Won't be long and Microsoft's business model will be yearly use fees instead of version licensing...they've been trying to go that route for a few years now.

We will see.

I reckon that in 10 years time a lot, and I mean a lot, of people will still be using XP and Win7. Because it does what they want. Yearly use fees won't catch on with the general public. It might with corporate customers who want continuity for business purposes.

WE will see.

I doubt even businesses would pay a yearly fee for microsoft, They get hit with to many fees for some software programs now.
I doubt many home users would pay a fee either. You would see a mass migration to another OS. Most likely Mac OS, But I will hazzard a guess and say Google would unviel an OS for Intel based computers.

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[/quote]

Old James

I doubt even businesses would pay a yearly fee for microsoft, They get hit with to many fees for some software programs now.

But it is all tax deductible at the end of the day, of course they would. Private users won't.

Software licenses are not tax deductible, at least not here in the US.

Microsoft offers Office 365 free to educational institutes. I have a friend that works for DeVry who takes advantage of this program.

What do you mean businesses won't buy subscriptions?

MSDN subscriptions ring a bell? I can see Microsoft expanding the MSDN subscription service to all their offerings including normal usage instead of just development.

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Microsoft has just announced that since the furore over Windows 8 & 8.1, they've cancelled all work on Windows 9.

Instead, they're taking the stability of XP, combining it with Win 7 and finally doing away with the Windows trade name.

It's to be called X7Lux. No more need for any **ux distros or Mac O/S.

As yet the price is still to be determined.

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Nah, they'll do like they did Vista...fix it, and call it Windows 7


Just like Windows ME...fixed it and called it XP


They'll fix it, and call it Windows 9 (Which would actually be a Service Pack for WIndows 8)

Microsoft has just announced that since the furore over Windows 8 & 8.1, they've cancelled all work on Windows 9.

Instead, they're taking the stability of XP, combining it with Win 7 and finally doing away with the Windows trade name.

It's to be called X7Lux. No more need for any **ux distros or Mac O/S.

As yet the price is still to be determined.

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Software licenses are not tax deductible, at least not here in the US.

Come again? Or are you and Chris having an English language issue?

In the USA all "necessary" business expenses are deductible. A software license is that.

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Looking Forward To Windows 3000.

Me and Lazarus Long Gots A Thang Goin' On.

Corn 'IT'

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May we All have a METAMORPHOSIS. REASON. GOoD JUDGEMENT and LOVE and ORDER!!!!!

They stopped work on 9 because there never will be a 9. The next one will be called Microsoft Cloud. The "apps" won't be applications at all, they will be payment tokens! The O/S on your device won't really be an O/S as much as a single application program. It's sole function will be to act as a cloud browser. It will contact the Microsoft Cloud to see if you have made your payment, and if not get your bank information. Once paid it will display your cloud home. Everything you do will only load a different cloud page after verifying you paid for access. The traditional computer O/S will not exist anymore, except in the cloud server rooms. 100% DRM secure. A wet dream for copyright holders.

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That's just...GROSS

They stopped work on 9 because there never will be a 9. The next one will be called Microsoft Cloud. The "apps" won't be applications at all, they will be payment tokens! The O/S on your device won't really be an O/S as much as a single application program. It's sole function will be to act as a cloud browser. It will contact the Microsoft Cloud to see if you have made your payment, and if not get your bank information. Once paid it will display your cloud home. Everything you do will only load a different cloud page after verifying you paid for access. The traditional computer O/S will not exist anymore, except in the cloud server rooms. 100% DRM secure. A wet dream for copyright holders.

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Oh, I forgot, the NSA will have the cloud's encryption key.

That's just...GROSS

They stopped work on 9 because there never will be a 9. The next one will be called Microsoft Cloud. The "apps" won't be applications at all, they will be payment tokens! The O/S on your device won't really be an O/S as much as a single application program. It's sole function will be to act as a cloud browser. It will contact the Microsoft Cloud to see if you have made your payment, and if not get your bank information. Once paid it will display your cloud home. Everything you do will only load a different cloud page after verifying you paid for access. The traditional computer O/S will not exist anymore, except in the cloud server rooms. 100% DRM secure. A wet dream for copyright holders.

