Windows 10 Leak Exposes Microsoft's New Monthly Charge

I cannot say I am surprised by this, but is interesting.

https://www.forbes.com/si...pdate-windows-7-8/amp/

Well after 15 years of lurking, I'll finally move to Linux. I believe Bitwig is the only decent DAW which runs on Linux.

All that "articles"... MS has "site licenses" with yearly fee for long time. They have subscription versions of Office. And I guess they are moving forward, so introduce new forms of subscriptions.
 
But I do not remember (correct me if I am wrong) they ever had subscription ONLY versions of something. It was always possible to buy everything "once" (I am not talking about the price, but about a possibility).
 
Windows 7-8 will be "out of service" relatively soon, that is not a solution.
 
Changing to Apple is like moving from one prison to another. With MS you can at least choose the room, with Apple you can not.
 
Cockos was releasing Linux versions of REAPER all the time. But they was "just for test". They have many Linux port fixes recently, have made Linux board in the forum and "promoted" the download to the main page (still as "Evaluation"). I guess REAPER 6 will officially support Linux.
Also note REAPER is long time Linux+Wine friendly.
 
Tracktion has official Linux version for all products (but my experience with it was not good).
 
Bitwig has official Linux version.
 
Steinberg officially mention Linux is recent VST SDK.
Many VSTs are developed with JUCE, that means they can be compiled for Linux in no time (without extra development cost), if producers consider to do that.
 
So, if Cockos can release own (== well written) bridge to run windows plug-ins (current bridges are not perfect) and RME (Motu or some other player) can release Linux drivers, much more people can switch completely.
 
Note that "conservative" design of Linux (thanks to embedded and server solutions based on it) is perfect for "install once - run forever" approach. Desktop platforms (MS,Apple) tend to change the rules all the time to sell new products. Good for toys, one season clothes and may be for mobile phones. Somehow stupid for "hardware like" music workstations.

OAN, I would gladly pay a small one-time fee for an ad-free, no ****, lean and mean version of Windows.

husker
I pay close attention to MS, as I'm a corporate IT guy.  This is just another service the MS will be offering, and will not affect 99.9% of Windows users.  See:
 
https://www.howtogeek.com/360938/no-microsoft-isnt-turning-windows-10-into-a-paid-subscription-service/

Good article. Thanks for that.
 
If MS would include a Win10 5 license deal along with Office 365 ( which I have a sub) for about the same price, I would jump on it!!

azslow3
Windows 7-8 will be "out of service" relatively soon

Not available, but not unsupported - I don't believe corporate customers would stand for that.  My last gig (as a software engineer) was with a fortune 250 company.  I retired a little over four years ago and we had just switched to Win 7 maybe a year before that.  Upgrading to a new OS costs mega bucks when a company has tens of thousands of machines to upgrade.  It's not the software cost, it's testing every friggin' application that all the employees rely upon.  This is *very* expensive.
 
I would be surprised if Win 7 is taken off MS support sooner than three years from now at the earliest.  I should be seeing a few of my former colleagues sometime in Sept. and will learn where they are currently are with respect to upgrading from Win 7.  I am extremely interested to find this out.  Both my home machines are Win 7 and I have absolutely no desire to move to a "better" OS.

I agree with dmbaer on the high cost of upgrading for many corporations.  I'm a retired Regional LAN/WAN Network and Hardware Help Desk Manager.  Along with upgrading software, hardware, in many cases, will also have to be upgraded.  Training is a major expense.  But ultimately all will update at some point.  I worked for a US Federal Government Agency and they got special Microsoft on site support and a support extension ($$$) for their "NT 4.01" systems but the extension really gave them a chance to evaluate and integrate an upgraded OS and upgraded/compatible application software. 
 
Back to Win 10 and possible subscriptions.  I'm also in the Windows "insider" program and get advanced versions of Win 10 Pro.  So far everything that I need, such as Sonar, iLok, etc all work on the insider versions.  If they keep that program I won't really need the $$ version. 

Reaper works too, although via Wine for now. Also, Tracktion , Ardour and Mixbus are options.

dubdisciple
Reaper works too, although via Wine for now.

Actually, there is now a native Linux version of REAPER as well as an ARM version for Raspberry Pi.
 
https://www.reaper.fm/download.php#linux_download
 
The image I posted earlier is a screen capture of the native Linux version of REAPER, and is what I used to record the music I linked to in a later post.

Wonder what can be done with a Pi?

Jim Roseberry

Grem
Wonder what can be done with a Pi?

Tracking  

Velcro a Pi to an RME Fireface for a mini multitrack field recorder!

30 tracks of audio on a Pi with Tracktion Waveform.
 
NAMM 2017: Tracktion Raspberry Pi Interface
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2MTUpji8Uw

What about the Behringer XR-18?
Packs a lot of bang for the buck.

the_user_formally_known_as_glennbo

Jim Roseberry
If you have the Fireface UFX, you can plug-in a flash-drive and record directly to it.

That's way cool! If only those guys were less expensive I'd have one, but instead I'm looking at the Behringer UMC1820, for a cheep way to get 8 mic inputs in a USB class compliant device so it will work in Linux.

I'll make you a great deal on a TASCAM 16x08