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There was a joke about “rethinking the Microsoft model” in a 2005 episode of The Office. The move to subscription based software has been in the works for 25 years or more.
This has been the goal of Microsoft for 20 years, like you stated. Bill Gates stated it. We’re just now to the point of ubiquitous internet connectivity, and cultural conditioning to accept this model.
Windows itself is eventually going to be a subscription service, with all your data saved on Microsoft’s servers. Microsoft announced at the end of last year a dumb Office terminal that does just this, to test the waters.