[jeroenhd]

Something often ignored by articles like these: you can still use Windows 10 safely past the 10 year support period, if you pay for additional updates: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/extended...

Realistically, many people will use registry hacks and other forms of piracy to get those updates for free, of course, just like people did with Windows 7. Only businesses or people afraid of viruses will pay, but that's probably enough for Microsoft.

I find it quite confusing to seemingly target people still unaware that Windows 10 is going out of support, but also list FTP/SSH/git/SVN integration as a feature. The people who use version control probably know what alternatives are or aren't available (even if they'd rather not need to find an alternative).

[bell-cot]

Worth noting: For home users, the first year of that Win 10 Extended Support appears to cost only $30. Has MS decided that "make it cheap & easy to be legal" is their best counter-piracy strategy?

[jeroenhd]

I don't think my parents will be paying $30 for Windows 10, and neither will many non-IT friends. Plus, even if you decide to go legal after a year, you're still paying the cumulative price ($60 if you buy a year of support in November 2026). I think their pricing strategy is more "don't blame us for the lack of competition in the OS space, we offered you an alternative to replacing your hardware" than "make it cheap & easy to be legal".

If they wanted to make the offer look good, I think they would've put out special offers with OneDrive storage and a year of extra security support for $5 per month rather than $2.50 a month for just updates.