be done with Quickbooks too before they abandon me altogether (by abandoning their desktop product).

  31. Microsoft declares war! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They may have bitten off more than they can chew.

    Apple will gladly sell you the hardware and give you the software at a low and reasonable cost.

    Google will happily sell you the hardware through third party vendors and give you the software at a low and reasonable cost (your information)

    The rest of us (Linux) dont care what hardware you bring, but we will give you the software for free, you may just have to put up with a few bugs here and there (but not that many now a days)

    How does Microsoft expect to price software among those options if it doesn't make exclusive deals with hardware vendors?

    Then there is the third party software vendors who now have to deal with deciding which operating system to develop for, or maybe they will be strategic and start pushing for better operating system agnostic platforms.