Cnet: Microsoft to keep software meter running?. The Redmond, Wash.-based software company has been talking about selling software on a subscription basis for some time, but the change analysts see coming soon could force some of Microsoft’s largest customers to rethink how they buy everything from operating systems to office productivity suites.
The key word there is “force” — because only a monopolist can exert this kind of leverage over its customers.
Watch Microsoft’s approach. The company is much too smart to pull this stunt with end users — at least right now.
Instead, our favorite monopolist will start with some big companies, and will undoubtedly offer “early adopters” a much better deal than the ones that follow. Then the process will move down to smaller companies. Then to you and me, the people who buy retail or, more likely, get the software bundled with a PC.
You don’t lose your rights all at once, whether the taker is the government or big business. You lose them a little bit at a time, until you suddenly realize that what you once had is gone, for good.
Wake up, folks.