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>"It's literally easier to crack windows than to pay for it," exclaimed Pyburn. Because Microsoft doesn't care if you crack it or pirate Windows anymore as Win
by FirmwareBurner 3y ago
>"It's literally easier to crack windows than to pay for it," exclaimed Pyburn.
Because Microsoft doesn't care if you crack it or pirate Windows anymore as Windows stopped being their main cash-cow a long time ago.
They know PC sales are slowly declining and that Windows is loosing marketshare to Mac and Linux in an already shrinking market, so they want as many people as possible to keep using Windows, regardless if you pay for it or not, as that way they maintain their OS monopoly and they can monetize users through ads and subscriptions anyway.
That's why they stopped enforcing DRM checks on pirated Windows keys, and even if you don't activate it, it still works fully functional, with just a watermark as the only deterrent, big whoop. Or if you want to be legit you can buy a 3 Euro gray-market CD-key online which also activates just fine.
So unless you're a business or a super ethical user, there's really no point in paying sticker price for Windows today when the alternative ways of getting it range from dirt cheap to free.
- joshuaissac 3y ago> They know Windows is loosing marketshare like crazy to Mac and Linux so they want as many people to keep using it as possible regardless if you pay for it or not. That has been the case for a long time. Here is a quotation from Bill Gates from 2007: > "It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when there's piracy than when there's not," Gates says. "Are you kidding? You can get the real thing, and you get the same price." https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/07/23/100134488/ https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007...
- Obscurity4340 3y agoSo he's basically saying that he prefers people to be on Windows regardless of how they end up there because it gives the illusion of choice that fundamentally boosts Microsoft's uptake and pool of users/customers from which endless value is derived from their panopticon-of-an-OS? I might be reading a wee bit between the lines...
- flashback2199 3y ago> Windows is loosing marketshare like crazy to Mac and Linux The biggest change I've seen is in the stackoverflow developer survey results and it was like a 10 percent difference over 5 years or something like that with the gain roughly split 50-50 between macOS and Linux Then in the general population windows market share looks stable I'd love to have a link that shows otherwise though, I've tried to find good data on this
- FirmwareBurner 3y agoMeh, Stackoverflow is niche of devs who swing hard in the Mac/Linux camp but don't represent the average user worldwide. Seems like current worldwide marketshare is just 63% for Windows and in the US it's closer to 55% because Macs and Chromebooks eat into that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR7KqCbnjfw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR7KqCbnjfw
- yreg 3y agoYeah, "loosing marketshare like crazy" probably only in the software development / designer bubble.
- candiddevmike 3y agoWSL + VScode ends up being a better Linux development environment than most distros...
- gumballindie 3y agoIn what world. Everyone i know praising wsl - myself included - moved away long time ago. It’s a fake and it doesnt fool anyone other than perhaps amateurs with experience.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago>In what world. Where I work.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mistrial9 3y agoMSFT is paid a fee on the sale of a PC by most manufacturers, for the last 20+ years AFAIK. An OS license sale to the consumer is on top of that.