Everything will eventually be a monthly fee. Easy way to squeeze money out of people. I really hope they combine it with office 365 because paying $60 for that and extra $60 for windows will be sad for me.
About 30 years ago my father (a shrewd, successful business man) told me there would come a time when everything has a subscription. He said this business model was largely new (back then aside from utilities and such) but that eventually every company would do it. I remember him telling me that if something can be measured or metered they will find a way to charge you for it. If they could properly measure and control air, they'd sell it to you. Anything that is invented that utilizes something that can't be properly measured or meter will be suppressed in favor of things that can. He was right.. Even rainwater is regulated in some areas..
Nevertheless, many years ago when I entered the corporate world it was clear they 'hungered' for more residual income like this. It's predictable for companies. You can't buy something and disappear for a few years. You are beholden to them. It's power, control and wealth to them. Eventually our entire world will operate on a monthly fee for everything.. Subscriptions for cars are already in the works (GM) and someday you may not even be able to outright buy a car and own it.
Heck, it's hard to find a really nice UTM/NGFW these days without a subscription fee. PfSense doesn't count and is in maintenance mode after Chris left. Trust me, the opensource UTM field is very dim right now and growing dimmer by the year. So if you want a real UTM you are paying someone like Fortinet - yup - a subscription fee...
Lockdown has a good point about deactivating older windows. Which may result in a huge increase in piracy of Windows or it could spark enough outrage to drive an alternative operating system with enough backing to actually gain ground.
This thread is timely for me. I'm what many people would consider a wealthy person. However I am sick of giving away so much of my money on things that should largely be a buy-once proposition. I'm moving away from dumping so much into subscriptions, hence why I switched to Forticlient+Voodoo.. Hence why I purchased lifetime licenses for StickyPassword. I'm slowly chipping away at these unnecessary expenses because the business model annoys me as I know it dramatically favors the greedy. Now what to do about my 4 Galaxy s8 phones and $300 a month payment.... Maybe someone can convince my wife and kids they don't need them...
I already dropped my 1000Mbps/1000Mbps connection down to a peasantry 300/300 knocking $100 a month off that residual monthly anal probe and don't even notice the speed drop.