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It seems likely that next year there will be a Windows 9, and the jury is still out as to what it might contain. Win 9

I'm hoping that Win 8.1 and 9 are successes, because I've found that Win 7 64bit is great for me, and I would like to see the price drop, because of the new versions, so I can buy some more.

If they give us back the choice of a proper "power user" OS then they'll do well.

But if they stay on their present course then the boat will only get lower in the water.

Cheers.

If they give us back the choice of a proper "power user" OS then they'll do well.

But if they stay on their present course then the boat will only get lower in the water.

Cheers.

That's the problem...the masses don't know how to responsibly use that...they end up surfing the web etc etc with elevated privileges and walla...they wonder why they got compromised.

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It seems likely that next year there will be a Windows 9, and the jury is still out as to what it might contain. Win 9

I'm hoping that Win 8.1 and 9 are successes, because I've found that Win 7 64bit is great for me, and I would like to see the price drop, because of the new versions, so I can buy some more.

Go to amazon. I've just finished installing 6 for customers. £38.99 each license key only.

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Thanks, I'll look into it.

I was a bit dubious at first but use Viper-UK. They're licensed Microsoft Resellers and the keys activate. The others I found for keys only didn't look kosher.

Edit: On the reviews it stated that all the keys were sent via e-mail. the ones I received were genuine C.O.A's via the post.

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Was this the beginning of the end?...


MS Word deserves DEATH says Brit SciFi author Charles Stross

British science fiction author Charles Stross has published a mighty rant on the subject of Microsoft Word, which he is attempting to will out of existence...

... “Microsoft Word is a tyrant of the imagination, a petty, unimaginative, inconsistent dictator that is ill-suited to any creative writer's use. Worse: it is a near-monopolist..."

... “The .doc file format was also obfuscated, deliberately or intentionally: rather than a parseable document containing formatting and macro metadata, it was effectively a dump of the in-memory data structures used by word, with pointers to the subroutines that provided formatting or macro support. And "fast save" made the picture worse, by appending a journal of changes to the application's in-memory state. To parse a .doc file you virtually have to write a mini-implementation of Microsoft Word. This isn't a data file format: it's a nightmare!”...



No comment!

IT is what we allow it to become...
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

One out of how many millions?

When your pet distro using Libra/openoffice outnumbers MS Office, come back on that.

Pretty sure you'll have plenty to comment on then.

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Was this the beginning of the end?...

No Martin it wasn't. It was just you again taking any opportunity to bang your personal drum. ...

Ahhh... You hold fast to your religious angle (angel)...

Ignore all reality and any/all actions. You have bought into Microsoft and grown up under the tutelage of Microsoft and you cannot bear to see any claim that Microsoft is less than The Only One Way of Perfection...

Your blind devotion is touching...


So you also advocate for the clunky interface that is Word and the proprietary deliberately non-compatible file format that is a word file save?


IT is what we allow it to become...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

So you also advocate for the clunky interface that is Word and the proprietary deliberately non-compatible file format that is a word file save?

Non-compatible? So Open Office cannot read or write to .doc files? Since when?

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... When your pet distro using Libra/openoffice outnumbers MS Office, come back on that. ...

Which is where we need a number of fairly competing options, as opposed to a continuing IE6-style stifling expensive fiasco of lock-down...


All just my own humble observation as always...

IT is what we allow it to become...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

So you also advocate for the clunky interface that is Word and the proprietary deliberately non-compatible file format that is a word file save?

Non-compatible? So Open Office cannot read or write to .doc files? Since when?

Now read the article again...

The format of the ".doc" file can readily be claimed to be deliberately obfuscated and structured to force all other programs to have to reimplement the Microsoft Word system just to read the file! All a brutal form of proprietary lock-in. Nasty stuff.


Hardly an example of vendor compatibility...

And yet everyone is supposed to be easily able to read documents...

IT is what we allow it to become...
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)