6pm.net

Some of you are already aware that Microsoft intends to make the key elements of its operating system into a “rental” or “subscription” operating system. That in order to continue to run Micosoft Windows you’ll be paying practically whatever they want per month or year for it to work.

The whole article is here:

https://consumertip.com/microsoft-and-adobe-subscription-operating-systems/

Already, companies like Adobe are withdrawing support for, and even sabotaging the continued usage of, their standalone products to herd the consumers into subscriptions. Microsoft is doing the same for older versions of Office, which includes Excel, Powerpoint, Word etc.

There is no justification for this in most cases because MOST people are NOT power-users and do not need the support, continued-development, nor features that better-funded major corporations with multiple machines, platforms and locations to coordinate.

So as we get corralled into various subscriptions, the cost of computing should soon become onerous to regular computer users.

Some people are already using their phones as computers, handling their emails, authoring, reports, spreadsheets etc on their phones rather than their laptops which (due to their operating systems) are “sitting ducks” for a Microsoft Subscription operating system coup.

To replace Adobe Acrobat I did some looking around and found a handy product called PDF24 and it’s wonderful. I have encountered no limitation and it is addressing all my needs in the production of my new book.

https://www.pdf24.org/en/

To replace Microsoft Office I’ve found the same product so many other of you have called Open Office.

https://www.openoffice.org/download/index.html

Adobe and Microsoft are counting on your continued ignorance of these excellent ‘practically identical’ products. And they will continue to raise the prices of their Acrobat and Office Suites until everyone on any kind of budget opens their eyes and looks around.

Now I wonder….What actual operating system will replace Microsoft Windows while Bill Gates underestimates the irreplaceability of his venerable but increasingly privacy-invasive OS?

I could see the marriage of Meta (Facebook and Instagram) with Microsoft, Adobe and Office all under one roof (subscription) as the perfect Pacifier (and money-drain) for the American computer-user.

Wake Up People. We should have boycotted the first software manufacturers as they dropped their standalones for subscription products. But we didn’t. And I don’t think the train’s gonna stop. I think the solution will be products that replace subscription products with standalone products.

Why does this matter to you?

Because to install, use, and update subscription based products, you’ll have to make a perpetual investment, AND you will need internet access at all times to validate that you are a legitimate licensee. And if something happens to your ability to prove your subscription (say moving to or logging in from a new computer) –  you’re screwed until you get that whole shenanigan worked out.

I’m saying NO to subscriptions to software I should own, at least in the version on my computer. I understand UPGRADES cost money and usually I’m happy to pay it. But a month-to-month fee for irrelevant “updates” and features in my limited, residential space is unacceptable.