Windows 11 Market Share Keeps Declining

DPI said:
I'd gladly pay $199 for a Windows 11 Lite/Premium straight from MS that shipped with 90% less of the monetization stuff present on stock install (similar to LTSC)
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Tbh, from their perspective why would they offer that when people are paying (literally) that much for Retail Pro licenses as-is (even I've bought a Retail license before, hence my disdain at some of the backwards decisions in W11 as a paying Windows customer).

If someone wanted a proper LTSC license my understanding is it's possible by buying a minimum threshold of cheap enterprise software + single Windows LTSC license in one volume purchase but even then the ordering is said to not particularly straightforward. (These may be outdated steps fwiw, I'm not familiar with such licenses.)
 
DPI said:
I'd gladly pay $199 for a Windows 11 Lite/Premium straight from MS that shipped with 90% less of the monetization stuff present on stock install (similar to LTSC), and with no arbitrary restrictions on what could be further opted out of or Uninstalled. More linux-like modularity without needing brute force measures or hacks that may be undone by a windows update.

But there's probably zero chance of an official Windows 11 Lite happening. Microsoft's business model isn't merely selling software anymore, and also the existence of a Lite SKU could create optics problems for the other consumer editions. LTSC seems to get a pass by being gated behind Enterprise licensing and so doesn't directly impact or threaten retail SKUS.
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With the exception of a single remain OEM installer copy of Windows 7 (purchased from Amazon itself rather than a key site) every Windows license I own/use is a full retail Pro copy. I don't want to see a single MS generated ad anywhere in my OS.

As an aside, while I'm not sure about the present Win 11 retail boxes, at least as of Dec., 2022 Win 10 Pro retail copies from Best Buy were a nearly empty box with a product key and a tiny, slow USB stick containing a self-executing copy of the ISO.
 
Teenyman45 said:
With the exception of a single remain OEM installer copy of Windows 7 (purchased from Amazon itself rather than a key site) every Windows license I own/use is a full retail Pro copy. I don't want to see a single MS generated ad anywhere in my OS.

As an aside, while I'm not sure about the present Win 11 retail boxes, at least as of Dec., 2022 Win 10 Pro retail copies from Best Buy were a nearly empty box with a product key and a tiny, slow USB stick containing a self-executing copy of the ISO.
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riiight...
theve been like that for years, since 10 came out, maybe even back into 8...
 
Okatis said:
Tbh, from their perspective why would they offer that when people are paying (literally) that much for Retail Pro licenses as-is (even I've bought a Retail license before, hence my disdain at some of the backwards decisions in W11 as a paying Windows customer).

If someone wanted a proper LTSC license my understanding is it's possible by buying a minimum threshold of cheap enterprise software + single Windows LTSC license in one volume purchase but even then the ordering is said to not particularly straightforward. (These may be outdated steps fwiw, I'm not familiar with such licenses.)
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Bearing in mind, that considering Microsoft's rolling release model, LTSC is essentially frozen in time which can result in compatibility issues regarding certain software - With games being the biggest issue in this regard.

Teenyman45 said:
As an aside, while I'm not sure about the present Win 11 retail boxes, at least as of Dec., 2022 Win 10 Pro retail copies from Best Buy were a nearly empty box with a product key and a tiny, slow USB stick containing a self-executing copy of the ISO.
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I tried to overwrite that USB stick, you can't do it, it's locked.
 
1_rick said:
That's actually good, because it means they can't update the image on it to attempt to force you to use a Microsoft account.
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Except they can if you connect online when installing Windows, when connected online the OOBE part of the installer is downloaded direct from MS servers upon install.
 
Teenyman45 said:
As an aside, while I'm not sure about the present Win 11 retail boxes, at least as of Dec., 2022 Win 10 Pro retail copies from Best Buy were a nearly empty box with a product key and a tiny, slow USB stick containing a self-executing copy of the ISO.
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Retail Windows has been delivered this way since Vista, and it's the same for 11. Every one of my Windows copies except for 7 (OEM on DVD) has been a boxed copy. There was a DVD option for Vista, but I think they got rid of disc copies with 8 unless you special ordered it.
Mazzspeed said:
I tried to overwrite that USB stick, you can't do it, it's locked.
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Don't know why you'd want to. If you want to make a streamlined ISO copy just put it on a different USB. You can get 16GB flash drives for less than $4 a piece.
 
Armenius said:
Don't know why you'd want to. If you want to make a streamlined ISO copy just put it on a different USB. You can get 16GB flash drives for less than $4 a piece.
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I wanted to install an updated ISO on the official retail USB stick. I had it, why not use it?

Armenius said:
Retail Windows has been delivered this way since Vista, and it's the same for 11. Every one of my Windows copies except for 7 (OEM on DVD) has been a boxed copy. There was a DVD option for Vista, but I think they got rid of disc copies with 8 unless you special ordered it.
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You can still buy OEM copies of Windows on disc.
 
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