That’s exactly how Office365/Microsoft365 got it’s start. Now, instead of buying a copy of Office, you subscribe to Microsoft365.
I’m assuming that the path from cloud as an option to subscription based OS will be a little faster. To be fair, I wouldn’t be surprised if the stripped down locally installed version is offered as a Freemium option. Air-gapped and non-online computers usually just do one thing anyways. Most aren’t being used to watch movies, buy stuff, etc.
My prediction would be that within 5 years, probably sooner, if you don’t subscribe to your cloud-based Microsoft Windows OS, you’ll have a bare-bones experience. Good enough for kiosks and such.
Granted, you are correct, the article passed around only talks about how it’s an option right now, with some benefits… but we’ve all seen Microsoft do this exact same play before.
I rather pay X $ per year to have 3 copies of up to date office than YX $ to have one copy of one version forever. After Y years (or rather 3Y), when the subscription finally costs more than the one time buy, it is somewhat outdated in comparison. This is because the subscription is reasonably priced. I say this as someone who always used to pirate windows and office. I don’t anymore. The price is right, I use the product… so I pay for it.
Very unlike Adobe products, all still pirated due to the absurd price points. And super easy too, despite their subscription model.
That’s exactly how Office365/Microsoft365 got it’s start. Now, instead of buying a copy of Office, you subscribe to Microsoft365.
I’m assuming that the path from cloud as an option to subscription based OS will be a little faster. To be fair, I wouldn’t be surprised if the stripped down locally installed version is offered as a Freemium option. Air-gapped and non-online computers usually just do one thing anyways. Most aren’t being used to watch movies, buy stuff, etc.
My prediction would be that within 5 years, probably sooner, if you don’t subscribe to your cloud-based Microsoft Windows OS, you’ll have a bare-bones experience. Good enough for kiosks and such.
Granted, you are correct, the article passed around only talks about how it’s an option right now, with some benefits… but we’ve all seen Microsoft do this exact same play before.
Naa, I just install Office and autopatch it.
I rather pay X $ per year to have 3 copies of up to date office than YX $ to have one copy of one version forever. After Y years (or rather 3Y), when the subscription finally costs more than the one time buy, it is somewhat outdated in comparison. This is because the subscription is reasonably priced. I say this as someone who always used to pirate windows and office. I don’t anymore. The price is right, I use the product… so I pay for it. Very unlike Adobe products, all still pirated due to the absurd price points. And super easy too, despite their subscription model.