With no periodic releases of new versions, it seems that Windows 10 will either be a subscription based service or, in all likelihood, a collection of subscription based services and extra features with a free, but spartan, core.
It's an interesting move, but I suspect MS is severely underestimating the backlash that will exist against monthly OS subscription payments.
The probable advantage to Microsoft is that they have a less disjointed platform to support. For example apps released for the app store don't run on Windows 7 and earlier, and apps that work on Windows 7 and earlier can't be put on the app store. That sort of thing has been an enormous success killer for some of Microsoft's newer business initiatives, and that in turn means it's a threat to the long-term success of the company.
It might also save on development costs. 3-year release cycles mean you're at great risk of sinking tons and tons of resources into gold plating ideas that ultimately bomb on the market. This new approach means they can fail fast, which means they should be able to produce value more efficiently.
If not, they still could charge for OEM licenses bundled to hardware.
They announced that win32 based apps will have the possibility to be on the store - in one of the videos from build they even used Photoshop as an example.
I figured most of Microsoft's profits come from software and services running on-top Windows, so SQL Server, Office, etc... Perhaps still charge for Windows Server, but let the Desktop and Mobile versions go free.
In fact I've felt that up until around the last 5 years Windows was primarily focused on business users and consumers were just a happy bonus because what else were they going to run?
So I could see them giving away a version that can't join a domain (no use to business) for consumers, but I'd be very surprised if they did the same for business customers.
In 2014 they changed how they report segment revenue, but as of 2013 the Windows division (non server) had $19 billion in sales for that fiscal year. Revenue for Windows desktop is down a bit from there (perhaps 8%-10%) according to reports throughout 2014.
The operating income on that $19 billion was $9.5 billion. Needless to say it's still a wildly profitable cash cow for Microsoft, albeit a declining business.
I think Microsoft is really spot on here.
Leverage their desktop monopoly to gain market share in the cloud? Sounds familiar. Maybe Azure is just part of Windows, like IE?
It's still unclear if you get an upgrade license or a full license of Windows 10. The first one would mean, if you ever need to reinstall the PC/Notebook (harddisk/ssd crash), you would have to install Win7/8 and then upgrade to Win10 again (if the key allows that and is still valid in e.g. 2017).
ReactOS is an attempt that building an open source version of Windows XP/7. It uses source code from WINE and it aims for better compatibility with legacy apps by using a WinNT-like OS-Kernel: http://www.reactos.org
This was the original vision for Ubuntu Phone
It will never be the case that everyone wants the exact same tradeoffs.
Amusingly, of 10+, I now only have one computing device running Windows at all (and it defaults to booting Ubuntu anyway), and yet Microsoft is still taking my money!
I recently tried out the Win10 tech preview. It's very very hard to disable internet searching whenever you try and find a file, and it's even worse to try and remove OneDrive.
Granted, this is a tech preview, so disabling this will probably be a tiny bit easier in the future, but I think it gives an indication as to the direction Microsoft is moving. Yet another advertising company.
So I could probably have phrased that better.
Once steam boxes are out and popular, I doubt I'll be using windows again.
In other words, they've just announced that they're not going to pull another Vista or Windows 8 that damaged their brand, and neither are they going to make the mistake of supporting XP for so many many years again.
But I find the subscription concept interesting for enterprise customers who are already used to it. Bundle support services and extra add-ons tailored to enterprises in general or particular industry, could have a huge potential for them.