a new cool feature from MS, read on!

[garba]

From time to time I go take a sneak peek at www.winsupersite.com, not because I care about the windows world, but just because I find Thurrot's flattery towards Microsoft so naueating that I find it enthrilling. I don't know what's going on at MS's HQ in Redmond at the moment but it looks like they've just come up with a new brilliant idea, damn I wish we had something like this on gnu/linux too.

http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/windows_live_onecare.asp

Soon people around the globe will be shelling out 50$ per year just to make sure that pile of crap that came bundled with that PC they bought at the local drugstore is a safe playground. Unbelievable. [-(

[PatrickMay16]

Windows 2000 professional is an excellent operating system.

Ya know... If anyone's wondering.

Just FYI

[cjm5229]

Cool, Not only will vista come with spyware, adware, and virus's preinstalled, they will charge for it too. Windows is wonderful!!](*,)

[blastus]

Microsoft has long been looking at ways to rent their software through subscriptions instead of selling it through licenses. All the so-called "Live" things from Microsoft are a step in that direction. If they are successful, it could drive countless billions more into their already $56 billion treasury, as most people keep the software they bought for more than 1 or 2 years. It is inevitable that one day you won't be able to buy MS Windows and MS Office anymore, you'll have to rent it.

[Kilz]

Only a Windowz user ](*,) could see paying $50 a year to fix the bugs that shouldnt be there in the first place as a good idea. :-k

[learning]

I've had the opinion for a while now with all closed software that you are only renting it anyway. Won't be too much of a change, just a little more obvious...

Of course, $50 dollars a year might be better for some people rather than the 150 - 400 they pay to upgrade every how often the new releases come out.

I'm glad I made the switch to ubuntu!

[blastus]

Only a Windowz user ](*,) could see paying $50 a year to fix the bugs that shouldnt be there in the first place as a good idea. :-k

Some people just like spending money on stupid things. This is why all the rent-to-own places that have everything from furniture, to electronics, everything except the kitchen sink (maybe they have that now too), are still in business.

[ArizonaKid]

From time to time I go take a sneak peek at www.winsupersite.com, not because I care about the windows world, but just because I find Thurrot's flattery towards Microsoft so naueating that I find it enthrilling.[-(

Paul has been a lot better recently in addressing obvious problems to the public, most recently with Vista. He has quite a bit of access to Microsoft development information, which obviously may cause him to be more reserved in his opinions.

[graigsmith]

It is inevitable that one day you won't be able to buy MS Windows and MS Office anymore, you'll have to rent it.

If you have ever read the licence, you would know, that you really cant buy windows. you only buy a licence to use it. i guess they will be changing the licence to say that, you can use it only while you pay for it.

[NeghVar]

The problem is this is probably going to be so built into the Kernal that the inevitable cracks for it will turn into the worlds greatest virus... Think about it, telling the Virus scanner that the registry is a virus and see what happens on next reboot...

MS licensing policy is retarted and then they wonder why people pirate their stuff.

Also I noticed that Defragmentor and such was included in this bundle? Does this mean you will have to pay 50$ to defrag or is that just an automated version or something?

[rcarring]

Microsoft's fundamental flaw is using the lowest common denominator as the target consumer: the computer illiterate user, someone who has bought a computer and has absolutely no idea nor inclination in learning more about how to use it than they would about repairing their car.

Once the newbie stage has worn off, and the user actually wants to do serious stuff with their Windows computer they find two things:

a) the oem install sucks big time

b) Microsoft's default settings are for user-is-stupid-and-must-be-protected-from-hurting-themselves.

I turned off the auto updates and the stupid security center services as they were a waste of ram. If anything really important comes out, I'll probably read about it on /. first.

Norton AV is another shite product that assumes a basic level of intelligence in the user by killing their home network.

I have been using Windows since 1992, have installed every known version and been an MS Beta Site for seven years, well, until they didn't invite me to the Vista table, proably because Vista won't run on my laptop.

[blastus]

If you have ever read the licence, you would know, that you really cant buy windows. you only buy a licence to use it. i guess they will be changing the licence to say that, you can use it only while you pay for it.

It's obvious that when you buy software that it involves a license. The analogy is the still the same; when one pays a one time price for the perpetual use of software one is said to have "bought" that software, when one pays continually for the use of software one is said to "subscribe" to the service the software provides which is similiar to renting

Arguing over semantics that buying a license to use software is different from buying software in terms of owning it, is not helpful here because both involve a one time price and can be used perpetually. The distinction I was trying to make was between buying (paying once) versus renting (paying continually) software.

[rcarring]

Software assurance requires you to buy a yearly licence to run the software. The older method did not, once you had paid it was yours forever.

(I am talking specifically the Action Pack deal here)

[vayu]

Microsoft has long been looking at ways to rent their software through subscriptions instead of selling it through licenses. All the so-called "Live" things from Microsoft are a step in that direction. If they are successful, it could drive countless billions more into their already $56 billion treasury, as most people keep the software they bought for more than 1 or 2 years. It is inevitable that one day you won't be able to buy MS Windows and MS Office anymore, you'll have to rent it.

Scarily this is a new wide scale phenomena much beyond Microsoft. Much of commercial media and many, many other commodities are moving towards creating a subscription based economy. The undescerning masses have no clue and are playing into the hands of the corporate conglomerates.

[lapsey]

Maybe I am pointing out the bleeding obvious but windows is mainly only popular with home users because it costs almost nothing to them - they get either a copy bundled with their new PC or they obtain it through piracy.

If they were forced -andy many will no doubt see it this way- to pay via a combination of Trusted Computing or DRM plus a micropayment system, they would not be so interested.

Most people want everything for nothing.