this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2024
1412 points (92.9% liked)

linuxmemes

21226 readers
73 users here now

Hint: :q!


Sister communities:


Community rules (click to expand)

1. Follow the site-wide rules

2. Be civil
  • Understand the difference between a joke and an insult.
  • Do not harrass or attack members of the community for any reason.
  • Leave remarks of "peasantry" to the PCMR community. If you dislike an OS/service/application, attack the thing you dislike, not the individuals who use it. Some people may not have a choice.
  • Bigotry will not be tolerated.
  • These rules are somewhat loosened when the subject is a public figure. Still, do not attack their person or incite harrassment.
  • 3. Post Linux-related content
  • Including Unix and BSD.
  • Non-Linux content is acceptable as long as it makes a reference to Linux. For example, the poorly made mockery of sudo in Windows.
  • No porn. Even if you watch it on a Linux machine.
  • 4. No recent reposts
  • Everybody uses Arch btw, can't quit Vim, and wants to interject for a moment. You can stop now.

  • Please report posts and comments that break these rules!

    founded 1 year ago
    MODERATORS
     
    you are viewing a single comment's thread
    view the rest of the comments
    [–] michael_palmer@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    It's not a legal license anyway.

    [–] Specal@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    This is just speculation, but I'm pretty sure Microsoft stopped caring about people pirating windows and using licences they shouldn't have. They would rather you use windows as a pirate than not use windows at all.

    [–] Maalus@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

    To anyone downvoting the comment above, you can use windows indefinitely without a key. The only thing that happens is you get some text on the screen (that sometimes goes away for no reason) and you can't change the background. They don't give two f's. They could easily block keys / stop them from working if misused, but they don't care. Same reason why every laptop comes with a license. They put it there because it costs them nothing. They'd rather have market share, than get money upfront. They probably make bank on other things (i.e. the analytics, ads, etc)

    [–] VinesNFluff@pawb.social 5 points 8 months ago

    Been like that since the 90s really. Microsoft's "secret sauce" is that they never gave a shit about the end users.

    They make bank by courting enterprise users: Big companies with hundreds of employees, OEMs, governments, schools, etc.

    In recent times they found a way to double-dip by putting in telemetry/data collection/ads/adware -- But before that they just didn't care.

    It does help that windows makes the user develop learned helplessness and so by the time they are getting their own computer, they'll want to stay in the windows environment. So they also get the inflated marketshare, which feeds back into their pitch when they are courting those enterprises.

    [–] michael_palmer@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 8 months ago

    It's true. But why would anyone buy an illegal key if they can activate Windows for free?

    [–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

    No they are legal. It is just an upgraded Windows 7 or 8 license.

    They were throwing those away by the boatload

    [–] michael_palmer@lemmy.sdf.org -1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

    Look at the answer on Microsoft forum. What does "legitimate" mean to you? The fact that the system will work with this key does not mean that you have the right to use Windows legally.

    [–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

    Microsoft allowed those licences to upgrade. They are most definitely legitimate.

    No matter what a volunteer moderator says.