Earlier this month we showed that even Microsoft boosters had become fed up with Microsoft's force-feeding of Vista 10 (see January articles). Even Microsoft proponents at IDG are now openly complaining [1], calling this "strong-arm upgrade tactics" right there in the headline. "Beware hidden costs of Microsoft's new Windows Server licensing," says another IDG headline this week (there is also the hidden cost of NSA surveillance) and another new article explains why "you should not develop apps for Windows 10" ("apps" usually means software with surveillance these days).
Microsoft wielded the latest stick just last week, when it declared that buyers of Intel’s new Skylake processors have to upgrade to Windows 10 in the next 18 months, or forgo all but the most critical security patches—and those will be available to Windows 7 and 8.1 users only if said patches don’t “risk the reliability or compatibility” on non-Skylake systems. Future processors from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm will only be officially supported by Windows 10, not 7 or 8.
If you thought Oracle's licensing practices were bad, Microsoft is preparing changes to its licensing that are nearly as unfriendly.
Texas law firm Scott & Scott analyzed the changes Microsoft is making to licensing for Windows Server and found most troubling the switch from a per-processor licensing model to a per-core model.
I wrote a couple of apps for the Windows Store (I also blogged why it sucked, but I did it anyway). Most people never heard about it, but yes, there is an app store for Windows. It is quite empty, and IMO, most apps are low quality. My apps are in there since Windows 8, I then upgraded them to Windows 8.1, and now also one of them to Windows 10's universal app platform.