Market share is probably not the right metric as they're in so many different industries. Their market share will increase in some industries and decrease in others. What I meant was overall I think it's more likely that they will lose more market share in some industries than they gain in others, although as technology generally increases they could still grow as a company (ie they will have a smaller share of a much larger pie).

People have been predicting Microsoft's downfall for most of my working life, but it hasn't happened and I don't see much changing in the next 10 years or so. Most people still prefer using Office on a Windows PC and I can't see anything that will change that in the short term - not iPads, not Linux, not Android.

So to the answer the question. In 5 to 15 years time I see Microsoft in pretty much the same position they are in now, possibly with a slightly smaller market share.

@scottalanmiller said in XP Mode on Windows 10:

So if you get Windows 10, get an XP media, get SA rights... you are free to install XP!

Er, I know, that's what I just said.

I'm now pretty sure that a Windows 10 Enterprise E3 subscription (aka SA) will allow me to install either Windows 7 or Windows XP as a virtual machine on my Windows 10 desktop without the need to purchase a separate licence for 7 or XP.

I'm not sure. Is it a full Win 7 licence? It's listed as "Windows 7 Professional 64 (available through downgrade rights from Windows 10 Pro 64)" To me that implies it isn't a normal Windows 7 licence and therefore doesn't include downgrade rights to XP.

@scottalanmiller said in XP Mode on Windows 10:

Windows 7 systems installed via 10 will need to be updated at that point. Downgrade rights have a limited time span.

That I didn't know. HP are still selling current computers with Windows 7 pre-installed, which I think is crazy.

@scottalanmiller said in XP Mode on Windows 10:

Yes. So you are saying buy 10, get VL on 10, find 7 media, install 7 under downgrade rights. Then install XP Mode on 7?

I'd prefer to just install an XP VM under 10, but XP mode under a 7 VM would also work for me. Anything to get a legal copy of XP running, really.

Funnily enough, someone has just started a new thread on this on Spiceworks. Again, it leaves me confused. ML's response seems to be that it is currently impossible to licence an XP VM in any form.

But Chris writes "You would need Windows 10 Enterprise E3 or E5 to be properly licensed"

and "To license the use of a Windows desktop OS instance from a server, you license the accessing device(s) with either a Windows SA license or Windows VDA license. Windows SA is included with the Windows 10 Enterprise E3/E5 licenses through Volume Licensing."

I know. But you don't get additional rights to install VMs on the client? I'm looking a document like this for clarification:
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/simonmay/2011/01/13/windows-7-licensing-and-virtual-machines-clarified/

Specifically where it says:
*If I install and run four additional copies of the operating system, do I have to use Windows 7 Enterprise as the host operating system?
No. You may use prior versions of Windows

Would be clearer if he'd written 'you are licenced to access' rather than 'you are licenced to run'.

I thought SA did give desktop install rights. For example, if purchase SA for my Windows 7 Pro OEM licence, I thought I was entitled to install Windows 7 Enterprise on my desktop. No?

I'm still confused about Microsoft licencing.

Was reading this Spiceworks post by Chris from Microsoft:
https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/124053-licensing-windows-10-with-virtualization-technologies-how-to

and noted this quote:
Q. I need to access Windows XP Pro VMs remotely from my server, how can I license this?
A. Windows SA or Windows VDA would be the license option here from the Windows desktop OS perspective. However, you would already need to have access to the Windows XP Pro OS as the Microsoft Volume License Service Center (VLSC) only provides (n-2) Windows rights to Windows 7. You are licensed to run Windows XP Pro or previous versions, Microsoft just no longer provides the media/keys.

Does this mean SA will give me a licence to install an XP VM. People on this ML thread seem to indicate that it is impossible to licence XP now, by any means.

What am I missing here?

When your internet connection goes down or becomes unreliable. Unlikely, but it happens.

I find the warranty gets very expensive on HP servers after a few years - to the extent that it doesn't cost much more to buy new servers. Every time I renew an annual Care Pack on an old server I think "is this really cost effective?".

@scottalanmiller said in Coming Out of the Closet, SMB Enters the Hosted World:

SMBs often believe that servers and other datacenter equipment will fail every few years, or more.

I don't. Maybe 20 years of looking after servers that have simply never failed has made be over-confident, I don't know. But if I'd had hassle, I would be looking at moving to a hosted environment simply to remove that hassle and increase reliability. But because my on-premise life has been so hassle free (so far!), I'm kinda, why mess with it and introduce new hassles into my life from off-premise. Not lease because in the UK, a hosted environment means at some point you will have to rely on Openreach, and I'd go to great lengths to avoid that nightmare.

I have no idea what my role is or even if I work in IT.

But one thing I'm not sure about is the difference between programming and scripting? And if a Windows Administrator spends a significant proportion of his days writing Powershell scripts, is that not an IT guy programming (or similar with Linux)? I'm not sure what you mean when you say both "There is no programming role within IT" and "that is not to say that IT roles never write code" - why is that not a contradiction?

@wirestyle22 said in Buying vs Saving Economic Theory:

At what point will we realize we can't have a normal economy anymore because there are actually not enough jobs due to automation? I wonder how bad it's going to need to be.

When unemployment rises significantly. I expect Trump to force a lot of manufacturing to return to the US and then people will be surprised that they still haven't got a job because US manufacturers will just develop robots. I'm not sure we're far away from Apple manufacturing iPhone's entirely in the US using robots are we? Then people will go, "oh, what now?"

@scottalanmiller said in XP Mode on Windows 10:

For the simplest current solution, I'd hit eBay and grab XP. I am guessing that XP is getting more expensive these days as people who have a copy know that they control the supply and that no more will ever be available.

Isn't eBay a bit dodgy? What happens when it won't activate and you phone Microsoft and explain that you bought it off eBay? Are they likely to be sympathetic?

When I was programming I assumed that my programs would be upgraded way soon than 20 years. I never once thought "wait a minute, this is 16 bit, what happens when people can only run 64 bit OSes?". And it's not normally a massive job if you keep the source code and the code is well documented. Problems occur when the source code disappears, for whatever reason, and there is no documentation. So you have to re-write the program from scratch.

For all I know, people are going through this exact thing with programs I wrote 20 years ago. I'd like to think that my programs were that awesome that they're still in use, but i doubt it.

@scottalanmiller said in XP Mode on Windows 10:

How can we eliminate a need for Windows XP?

Get someone to rewrite the 20 year old bespoke programs we use. But that's more of a long term objective.

Can you still buy Windows 7 or XP licences?

Can you still buy full Windows 7 licences. (I assume "full" means retail, here)?

So what can I do to make this legal?