Microsoft Working on Free Version of Windows?

[bambiboom]

Gentlemen?,

Again, Microsoft is just brimming with innovations, providing a valuable service to advertisers in the exciting brave new world of bundling. Of course, we're all by now used to the necessity of having to pay to avoid advertising, but here comes another chance to be in effect paid to have use certain services and have your attention directed in a particular way. For myself, I've reversed the trend and cut the TV cable nine Months ago- online papers and journals for news, plus Netflix, and YouTube for entertainment and documentaries.

Hey Microsoft! How about opening the windows a bit>

Windows 8.1 Performance > 64-bit only. All applications may be threaded to multiple cores (Yes, easier said than done, but why can't MS invent something for a change instead of only new marketing sh-- excuse me - schemes. Start Button only, no Metro. All tasks and applications loaded only upon use. One customizable theme without animation, transparency, gradient, and NO POWDER BLUE. No IE, Paint, Wordpad, fuzzy bear help. Have a controlPanel option "Performance" that includes > a sophisticated disk optimizer, registry optimizer, performance test, RAID configuration/ health monitor, system temperature monitor, fan controller- but like everything else, that are loaded only when initiated. Default of no scheduled tasks. MS, if you need ideas, as seems to be the case, have a look at Linux- not everyone wants a big, generic barrel of random stuff running all the time and throwing animated notices. I even have a more attractive, marketing name for this > Doors 1.0 ®©™£?^(SM)$©.

Just a thought.

BambiBoom

 

[coolitic]

You have got to be kidding me. Microsoft really must be desperate.

 

[brarboy]

Time for Charity? I hope

 

[dwdesign]

Windows no longer a necessary platform. This just proves it. It use to be good but it is not innovative any longer. It's just another OS that the monopoly is being broke up by all the other OS available now. The average person can easily get by with any of the mobile platforms that are out right now. The PC will live on in business and professional uses.

 

[JD88]

It's not so much about how much an operating system can do, but how it goes about doing it. I firmly believe a big part of the reason a lot of people prefer tablet devices is because iOS and Android are much more simple and intuitive to use than Windows ever was and probably ever could be in its current (bloated) form. Even the less is more Windows RT is still cluttered by the outdated and ugly legacy desktop to run certain applications.

You simply don't have the headache and confusion of Windows with Android, iOS, and to an even greater extent, Chrome OS. Or the cost, which up until this free announcement has been pretty damn high in comparison.

 

[falchard]

I would take the UI on Windows Phone any day over the one on iOS or Android. It simply is better. However, for Desktops its different. I would not want to use a mobile OS on a desktop.I don't think I can ever see myself using anything Google. I would take the monopolistic giant who respects my privacy over the monopolistic giant who sells my information to anyone with a buck. The key thing you pay for with Windows is extremely wide support of different hardware and software.

 

[plasmastorm]

MS: We know windows 8 and 8.1 are bad. They're so bad we are giving it away for free. Pwease use it.........PWEASE !?

 

[Heironious]

PCs are still outselling mobile platforms.

Smartphone sales passed PC sales back in 2010 while tablets crossed that milestone by a small margin in 2013. In Q4-2012, smartphone sales were already outnumbering PC sales at about 3:1.Smartphone and tablets together surpass PC sales by a wide margin.

You DO realize by "PC sales" that's the over priced OEM garbage that no one wants anymore right? Nothing in those sales include people building their own.

 

[InvalidError]

You DO realize by "PC sales" that's the over priced OEM garbage that no one wants anymore right? Nothing in those sales include people building their own.

So what? Unless you mean to tell me enthusiasts and DIYers are putting together over 300 million PCs per year even though the worldwide population of enthusiasts is likely nowhere near that high and even enthusiasts are dropping to 2-3 years upgrade cycles, what I said still stands. The average DIYer system's value may be higher but in terms of sales volume, they are only a drop in the bucket.

If what you meant to say is that it is only Walmart-grade PC sales getting lost to tablets and smartphones, yes, I mostly agree with that and it will get worse as mobile devices continue gaining ground on PC specs for most everyday computing.

 

[GreaseMonkey_62]

This would be an interesting move for MS, but as some people have mentioned before it will likely be too far gimped to do any good. It's likely to turn people off more to Windows 8 as they'll have a worse experience.

 

[neephius]

Honestly who Cares when Microsoft and Partners leave PC and Laptop Customers in the Dust when Windows 7 and 8 OEMs offer a windows 7 to windows 8 Update for a small fee and it causes their laptops and PCs to malfunction and fail. What sort of Idiot company does this soprt of garbage. You can be sure I plaster this all over the internet high and low Why ? because I am sick and tired of you want to be techy want to be pretend Gurus not knowing what you are doing. all you have done since windows XP is fake your systems and build rubbish that has already been built you just modified it a little you have changed NOTHING Except the fact that the interface is pretty. If I install a remove Junk to my system I'm afraid it will wipe out the entire Windows 8 OS completely. Because it is in fact JUNK!

 

[dextermat]

Finally, +1 should of been done years ago indeed.So long you can do the basic don'T care about eye candy

 

[gggplaya]

"Microsoft charged PC makers a mere $2 if they agreed to preload the Bing Bar and Windows Live Essentials on their machines. If not, Microsoft charged $5 for a copy of Starter Edition."Even more reason to build your own and get a nice vanilla copy of windows instead of bloatware crap like mcafee that pops up every 2 minutes asking you to buy me.

 

[JeTJL]

There are other ways to get windows legally free or cheap, a lot of universities have subscribed to micosoft dreamspark premium. I got Windows 8.1 free though dreamspark and I get to keep it even after I graduate. Even if you're not attending college you can get yourself a technet subscription for these things. Not much of a reason for me or a lot of college students to get a crippled os.

 

[InvalidError]

Finally, +1 should of been done years ago indeed.So long you can do the basic don'T care about eye candy

How many would use a free edition if it limited RAM to 2GB, display resolution to 800p, number of open applications to 5 and a heap of other arbitrary crippling like past Starter editions have in the past? How many would bother with regular Windows version if it wasn't so drastically crippled?

Smells like one of those "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situations: if they cripple it too much, people are better off buying a ChromeOS or similar PC/laptop and if they do not cripple it enough, it will eat into Home/Standard edition Windows. With the cold reception Metro/Modern UI got, I doubt M$ could get away with making the new Starter/Free edition Modern-only either.

 

[SamQ]

LMBO ROTF ... like "free" cell phones and "cheap" printers ... Millennials will fall for anything ... this is better than the funny papers.

 

[SamQ]

that 2GB limitation is a pain.

Zodiacfml, you're not taking the long view ... don't you know ... all of YOUR data / files / photos / etc. are supposed to be stored nice and safe (and accessible) on THEIR cloud drives. Did you complain about the NSA or the POTUS or politician X last week? ;-) Bwah ha ha ...

 

[SamQ]

PCs are still outselling mobile platforms.

Smartphone sales passed PC sales back in 2010 while tablets crossed that milestone by a small margin in 2013. In Q4-2012, smartphone sales were already outnumbering PC sales at about 3:1.Smartphone and tablets together surpass PC sales by a wide margin.

Actually the date kind of shifts around as various liars manipulate various datum ... but the trend is clear ... as the Millennials shift the marketing efforts from useful work to games, the slaves in engineering must follow. My daughter used to come home and do homework on the computer ... now my grand-daughter comes home and does selfies on her iPhone. My daughter has a great job in a bank ... my grand-daughter wants to be on The Voice! Gee I can hardly wait to learn Mandarin ... sigh.