Once upon a time one of my stories took off on Digg. It was entitled, "What if Microsoft gave Vista away?" I advocated some reasons giving Vista away could be a good move for Microsoft, but realistically I don't think they will give away Vista or any future OS. So what then? Well, what about a different idea - software as a subscription model, not just for Windows or for that matter for Microsoft, but for software in general.

    This is actually already popular in some arenas of software, but non-existent in the majority. Two areas that it is common in are Backup and AntiVirus software. Backup software such as Symantec Backup Exec (formerly Veritas) is purchased but then upgrades are made available free for as long as you keep a maintenance contract. You can still use the software once your contract expires, you just don't get any major upgrades (minor upgrades remain free).

    Symantec and most other major antivirus vendors also use a similar strategy for their antivirus products. One purchases the product but then it is the subscription that keeps the antivirus and heuristic scanning engines updated.

    Why would this be a good idea? Well, Microsoft has shown us time and again an inability to release products on schedule. I don't blame them, its a fact of life. Development takes longer than we think, and when we double our estimates we still run into unexpected issues. But this has resulted in some very damaging habits. For example, the last version of Windows - XP was released in 2001. That means that it has been six years since Microsoft has released a version of the Windows Operating System. In computer technology that is an infinity.

    This places Microsoft at a severe disadvantage to open source projects which have regular release schedules that occur yearly, if not weekly or monthly. This allows rapid innovation, whereas Microsoft forces its users to stay with a greatly stagnant technology.

    By moving to a subscription model Microsoft could release components as they are released. There is no need to wait for this part to be completed to release the OS, rather each part is added one after another. Of course, there are still going to be the major upgrades but these will probably occur more as SP's than anything else.

    Its good for the consumer and good for Microsoft. So why not? With the direction Microsoft has been taking in offering products separately from the OS release (e.g. .NET Framework 3.0, PowerShell) it seems like a logical next step in Microsoft's evolution.