I think Windows 10 is pretty much free as in beer for most ordinary users so the wallet threat is pretty flat.
I read Microsoft's policy as more legal cover for the reality that data gets stored all over the place. The internet is full of caches and nobody can guarantee that they can identify all of them, much less control them. The nature of people's complaints show how vulnerable Microsoft is to some jury believing "they should have known."
If you want privacy, don't turn on your internet connected devices. TANSTAAFL.
I think at this point, most people have a really screwed notion of price ...
1. preinstalled / bundled Windows is not free, the "Windows tax" being very real
2. this upgrade is not free for XP / Vista users
3. Windows 10 is not free and will probably cost about the same price as Windows 8.1, which is $120 for the Standard version or $200 for the Pro version - it might turn out to be cheaper this time, but that's only because they are changing the license to be tied to a particular device
4. Windows being a platform, is a complementary to Microsoft's Office 365, OneDrive, the Windows Store, Exchange, etc... the Windows Store in particular charges a revenue fee and is the only source possible for "modern apps"
5. personally I can't use the standard version, as it is missing features I need, like BitLocker or the ability to make a bootable USB drive - things that with the other operating systems I get for free
So in case I haven't been hibernating to wake up in some weird future in which a beer costs $200 and comes with strings attached, yes, voting with your wallet is significant.
Linux with support from Redhat costs money, too. On the other hand, I've got four Windows licenses at the house that I can upgrade for the price of Ubuntu...which I will do, even though only one machine doesn't primarily run Ubuntu.
I think Windows 10 is pretty much free as in beer for most ordinary users so the wallet threat is pretty flat.
Why is it free? First of all because they are scared to death that iOS and Android will eat their lunch in the consumer space. Secondly, because they want to sell services and SaaS (Office 365, etc.).
For the latter part, you can certainly vote with your wallet.
Andriod and iOS are probably not very good evidence that the road to fat quarterly returns is paved with sales services and SAAS subscriptions over a free operating system base layer...at least in the consumer space.
I'd say RedHat/Fedora/CentOS ecosystem is probably a more likely business model. Microsoft was already in that space (e.g. Mono).
I read Microsoft's policy as more legal cover for the reality that data gets stored all over the place. The internet is full of caches and nobody can guarantee that they can identify all of them, much less control them. The nature of people's complaints show how vulnerable Microsoft is to some jury believing "they should have known."
If you want privacy, don't turn on your internet connected devices. TANSTAAFL.