But is it sold enough to regular Windows Home users? If MS brings an ultimatum: "you need to buy AI services to use Windows", they might get a bunch more clueless subscribers. In the same way as there's no ability to set up Windows without internet connection and MS account they could make it mandatory to subscribe to Copilot.
> In the same way as there's no ability to set up Windows without internet connection and MS account
Not true. They're clearly unwilling or unable to remove this code path fully, or they would have done so by now. There's just a different workaround for it every few years.
There’s probably some compliance requirement that it’s technically possible to set it up without an internet connection, so they leave it there, but make it unreasonably difficult for a majority to do it.
I wrote about Windows Home, they sure can divert the code further and lock it down completely. The same probably can't be done for Pro version unless they want to break Group Policy
I think Microsoft's long-term plan is exactly that: to make Windows itself a subscription product. Windows 12 Home for $4.99 a month, Copilot included. It will be called OSaaS.
