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Microsoft ending TechNet subscription activations effective august 2013

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superboyac:
I've been toying with Linux with your guys' help here for a couple of years.  I also have a dual booting laptop with Mint on it.  I still primarily use windows for anything serious, but my strategy is to slowly familiarize myself with Linux for several until "the day comes".  And it will come, I know it, I'm too into this stuff for it not to come, lol.

I can already tell I've been through some transitions already.  When I first started here at DC, I was practically installing every shareware/freeware that was named here.  All the time.  Then I grew out of that and started focusing on certain content creation tools.  Now I've whittled that down to the basic few that I do most of my work in, so I'm not playing around with software anymore.  I haven't moved to windows 8, don't really plan to, don't see why.  So I'm guessing whenever windows 7 hits the expiration date in about 10 years or less, I'll have made the transition to Linux.  We'll see.

For the sake of my curiosity, can anyone else describe the moment that made them make the transition?

zenzai:
I think a lot of the motivation is because Microsoft has been unable to convince people that Microsoft products are "licensed not sold." So their customer's perspective is still one that says "possession is 9/10ths of law." And that's despite 30 years of trying to "educate" people otherwise. Most people flat out refuse to accept the notion of 'intellectual property' when they're buying a physical product.-40hz (July 02, 2013, 08:39 AM)
--- End quote ---

As well they should. The whole IP war drum thing is psychopathic corporate greed and laziness. They want to just sit back and gorge themselves with cash for doing absolutely jack shit. It makes about as much sense as an 80's one-hit-wonder walking around acting all butt-hurt because they're not still rich and getting top hat treatment.
-Stoic Joker (July 02, 2013, 12:23 PM)
--- End quote ---

What many people don't seem to know however is that several if their products (like Visual Studio) are practically non-profit, i.e. the cost of development is equal to what they earn on selling these products (there is a technical word for this, don't recall it). And they also give away a lot of free stuff, like the Visual Studio Express versions.

I'm using Visual Studio Pro myself and I feel I'm getting an incredible value for money here. I also bought 3 copies of Windows 8 Pro for about $50 each (normal price $350 where I am) during the promotion. Anyone who already owned a copy of Windows could do that. Microsoft may have been "the bad guys" in the past, but they certainly have changed over the years.

Stoic Joker:
I think a lot of the motivation is because Microsoft has been unable to convince people that Microsoft products are "licensed not sold." So their customer's perspective is still one that says "possession is 9/10ths of law." And that's despite 30 years of trying to "educate" people otherwise. Most people flat out refuse to accept the notion of 'intellectual property' when they're buying a physical product.-40hz (July 02, 2013, 08:39 AM)
--- End quote ---

As well they should. The whole IP war drum thing is psychopathic corporate greed and laziness. They want to just sit back and gorge themselves with cash for doing absolutely jack shit. It makes about as much sense as an 80's one-hit-wonder walking around acting all butt-hurt because they're not still rich and getting top hat treatment.
-Stoic Joker (July 02, 2013, 12:23 PM)
--- End quote ---

What many people don't seem to know however is that several if their products (like Visual Studio) are practically non-profit, i.e. the cost of development is equal to what they earn on selling these products (there is a technical word for this, don't recall it).-zenzai (July 12, 2013, 06:34 AM)
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Yeah, it's called a "Loss-Leader". You sell/giveaway item X at a loss so that people can spend even more money on (much more impulse driven) add-ons/support/accessories for said item.

Prime examples are game consoles, cell phones, and Pezz dispensers.

40hz:
^Microsoft's main goal is to eventually go over to a walled garden app store model for software installations. So once they start demanding (and getting) 30% of every single dollar spent for every single program that gets installed on Windows, it will all become largely moot.

Any breaks in dev tool pricing you see are mainly to get more "for Windows 8" titles out there ASAP. Especially since neither the consumers or dev shops have exhibited too much interest in this largely needless upgrade. It's starting to look a little embarrassing for Microsoft that so few people seem interested in attending their latest shindig.
 8)

wraith808:
^Microsoft's main goal is to eventually go over to a walled garden app store model for software installations. So once they start demanding (and getting) 30% of every single dollar spent for every single program that gets installed on Windows, it will all become largely moot.

Any breaks in dev tool pricing you see are mainly to get more "for Windows 8" titles out there ASAP. Especially since neither the consumers or dev shops have exhibited too much interest in this largely needless upgrade. It's starting to look a little embarrassing for Microsoft that so few people seem interested in attending their latest shindig.
 8)
-40hz (July 12, 2013, 08:25 AM)
--- End quote ---

Just saw an article in the latest MSDN magazine that alluded to that.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dn296517.aspx

In case that's a wall for MSDN subscribers, I'll quote the relevant part below:

Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 are on a path toward convergence. In the meantime, developers interested in building for both platforms must understand the major similarities and differences between the two. Learning where the Windows 8 and Windows Phone Runtime APIs currently intersect gives you the best opportunity to deliver applications for both, leveraging much of the same knowledge, tools, code and assets. In this article I’ll explore these differences and commonalties to help you understand what is and is not possible before you start building a solution that targets both platforms.

The consistency in the UX—the use of tiles, the rich touch interface, the app bar and navigation—simplifies application design and implementation for both platforms. And the adoption of a common API surface area facilitates code sharing for a lot of scenarios. You can choose the right technologies for your apps: C#, Visual Basic or C++, or a hybrid for both platforms. The resources found at aka.ms/sharecode contain great info about creating applications that run on Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8, and present code-sharing techniques to maximize code reuse when building for both.

--- End quote ---

Emphasis mine.  I don't think that was just idle talk, but points towards what 40 is saying.  And unfortunately, I'm willing to eat crow on this.  If there *is* convergence, unless something changes, the only way to install is going to be through the walled garden.  Even Apple hasn't done that on the Mac, though I see more and more developers choosing to distribute solely through the App Store rather than provide the DMGs for install...

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