this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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When most people bought their PCs, Windows was already bought and paid for and installed by the vendor, so piracy might not have hit as hard as you think.
If you’re Microsoft, that last thing you want is people having a choice of operating system - either in the store, or when they get home - so you make sure it’s a done deal before the PC is unboxed.
That’s SOP for Microsoft, and what got them into trouble when they were bundling Internet Explorer.
It’s also worth noting, that Linux hasn’t always been a competitive desktop product for the home market.
Mate, the most advanced and popular MS product activator is open source, hosted on GitHub owned by Microsoft and Microsoft is fully aware of it. And, just like in the 90-s when one serial key was known to every human on earth and was never blocked, they give exactly zero fucks. I won't even be surprised if I see some commits with bug fixes from Microsoft themselves.
How would they have blocked it? Windows activation didn't exist in the 90s.
They could block it in new releases and service packs if they wanted to. But they never did. When XP came out with online updates, the keys were once again well known and were never blocked.
If no one knew about Windows, why would they want to use it in the first place? You don't see your average Joe or Jane installing Linux on their brand new PC. For most of them, Windows is the only OS that they know of. I've mentioned Linux to these types of people before and the usual response is "if it's so good, how come over never heard about it?" or "if they give it away for free, how do they make money?"
In 2000s at least in SEA most likely the installed windows when buying a new PC or Laptop is pirated copy. Even now you can request that if the laptop is not bundled with Genuine Windows
Same with South Asia. That's how the independent resellers do it. The authorised resellers either mark up the price for the Windows license or sell without an OS for a reduced price.
Yeah, solid take. Even today, the vast vast majority of people don’t even realize Windows isn’t free because every single PC sold, comes with it, preinstalled.
Microsoft’s real dominance is having schools (pre and post secondary), businesses, governments and just about anyone they can force a license on to run their software. Windows, Office (a third of my first year computer course was learning MS Office ffs), etc.
That’s why they got slammed with a multi million dollar class action: https://www.thatsuitemoney.ca/ for manipulating their licensing and subsequent fees associated.
Sadly, a pittance when compared to how much they got from all those shady deals. Piracy doesn’t even touch them.
This is far from true in 3rd world. People buy pc without os, the shop helped customers install pirated version because its way more cheaper than buying preinstalled windows pc. There's people who still remember the windows cd key by heart more than they remember their spouse's birth date.