> The difference is that this has been Google's and Facebook's business model ever since they became profitable, while MS was in the business of selling software products to users.
I respect the point you are making, yet must point out that all it does is establish a timeline. There is no significant difference between the three companies' treatment of their customer base in this regard.
And don't forget, including Google _also_ includes Andriod.
> Given MS makes their money mostly with enterprise/businesses I doubt that this will succeed.
I believe it would not be a surprise to find that the enterprise/ultimate/wtf-ever-they-call-it are excluded from this. Of course, I'm sure a user could receive the same exemption should they choose to pay the fee...
> here is no significant difference between the three companies' treatment of their customer base in this regard.
Correct. What's different is the customer's expectation (so far) about this treatment. IMO this is significant.
> I believe it would not be a surprise to find that the enterprise/ultimate/wtf-ever-they-call-it are excluded from this. Of course, I'm sure a user could receive the same exemption should they choose to pay the fee...
I would certainly hope this to be the case, but so far this is AFAIK just speculation. Did MS think as far as building in these use cases? After what they did to the desktop UI (even on Windows Server) on Windows 8 I have stopped to just assume Microsoft knows what they're doing.
Thanks. I would agree that the expectation on smartphones is different, but we're still also talking about desktop users. This might be just one of the delicate issues a Software company runs into when trying to do hybrid desktop / mobile OSes, of which I consider Win10 to be the first major one (i.e. with relevant usage numbers).
I respect the point you are making, yet must point out that all it does is establish a timeline. There is no significant difference between the three companies' treatment of their customer base in this regard.
And don't forget, including Google _also_ includes Andriod.
> Given MS makes their money mostly with enterprise/businesses I doubt that this will succeed.
I believe it would not be a surprise to find that the enterprise/ultimate/wtf-ever-they-call-it are excluded from this. Of course, I'm sure a user could receive the same exemption should they choose to pay the fee...