Windows key shows up in Google search

[amspire]

At the same time when Microsoft were saying that Windows was the last version of Windows, they were saying that the End-Of-Life was 2015. To Microsoft, both statements were completely consistent with their plans. What they were promising is that if you did the free update to Windows 10, you would be able to use it for free up to 2015.

Internally in Microsoft, they absolutely hate the returns from Windows OS when compared to, say, the much healthier returns from Office and yet Windows OS's needs much more work to maintain.

They promised free Windows 10 usage to people who upgrade till 2015 and if anyone expects Microsoft to give away anything more, then in the words Darryl Kerrigan from "The Castle",  "Tell 'im 'e's dreamin'".

[Mr. Scram]

Again, they stated it's the last version of Windows. That we know for sure, along with Microsoft's desire to turn Windows into SaaS. All other things are conjecture on both our parts. We don't know what they'll do exactly, though the approximate course is obvious.

Unless you work at Microsoft and are privileged to this kind of information, of course.

[amspire]

Again, they stated it's the last version of Windows. That we know for sure, along with Microsoft's desire to turn Windows into SaaS. All other things are conjecture on both our parts. We don't know what they'll do exactly, though the approximate course is obvious.

Unless you work at Microsoft and are privileged to this kind of information, of course.

Just going off Microsoft's own words. At the time of the Windows 10 release when this statement was made, the interpretation of Window's journalists like Paul Thurrott who were in touch with Microsoft insiders was that this was the last Windows with a version number. The next Windows will not have a version number. They already had the Office365 model. Office365 came out in 2011 and it is still Office365 today, even though the GUI interface has change completely.

[Mr. Scram]

Just going off Microsoft's own words. At the time of the Windows 10 release when this statement was made, the interpretation of Window's journalists like Paul Thurrott who were in touch with Microsoft insiders was that this was the last Windows with a version number. The next Windows will not have a version number. They already had the Office365 model. Office365 came out in 2011 and it is still Office365 today, even though the GUI interface has change completely.

We'll see. Regardless of what it ends up being, I don't think I will like it very much. I don't appreciate SaaS in general, save some specific exceptions.

[jonovid]

my question is when will the Chinese have  ?  open Windows OS for free!

[james_s]

IIRC Windows ME doesn't need any sort of activation anyway, XP was the first use of the online product activation. With the older stuff you had to enter a serial number when you installed it but you could use the same serial number on as many PCs as you wanted if you didn't care about the legal aspect.

IMHO WinMe should be considered abandonware by now, it's long out of production and support. I'd also agree with others here that it was probably the worst version of Windows ever until Microsoft outdid themselves with Win10.

[edy]

I am having a tough time understanding what model of distribution/licensing Windows 10 is trying to accomplish. Is it free like Google and now MacOS? Is it freemium? Is it still pay to use? Will it nag me to activate or pay if I install on my own hardware?

Reason I ask is.... I just downloaded a copy of Windows 10 Edition.iso to install on a laptop that had a dead SSD. I made a bootable USB key with Win10 using my Ubuntu machine with a "WoeUSB" fork. I was able to boot the laptop, install Win10 and everything seems to be working.

For fun, I also made a VM in VirtualBox on my Ubuntu system, mounted the ISO and installed it there. By the way, I had to tell VirtualBox it was "Other Windows (64-bit)" otherwise the system hanged when booting the ISO if I specified it as "Windows 10 (64-bit)".

Anyways, on both systems I just bypassed all the screens where it asked for activation and chose to do it later. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do now. Are the systems going to function normally? Will they freeze up in the future? Will it start to nag me? Will I start getting ads everywhere? I don't think Microsoft's strategy is clear in consumer minds at all.

Google I understand... they give away their OS because they want everyone to use the Google platform for mail, calendar, docs, etc. They monetize their platform by displaying ads. MacOS I also get... They make money from selling hardware at a premium and tie people up in their app/media ecosystem, so once again in their best interest to suck people in and keep them up to date on the latest OS (which often leads people to want to upgrade hardware to keep up). I even understand Linux to some extent... much of it being free, much of it open-source and a collaborative effort by many developers who either develop as a side-hobby, to learn or challenge themselves, and possibly also sell more "pro" versions as well.

But Microsoft I cannot understand yet. They used to provide Windows with every computer, whether you like it or not... Seemed like you could not find a bare-bones machine with no OS on it in any major retailer. They were always loaded with Windows and bunch of bloatware, with the product key sticker and you could not easily copy Windows to another machine without running through some activation nag. Now it is like you get Windows but yet you need to activate it, but don't have to, and there are all these Microsoft services which I have yet to use... are they trying to be a Google? I don't think they can be an Apple because they don't have control of the hardware... so the only way to monetize is to try to bring people to use Windows to get them to subscribe to Office services, Microsoft mail/browser and push ads on them?

WAIT... I just found this.... Very interesting:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/update/waas-overview

.. and THIS....

https://www.theverge.com/2015/3/16/8227847/how-microsoft-makes-money

[Mr. Scram]

Windows starts spewing messages about possible being a victim of illegal software after a while. That one doesn't really impact anything else. The server editions start rebooting every hour after the grace period is spent, I'm not sure about the desktop editions. I haven't seen any do anything of that nature yet.

[james_s]

I am having a tough time understanding what model of distribution/licensing Windows 10 is trying to accomplish. Is it free like Google and now MacOS? Is it freemium? Is it still pay to use? Will it nag me to activate or pay if I install on my own hardware?

There's no way to know for sure, I don't think even Microsoft knows but that doesn't matter because they can change the terms and change the software any time they want. I suspect it will mature into a combination of the above, a sort of freemium product focused on funneling you into using Microsoft services. The whole thing is completely unacceptable to me, I demand the ability to choose a specific version of any software and stick with it. Forced incremental updates are a deal breaker, my PC is a tool that I rely on, not some mobile toy.

[edy]

I'm currently playing around with Win10 in VirtualBox on Ubuntu and managed to activate the Win10 VM using another machine's Windows BIOS key (found using NirSoft's Product Key Finder - ProduKey: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html). I have some machines at the office with no product stickers or anything on them. So I ran ProduKey on them to see what would happen. They were all running Win7 installed by the OEM's who outfitted the office with a bunch of machines.

Each machine had the same Windows 7 Pro key (which was same as Internet Explorer key)... However each machine had a unique Windows (BIOS OEM Key) listed by ProduKey. I first tried to activate using the Windows 7 Pro key and it didn't work. Then when I used one of the machine's Windows (BIOS OEM Key) it worked and successfully activated.

Meanwhile, I've logged in to Microsoft's services using only my Hotmail account (Live ID) and signed in to OneDrive, and set up a bunch of other things... So I can see how it is starting to look a bit like Google and Apple where they are pulling you in to an ecosystem of email, cloud storage, apps, media, Voice-assistant, and offers a bunch of services all across various devices and platforms. For now it seems Microsoft has made it fairly straightfoward to download Win10 for free, and then find any Win7 or greater machine and either look for a Product Key sticker or use ProduKey to extract it, and then activate Win10 on any new machine whether it be virtual or real. Works fairly well too and the Oracle Guest Additions CD Image allows you to get a full screen experience a well.

I personally will still stick to Ubuntu as my base OS but I am enjoying the opportunity to play around with the other OS's in VirtualBox (I've got WinXPMode, Win10 and MacOS High Sierra VM's currently configuring and running). This allows me to keep up to date with understanding these platforms and seeing whether I have any use for them (so far Ubuntu is doing everything I need).