Windows 7 Subscription

Well i read over at winsupersite.com that M$ are thinking about and sorting out a Subscription based usage of their new Widows OS named at the moment Windows 7, so this basically means you have a low initial cost to purchase the rights to use the software, and not actually purchasing the software itself, that cost i'm assuming covers the first 12months, then after 12 months they make you pay another fee to be able to continue using it.

Sure this may look like you are paying for the updates and "security patches", but your not, they get that money from corporate business. Maybe they will only have this payment method for business, and not the home user. which would be fine, but if it extends top the home user, i know that i will be sticking with Linux for good after that. and start seeing about game companies making the games for both windows and Linux OS's, I know ID already make them for both. its not that hard if it is done at the same time as making the windows version of the game.

But M$ are trying to muscle in on the action with DX10 and not allowing Video card makers to write OpenGL drivers for Vista. So a lot of game development companies will not bother and just use DX10 for their games.

Anyway back on track here, talking about subscriptions, they are fine for certain things, but definitely not your OS. Where would it end? they will then make you pay for every little service that they offer.

Although you can always use 3rd party software as most people in the know do now anyway. For those who are not in the know they just go with what M$ shovel them and take it in their stride. which is fine, but they don't know what they are missing out on. Well not much really, but they are wasting a lot of money on products that they can get for free, that are a whole lot better and more stable. The main reason i hear that people do not change over to OpenOffice.org is that their friends will not be able to read the documents that they create, compatibility issues and the like, well guess what, Open Office is free, get your business to convert, as it can read MS office files, and you wont have to spend any money upgrading, because the software is free, as in beer as well as speech.

Sure with some applications you get what you pay for, but with open source if it does not do what you want you can add the functions that you need and then add your name to the comments and maybe the official developers will ad the function to the official release.

Anyway ranting and raving here slightly, Why pay for things when you can get a perfect alternative for free. So anyone out there i challenge you into ordering your free Ubuntu DVD's from www.ubuntu.com or www.kubuntu.com or www.edubuntu.com i think are the addresses.

Have a friend install it for you if you don't know what you are doing, and see how you like it, once it is all set up and working start learning how to use it yourself and then compare. you can not always use your windows programs on Linux but you can always try, there is a program called Cross-over Linux, which you do have to pay for, and it lets your windows programs run. It is a commercial version of Wine. which does the same thing but not as well supported possibly.

I can do everything i want to do on my PC with Ubuntu and not have to pay for anything apart from the hardware, I don't see why Microsoft charge so much for something that does not even work properly. here in NZ Windows Vista Ultimate is $998 for the retail version, $300 if i get it as an OEM version. I don't really see why there is a price difference, Retail I'm buying it separately, and OEM it comes with either an Entire PC or just one part for a new PC, makes no sense to me.

Anyway back to subscription based operating system, it would not be so bad if it was for updates, as in your subscription runs out you get no more updates in the future, which is fine, because you are usually better off staying behind the trend, as once they "fix" the security holes in widows, the hacker forget about them and start working on the new ones. so you are once again save.

Also using 3rd party security software helps, rather than using the crap that comes with windows. I have no idea why Microsoft even bother trying to force all these crap programs onto you, the operating system should be just that, small and relatively bug free. its all the programs you need to actually be of any use that they integrate into the system, which you don't need half the time.

what I'm meaning is made into modules like Linux is. although a lot of the programs rely on each other in Linux, there is nothing that is making you use any of them and you can remove what ever you want. although some is integrated, like the Gnome desktop has a bunch of stuff, but then again all the Desktop environments are software packages, which is fine, you can still install and use 3rd party ones if you like. and then Visual customization is another thing they done right in Linux. just hope the think about that when making Windows 7 but i doubt that they will.

Well i be off to work now, so cant rant any more

until next time.