You could say that about any product or service. The issue here is windows famously charged until very recently (and still sort of does) which distinguishes it from those that don’t charge.
Comment on Microsoft is not done yet: more ads spotted in latest Windows 11 build - gHacks Tech News
conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 2 months agoIt’s effectively bundled with Apple hardware (which also dramatically lowers their development costs; they don’t support anything they don’t ship and are perfectly willing to abandon hardware once it no longer supports the level of hardware features they feel the new OS version needs. I’m not sure it’s that different.
Android is free (maybe? Do phone manufacturers pay for Google play branding?), but they make their money by having the lions share of software going through their storefront. Microsoft is never going to do that with Windows.
bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
But Windows is the product. Hardware is a small part of their revenue, and most of their install base is hardware that isn’t theirs.
MacOS is also part of Apple’s product, but they pretty much only sell higher margin premium hardware that both pays for and streamlines the OS development process.
bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
Windows OS is not the product.
conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Yes, it absolutely is.
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Back in the 90s Apple charge for OS upgrades. I saved my allowance money to get OS 8 and was super happy when I got OS X 10.2 for Christmas. Once they could reliably deliver upgrades over the Internet they stopped charging for it.
conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
The story I always heard was that there were some weird accounting rules that were, if not codified legally, common practice at the time, that made the book keeping on free updates sketchier. But I don’t know about the validity of that.
I definitely don’t think “free” justifies any of Windows bullshit. I did pay for 10 (pro) for gaming several years back, but with the real emergence of proton the steam deck accelerated, I wouldn’t install windows on any of my systems for free now. They’re super hostile to users and are just assuming that inertia is good enough that they can get away with it.