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Originally Posted by BWinmill
I'd have to see what this OS as a service means first.
Let's take the generous case: you buy the OS, you get it for life. The subscription simply facilitates updates to the OS, which will be produced on a more regular basis. That can be good for Microsoft and good for consumers. Consumers get a streamlined update process, so it's easier to adopt the latest developments. Microsoft gets a steady revenue stream and can focus upon moving forward with their product rather than supporting old operating systems for a decade.
However, I'm not interested in paying a yearly fee to run an operating system. Application software, I can decide on a product-by-product and year-by-year basis. Operating system software though, I can't. An OS is needed, and the only way to get out is to switch to a competing product. That is non-trivial. On the surface, with an OS that chugs along without a subscription (albeit without new features), that may appear to be okay. Yet there is also the consideration of security updates. That may be a deal-breaker since running an unpatched OS on a public network is a pretty awful idea.
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Myerson's reference to Windows "as a service" simply meant that Microsoft plans to update the OS with smaller, more regular updates rather than the big, chunky updates of past Service Packs.
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Oh, and:
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It is very clear from this post that for the first year it's available, you can upgrade to Windows 10 for free if you have Windows 7 or 8. You will not pay for it. After that year is up, nothing will happen to your Windows 10 license. If you do not upgrade within that year, however, you will have to pay for an upgrade. The offer expires after a year, not the upgrade.
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http://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-win...-subscription/
They had a similar (but somewhat more expensive
) option when Windows 8.1 came out. You could upgrade from XP or Windows 7 to Windows 8.1 for about a quarter of the normal upgrade price.