microsoft to offer a new version of windows every year

[deadrats]

http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/28/3693368/windows-blue-update-low-cost

it's hard for me to believe that a company as successful as microsoft, that can attract the top business minds in the world can at times do thinks that are downright idiotic. it seems obvious that this is a move designed to curb piracy but one can't help but wonder what the hell they are smoking.

no matter how bad the piracy rate of windows is it can't be that bad as microsoft is either the 2nd or 3rd most valuable tech company in the world with billions of dollars in cash reserves, the only thing they are going to do with this move is dilute the demand for any one particular version of windows and worse cause so much confusion for their customers not to mention problems for developers and IT professionals that people will stop buying new versions of windows altogether and just stick with one stable version thus drying up microsoft's revenue stream.

i just don't get it.

[Vidd]

No thanks. I'll still be using XP.

[jman98]

Unless there is some kind of unexpected major change in computing, Microsoft and Intel are in the same boat. The majority of the world thinks that what their competitors make is either weird (Apple Macs) or junk (AMD), so they can do anything they want without fear of losing market share because their competitors don't have any realistic chance (at present) of taking advantage of any mistakes they make.

Based on the posts here, a good number of non-techie users would gladly pay for a new version of Windows every year. Heck, we get people who can't wait to try the latest beta and then come here crying in complete surprise about what doesn't work.

I work in IT for a Fortune 500 company I would describe as "very risk averse". We have to put each new release of Windows through extensive testing before we OK it for our employees. Windows 8 is not yet approved for general use and I don't have any idea when it will be. We never approved Vista for company use, for example, although Win 7 did get approved. If Microsoft really follows through with this, all I can say is that they'll find us probably at a minimum skipping every other release for time and cost reasons.

[Hoser Rob]

Perhaps this is just a way of rebranding service packs?

[MOVIEGEEK]

Leave it to deadrats to exploit a rumor:

http://www.itworld.com/personal-tech/322570/what-heck-windows-blue

Windows Blue sounds like something The Onion would come up with.

[jollyjohn]

They can keep their sh1t.

Some idiots will buy.