Change.org petition garners 5000 supporters in one week

From Softpedia:

A petition that went viral earlier this week raised nearly 5,000 signatures in just a few days, as more users consider that the Electronic Frontier Foundation should investigate Microsoft for its practices regarding the very aggressive Windows 10 push.

Specifically, the petition claims that Microsoft is violating users’ right to choose and privacy by installing Windows 10 on their computers without them first giving their consent. Furthermore, it points to cases when the Windows 10 installer was launched all of a sudden, without users being prompted about it first.

[...]

Neither Microsoft nor the EFF has offered statements on this new petition so far, but the number of those who are supporting the idea of an investigation against the software giant is growing. And comments posted on the petition page pretty much speak for themselves.

“I own my computer. I say what software is installed. When ANYBODY willfully manipulates me into installing ANYTHING I do not want then they are acting against me; Microsoft, at this point and through their actions in this case are WORSE than the **** that writes malware with the goal of profiting from me. Microsoft are WORSE because I am their customer - not their product. They don't own my computer, they don't own me,” Simon Dainty from Bradford, United Kingdom, posted.

While the EFF may not have offered an official statement, I'm not so sure that Redmond's PR team is keeping silent; I'd guess that they're just being very selective who they talk to, and making sure that they have a few apologists out pleading their case, like WinBeta:

While the majority of user who make up the 300 million active Windows install base are content with Windows 10, some believe Microsoft’s upgrade is a nefarious undertaking executed by a barbarous company scrambling for relevance in an irrelevant industry. Others are a bit more forgiving, chalking up the mishaps to a woefully inept plan poorly enacted by a forever-bumbling enterprise.

However, there is a third, much smaller and soft-spoken group of people who see Microsoft’s supposed Windows 10 upgrade fiasco as an entirely different affair. At best, the Windows 10 upgrade is a calculated measure to bring an aging user base into a foundationally superior computing experience and at worst, a poorly timed enforcement of socially engineered practices that have coalesced as 30 years of misunderstandings.

That "third, much smaller and soft-spoken group" apparently include WinBeta themselves, who then go on to dismiss pro-consumer advocates and angry Window 7 users as "would-be social justice warriors," and compare Microsoft to "the fabled imp-like creature Rumpelstiltskin who is coming to collect its promised first born child," with Microsoft's customers cast in the role of "the daughter of the lying miller in the story" (did you know that Rumpelstiltskin was the hero of that story? 'cause I sure didn't), faced with an unexpected necessity to honour the terms of Windows' EULA, which we all signed in full knowledge that it gave Microsoft the right to do whatever the fuck they want, apparently.

Windows Phone continues failing to be a thing

One of the other big strategic goals behind Universal Windows Platform, and a big part of the reason why Microsoft is pushing Windows 10 way too hard (ad revenue is another), was to make it easier to develop apps for Windows Phone, by making every Univeral Windows Application work on every Windows 10 device. 

Microsoft's mobile offering simply can't make inroads into a saturated mobile marketplace where everyone already has either an iPhone or an Android, and nobody apart from a few Fenestraphiles (Windows-lovers; from fenestra, window, and philia, fondness; like it?) ever bought a Windows phone. The platform has a "chicken and egg" problem -- with no users, the platform gets no apps made; but with no apps, the platform can't attract new users, let alone lure away users of the other, app-rich mobile ecosystems.

Even the Surface, which was actually ahead of the curve in terms of tablets (convertible laptop/tablet form-factors are the only ones still selling, and the Surface was the first of those to market) is being outsold by Apple's iPad Pro, which Microsoft beat to market by three full years. The most-used OS in the world actually isn't Windows anymore; it's Android, which is only found on smartphones. Only on desktops and laptops does Windows still reign supreme.

Choice is Microsoft's enemy here. Choice has made Android the #1 OS on earth, and seen Windows frozen out of the mobile space completely... even the part of it that they ventured into first. The peril of consumers' choices, and the fact that increasingly mobile, platform-independent consumers are increasingly and overwhelming not choosing Windows... well, apparently that just isn't to be borne. Hence UWP. Hence Windows 10.

(UWP isn't unique to Windows 10, of course; UWP was also a big part of Windows 8... which didn't end well. In fact, Windows 8 is so unpopular that Microsoft skipped over 9 when numbering the next version of their OS; Windows 9 just didn't have enough separation from Windows 8 in terms of brand identity.)

And thus, the desperate gamble: If Microsoft can convince coerce enough desktop and laptop Windows users to adopt Windows 10, the core of which is Univeral Windows Platform, then they have a built-in user base of Windows Store customers; and if every Windows 10 program is also a Universal Windows Application, which can run on any Windows device, their phones included, then they can build a base of captive consumers who will be invested in the Windows Phone ecosystem by default, rather than having to rely on consumers' choices.

It's just a step above underpants gnome logic:

• Phase 1. Switch everyone to Windows 10.
• Phase 2: ...
• Phase 3: Profit!

So... Microsoft... How's that working out for you?

Microsoft has dragged its mobile phone business for long enough with poor results, so the company is reportedly letting go of manufacturing feature phones.

Microsoft and Nokia struck a deal in 2014 and the terms of acquisition read that the Windows developer owns full rights for the Nokia brand for smartphones until 2024. Now, Microsoft looks into licensing the Nokia brand to Foxconn.

The decision purportedly comes due to the unexpected bleak results for the first quarter of 2016, when Microsoft managed to sell a mere 15 million handsets.

The [translated] report from VTech claims that the company aims to discontinue the Microsoft Mobile business, which fans know as the department behind the building of Lumia handsets. The Lumia smartphone business will reportely [sic] join the Surface line. This sounds as bad as it seems for Microsoft's employees, a part of which expect to get the boot during the restructuring. About 50 percent of the Microsoft Mobile members will be looking for new jobs, the report notes.

Oh. That well, huh?

At this point, I'd just like to mention that Steve Ballmer told you so:

Steve Ballmer may not be running Microsoft anymore, but the former CEO of the company clearly has some opinions on its current Windows 10 app strategy. Ballmer believes that the universal app platform that Microsoft is currently following is not the way to go, and that the company should consider having Windows Phones run Android apps.

Nadella may just want to listen to him. Especially since it's looking more and more like he was right.