But, why wouldn't Microsoft care? This is, after all, the company that tries to get you to use its Edge browser and Bing search engine at every opportunity – so why would it suddenly become so carefree about Windows 10?
That’s sort of the answer. You see, it’s in Microsoft’s interests to get as many people on Windows 10 as possible for a simple reason: as a trojan horse for Edge and Bing. The amount of valuable ad money and user information Microsoft would get from more people using Edge and Bing is huge, and by getting people onto Windows 10 as quickly as possible – which has both of those deeply integrated – it can help boost the userbase of those services.
And it needs all the help it can get. While the new Chromium-based Edge browser is gaining in popularity –
it recently overtook Firefox – it still languishes miles behind Google’s Chrome.
And Bing is doing even worse, with the search engine nowhere near as popular as Google’s… Google.
So, Microsoft will want to get more people using them, and to do that it needs to knock down the biggest barrier to entry: paying for Windows 10.
That’s right. I think Microsoft should give Windows 10 away for free.