On Windows or Linux, you can run a portable application without installing anything. For instance, I have the choice to install FileZilla through the package manager on a Linux distro, or I could download the binary from SourceForge and subsequently run the .exe from a folder. Since Windows currently allows this (running an .exe from the desktop), why would they be testing the waters with the whole sideloading pricing changes and key policies? They lowered the cost, but what difference does it currently make within the confines of the argument of "security" that a key to enable sideloading is for security reasons, when a user can simply just install or run something easily downloaded off the internet? That would make no logical sense. Microsoft plans to entirely kill the Win32 desktop off in the future, and everything you do will go through the Windows store. They will get all the metrics about what you download, how much you spend, what kinds of applications you like, your name, address, credit card number, and don't forget that they can remotely delete things right off your PC too.
Upon Windows installation, it asks the user numerous privacy busting questions. Many people will leave the defaults selected, so Microsoft gets to learn even more about people. When are people going to start becoming educated and not go along with the program? I smell change in the air, as I am reading comments left and right from developers currently feeling alienated. No developers, no applications, a dead platform. Is Nutella a fucking retard or just a puppet? Because, please, I would like to know.