Re: Subscription model?
Well, sorry to rain on your parade but I'm a Windows user (and a variety of other OSes too, some of which none of you would know about) and I get the very strong read that "Windows as a service" plays into the "web as a service provider" mantra MS started singing back in the 90s when they were inventing .net and telling everyone about it in big presentations.
Given the bug-ugly tile infestation of late and the touch-screen semantics going back to Win7 (why else have that drag-to-screen-edge behavior other than because the little buttons in the top right corner might be too small to use reliably?) I'd say the push to turn the Windows experience into something better (for Microsoft) than Chrome OS and the iThing revolution is an obvious conclusion.
My problem with the rental model is that I do not have the luxury of a persistent internet coinnection when I'm being creative and cannot afford for a vital tool to lock up waiting on he OK from wherever to go ahead and let me work.
Given the Steam experience people could be forgiven for assuming the worst in such a scenario.
And the ugly fact is that for me, the operating system of MY computer is emphatically not a "service" but a bedrock necessity. Wallpaper is a service. Fancy ringtones are a service. Cruft is an unwanted service. The tools I buy are the tools I need long term. The tools I rent are the ones that I need for a weekend and then never again.
And I am, after being quite satisfied with my user experience on various versions of Windows, going to Linux for my next computer upgrade 'cos I'm done seeing my experience degraded time and again to the whims of the shiny brigade.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
