Some people have an extremely uniformed view of Linux. Like any tool, you have to use it for the correct purpose. One can say that Linux is a "novel little toy" that currently serves up 50% of the top one million active web sites and had as much as %90 over the years. M$ currently only serves up 12%.
 
There are some things that have hamstrung Linux on the desktop. It is still not really user friendly. However, as more and more OS'es and applications become subscription based, more open source applications will be created and expanded for Linux. I see the market eroding for MS.
 
I too will never go to a winblows subscription model and will scrap every piece of software I have bought when I go to Linux. I would suggest (pronounced wish) that Cakewalk create a port for Linux.

SimpleManZ

Tom Riggs
According to MS the upgrade is free to all existing windows 7 and 8 licenses.... IF you do the upgrade during the first year. It will also continue to get OS updates free for its lifetime.
 
If you do not upgrade during that time you might be in on the subscription model.
 
Not to worry I'm sure the hackers will find a way to hack the subscription model just as they have for every other version of windows.

There must be a catch. I suppose it will require a transfer fee when one needs to do a hardware upgrade or PC replacement.

".......... free for its lifetime......."
That's the key to the catch!
Win10 will be the perfect transition version, and enable a little padding later.
 
First, everyone on 7/8 gets a free upgrade to 10 for a year. .. apply a little polish, and even a turd gleams in the sun.
Year 2 or so, do a a pre-sale into Windows Platinum ;) ... and after a short buffer period, kill off 7/8, forcing all the fish to start swimming toward the net.
Full release of the monthly subscription, and after another year or so kill off 10 ....  tightening the silk-noose.
 
 

DrLumen
Some people have an extremely uniformed view of Linux. Like any tool, you have to use it for the correct purpose. One can say that Linux is a "novel little toy" that currently serves up 50% of the top one million active web sites and had as much as %90 over the years. M$ currently only serves up 12%.
 

Not at all uninformed, who cares about servers ? lol  (Yes we all care about servers, internet and all that, but be real) . . . you going to run Sonar on that server ? you going to run any of the myriad of 'useful' software that we all use on that server ? I am talking 'Main stream' the programs we all love and use, running 'natively' how it was built and meant to run, not some feature deprived clone wannabe. I done my time in the Linux world, 7 years was enough, the promise is always in the future, but it's not going to come in my lifetime, of that I am certain, unless there is a 'major' shift in commercial 3rd party support to name just one.
 Percentages, well I guess we could talk about the percentages of major hardware and software companies that support each, or the percentage of user base, but . . . no . . . we wont go there . . . :)
 
I would rather drive my car, than spend my time under the bonnet/hood, trying to make things work, things that were not made to work with it. Some people like to be drivers, some like to be mechanics
 
I surrender, Linux is the best, the people have voted . . . lol

Amazingly enough, I could not care less about Linux as a consumer and probably never will. It's used to serve up websites - great. I wish it all the best. But there is not one single reason for me to switch as a PC user. Windows is plenty good enough for everything I want to do, I don't have any problems with it and never have, and all of the best software runs on it. I've been hearing Linux diehards say that Windows will be a thing of the past for as long as I can remember. But it will remain a niche product for home users. Kind of reminds me of how people were saying that Facebook would be overtaken by Google+, of course it never will because Facebook is fine as a social communication tool for the vast majority of people and they have no good reason to invest their time in a switch. 
 
I can, however, see people gradually coming around to subscription based software in time. I'm already happy with the idea. I cannot see open source software making any kind of meaningful dent in a market dominated by products like Adobe Creative Cloud and Microsoft Office. This is mainly because open source software is developed by people with no financial obligation to keep developing - it's a hobby undertaken by people who have other jobs, and their only reward for developing it is recognition within their own circle. They just cannot seriously compete with software that's backed by a full time development team and a healthy stream of cash. Open source development is great and has a very important contribution to make, but it's not going to replace commercial software and it's certainly not going to attract Joe Public to Linux. 

jih64

noynekker
 
isn't it a MAC thing only ?

It's a LinSux Linux thing, I messed around with many different Linux Distro's over the years, and well . . .  it was 'novel', but Linux certainly isn't where it's at on a lot of levels, and I don't think it ever will be. I wonder if next year is still going to be the 'Year of Linux' . . .  lol
It's ok, and like I said a novel little toy, but mainstream, ain't gonna happen, for starters lack of support is it's main killer, and I don't think that will change much over all, maybe if it didn't have so many variations all doing things a little differently, but that's just my view

Mainstream? Probably number one choice for servers. Hardware support? I have pretty much everything working. The driver supplied for my interface is better than windows. Tech support? Well more documenation than any OS and there are forums everywhere.

