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Comment by carlosjobim | Hacker News Reader

Those normal users are better off instead purchasing software. Then they will be listened to by developers if they report a bug or suggest a feature. Because they represent an incredibly valuable user segment: paying customers.

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One of the most used paid and proprietary software is windows, and its users do not matter at all to how it implements its features.

Most users of Windows get it for somewhere between free and $150, the fact that there is still a home edition of Windows is practically a loss leader to keep the business side ingrained. Enterprise licensees are the ones with the money and Microsoft will dedicate full-time engineers to their features if they can afford it.

Users matter a ton to windows. Specifically, the users with a hundred thousand or more licenses. Their unhappiness threatens Windows' profits in a meaningful way. Why do you think all the new secure boot and TPM features were added to Windows 11? All that work wasn't free to implement. But big businesses really want that degree of secure fleet management, and they're the customers who matter.

So going back to the GP - pay for software where you're in the largest organized user class. That's how you get power. Paying alone doesn't suffice.

I think it's clear the source comment was referencing end users. It's patently obvious at this point that a large number of people who directly use Windows are frustrated with it, and perceive it to be degrading rather than improving over time.

A corporate end user isn't a customer. The customer is the corporate department of purchases. What I mean in my original comment is that if you as an end user purchase software, then you will be listened to by developers.

Yours was not the source comment I was referring to.

I genuinely doubt the users with a hundred thousand or more licenses asked for Copilot 365 Suite.

It's the easiest possible way for large entities to jump on the AI bandwagon. They're definitely asking for it.

Large entities asked Microsoft to stop simply bundling Copilot with all those services and instead relabel the services so that their usage could be counted as AI usage in their quarterly report whether or not they actually engage with the AI features?

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