Yes, indeed they can go back to Windows XP under a VL agreement with SA. Obviously in April 2014 going back to XP for new installations won't be possible under such a contract anymore, but until then, yes, it would be possible. I doubt at that point new licensed installs would be Vista, so there would be a slight uptick in Win7 or Win8 installations after that point too, prospectively.
I think that Maguscreed was suggesting, businesses would rent Windows servers from MS (they'd only have "dumb" clients).
Under that terrifying scenario ("The Cloud" model) MS wouldn't be supporting older Windows versions at all.
They'd still try to enforce copyright, etc. on the old versions though.
Anyone who wasn't renting Windows would be investigated.
Better keep those receipts handy.
This "Cloud" garbage is the "Holy Grail" for software companies.
No more piracy(?) and perpetual payments for access (rented software).
The computer industry has no direction, anymore. We are literally, I feel at the Cul-de-sac.
Very good observations.I think that Maguscreed was suggesting, businesses would rent Windows servers from MS (they'd only have "dumb" clients).
Under that terrifying scenario ("The Cloud" model) MS wouldn't be supporting older Windows versions at all.
They'd still try to enforce copyright, etc. on the old versions though.
Anyone who wasn't renting Windows would be investigated.
Better keep those receipts handy.
This "Cloud" garbage is the "Holy Grail" for software companies.
No more piracy(?) and perpetual payments for access (rented software).
Well, while I am not sure I would like it, I am not sure I would necessarily blame them either. Especially in Asia, piracy of software (not just Microsoft) is rampant.
People copy and share stuff they like, it has been that way throughout history and I'm quite certain it will continue.
There was a time in france when copying meant public torture and death, people still did it.
I'm not advocating piracy, but all attempts to prevent it are essentially doomed to fail, history has proven it.
The best prevention of piracy is a good product that is priced affordable.
Things are generally shared because people like them. In many instances it's a form of advertisement.
Take the japanese anime industry. It exploded after fansub groups started spreading anime through the p2p networks.
...then this amazing thing happened. Demand for them exploded all over the world and the industry has never been stronger even in this time of world wide economic recession.
Piracy is a weird thing and while I don't participate in it primarily based on a moral position, I do understand that it can in fact serve a positive benefit. It's a tricky thing to really measure or figure out though because I know for a fact that a download does not exactly equal loss of a sale because people will download free stuff just because it's free and delete it 10 minutes later.
Anyhow I know a lot of people will never except the off site storage of their data, I'm one of them.
Any cloud is doomed to be hacked eventually, especially as you put larger and larger amounts of goodies on those servers.
And when a massive loss of data does occur either though failure, or hacker... whatever does the trick.
They'll not be liable for your lost information, and will likely just release a 'we're sorry' statement like sony did when the psn was hacked recently. If you're lucky they might kick you a month or 2 of free service.
No thanks. I'll be the first to admit that none of this is clear black and white, there are a lot of things to consider, but it really just does not seem like a good idea to me.
Apparently a lot of producers are struggling.
Allegedly they get paid a pittance from the TV networks and supposedly rely on DVD and Blu-ray sales.
Sounds like Hollywood.
I read an article last week.
An episode of some show, allegedly sells for a couple of $US (in the US, on disc) sells for about $US40 in Japan.
I agree that can happen.
Exactly:
- Single "Point of Failure".
- Each extra stored byte makes the target, more tempting for nefarious persons.
Security costs money, which eats into CEO bonuses.
The only way to have even a semi-secure "Cloud" is to have MASSIVE fines for data loss, theft and/or unauthorised access (e.g. $1/Byte).
Also the fine should be levied against the BOD and CEO, not the company (IMO, this should apply in every corporate SNAFU case).
The Sony incident shows, even giant companies are no better at computer/network security, than ordinary users.
Agreed.
If Win 8 is another Vista - we'll be keeping Win 7
...it just works; if it ain't broke, don't fix it!
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