About time you installed it again, works well even for windows users and straight out of the box.

joden
"At its press event today, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users during its first year of availability. There was some confusion, however, when Microsoft's Terry Myerson started talking about Windows 10 "as a service." Did that mean that after that first year of free availability, Windows 10 would cost an annual fee? I asked Myerson for clarification after the presentation, and he confirmed that there will be no additional fees attached to Windows 10, whenever you buy it."
webpage : http://www.pcgamer.com/mi...old-as-a-subscription/

Additional fees? Additional? Annual? How's about monthly.. Lifetime? Who's lifetime?

Doktor Avalanche

Hardware support? I have pretty much everything working.

Doktor Avalanche
 
As soon as I can get Platinum working in Wine (almost there not quite)
 

 
My point exactly
I have everything working perfectly, and didn't have to do anything but double click to achieve that, not hours, days or weeks or more of messing around trying to get something to work :)
 

Doktor Avalanche
 
About time you installed it again, works well even for windows users and straight out of the box
 
 

 
lol, no thanks, been there, done that, brought a tshirt and coffee mug, literally. And from my experience, and by your own admission above, it certainly does not work "straight out of the box", not for things other than the basics. There is no comparison to be honest.
 

sharke
Amazingly enough, I could not care less about Linux as a consumer and probably never will.

Hehe... That means you do not have a TV (most of them produced within last 10 years are Linux based) and you use exclusively Windows Phones (since Android is Linux, and iPhone is BSD, just a little bit different).
 

 Kind of reminds me of how people were saying that Facebook would be overtaken by Google+, of course it never will because Facebook is fine as a social communication tool for the vast majority of people and they have no good reason to invest their time in a switch.

This Facebook thing always confuse me... From many 100s people I know, only several use it really. While they (and all media) claim "everyone is there".
 

I cannot see open source software making any kind of meaningful dent in a market dominated by products like Adobe Creative Cloud and Microsoft Office.

I do not use MS Office since long time and I am happy. If I need something simple, there is OO. If you want write something serious, MSO can not handle it in any case.
 

This is mainly because open source software is developed by people with no financial obligation to keep developing - it's a hobby undertaken by people who have other jobs, and their only reward for developing it is recognition within their own circle. They just cannot seriously compete with software that's backed by a full time development team and a healthy stream of cash. Open source development is great and has a very important contribution to make, but it's not going to replace commercial software and it's certainly not going to attract Joe Public to Linux.

You misunderstand Open Source concept. And you can easily find which money was invested into Linux... you will wish 1/1000 of that is invested into Sonar
 
Without Open Source there is no Android and no OS X. And your Windows will still have no networking (network stack in Windows, as well as in all other OSes, is taken from BSD).

azslow3

You misunderstand Open Source concept. And you can easily find which money was invested into Linux... you will wish 1/1000 of that is invested into Sonar
 
 

And still they can't make anything to remotely compete with what is available to us on Windows ?
Somethings not quite right here.
 
It's pointless really, the discussion, but 2 questions before I go,
1. Do you Linux people use Windows ? (Don't answer, as I know the answer and it is somewhat rhetorical). 
And
2. Why is that ? (again, I know the answer, and somewhat rhetorical).
And . . . with that I rest

To add to the Linux discussion here...
 
At this moment Linux is very capable of running DAW's. It has it's own low-latency drivers (Jack), and there are several distributions that even give you an special low-latency kernel.
 
There are also commercial DAW's available for Linux. The most well known at this moment is Bitwig. I tried the demo on an standard Kubuntu distribution (14.04 LTS), and it runs great and fast. An lot of sound-cards are supported (I used an M-Audio Delta Audiophile 192k in the test), and an lot of plug-ins just work without any problem using wine (there is an special version in development called "Airwave" that is an real fast VST bridge for Linux - it works for the majority of VST plugins). So yes- it is perfectly possible to use Linux as DAW platform.
 
On the idea of Windows subscription. I really don't know how this will turn out, but I have no real positive feelings about that. Let me explain...
 
When "renting" software (like Adobe), the programs stops working if you stop paying the monthly/yearly subscription. That is not great, but you can use an alternative to get at least some work done. The same goes for Office (you can use the free LibreOffice.. yes it has it's limitations, but you can get work done with it).
 
With Windows, however, you are in an whole different region. Windows is no program, but the platform where all your data and programs reside. If Windows stops working because you did not payed the monthly/yearly fee, you lose the ability to access your data and run you (expensive) programs. Most users would not know about alternative operating systems, so in effect Windows would turn into an form of "ransomware" (if you do not pay, you loose everything).
 
I do not think Microsoft would turn Windows into an real subscription platform (the backlash would be huge), bit IF they do, they have an very powerful way to force people into payment. As said - I don not really think Microsoft would do something like that, but at the other hand... I have seen Microsoft do worst things..
 
It will be interesting to see how this all turns out to be...