Andrew PlotkinJan 5, 2024

Ten years ago, Apple released a major MacOS update (10.9) and said “Ya know what, it’s free from now on. No more charging for OS updates.” And Microsoft quietly and collectively soiled its underthings.

(Of course iOS and Android had already gone there. But MS could pretend that mobile was a separate market. Ditto Linux.)

There’s a twisty but I think clear line between that day and MS announcing a new Clippy keyboard button. They have to believe in AI because they have no other story to tell.

Show threadSean Eric Fagan

@zarfeblong Remember that iOS updates cost initially, too. Apple did accounting tricks to fix it, and then did similar ones for macOS eventually. (This was harder because there were a lot more older machines, and doing this stuff retroactively was a good way to get sued. Accounting shenanigans were involved.)

Microsoft had no real hardware business they could latch onto for this. They still don't. But, of course, everyone is moving to subscription models...

Jan 5, 2024 at 11:18amWeb
Show threadSean Eric FaganJan 5, 2024
@zarfeblong Apple has quick ways to get to Siri on most of their devices, although I'm not sure what they're doing with the new laptops. That's the model uSoft is going for -- a standard, quick way to bring up whatever their thing is called.
Show threadAndrew PlotkinJan 5, 2024
@kithrup Apple has stuck to the “voice-controlled assistant” model very firmly. (Some devices have a button to wake Siri up but its input is always voice.) Microsoft is *not* using that model. People are very sensibly expecting a system where you push a button and *your current document*, or maybe your entire desktop, gets sent to a data center for helpful-suggestion generation.
Show threadSean Eric FaganJan 5, 2024
@zarfeblong That's new information to me, thank you very much! (Note that I don't use Windows, except occasionally in a VM for testing purposes.)