If you bought a PC in the 90s you still paid Microsoft even if it was shipped with no OS at all.
Microsoft illegally leveraged their near-monopoly to force vendors to either pay them per processor shipped regardless of operating system, or they wouldn’t be allowed to OEM any MS products. This forced anyone who wanted to offer an alternative such as OS/2 or DR DOS to charge more for it since they’d be paying both MS and Digital Research or IBM for the same machine. Eventually the DoJ gave them a tiny slap on the wrist and told them to stop, but not until they’d finished off all potential commercial threats to Windows.
https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/Pre_96/July94/94387.txt.html
Most Windows users paid for multiple licenses in their lifetime. For most prebuilt PCs or laptops you buy a windows licence with the device.
When you buy a new device you can get it without windows and just use the old license. But who bothers to do that? The people who do are probably a minority and most of them use Linux anyways.
I bought an used mainboard once. After some time i remembered i need to activate windows, to realize the person i bought it from did this with massgrave and this board now automatically activates itself with this.
I’ve been on Windows since XP… I haven’t seen a single person.
Microsoft benefits from you “stealing” a license because it instills a false sense of control. Companies love it when you think you’re getting one up on them when they’re actually the ones brutally fucking you
You pay with your data. Some are also paying with money.
everyone pays with money, even if they use linux, because license fee is included in every computer sold with windows preinstalled.
If you buy a pre-built computer, sure.
Not everyone, pc’s sold without license and which are used with pirated windows or free OS’s.
yes, 99.998% is much much less than 100%
yes, “everyone” means “all except those guys. and those. and part of these guys too. but everyone, totally, fr fr”
Makes it a bit awkward when you have to explain to the insurance companies
I paid for it when I built my pc. Could I have avoided that (without piracy)?
I think the old Win 7 keys still work and you can find plenty of them in many scrap yards on the stickers. I even heard of people taking them from photos of old ebay listings.
Can I steal things without stealing things.
No you cant get windows for free without some form of piracy, whether thats using mass grave to trick it into being licensed or installing the trial version and editing the registry to remove the trial notice (if that even still works).
You wanna stay legit, you pay for it.
I didn’t ask if I could steal it. I was asking if there was a legitimate free way to get it because the posted pic implied that I’m in the very few minority of people who actually paid.
Most people steal this because its so easy and consequence free is the message.
You won’t find them on lemmy
All of them. Pc prices are inflated to make up for it.
The average PC user definitely paid for Windows, especially if they bought a pre-built.
You probably paid a Windows license for your Linux machine, if you didn’t buy it second-hand. Everyone buying a computer with Windows preinstalled buys a Windows license.
My PC all come as parts or second hand. Sometimes both.
Some mini PCs are possibly interesting new, but I wouldn’t be getting one with windows if I do ever get one.
I bought a Framework with no preinstalled OS 😋
Edit: Desktop was built from parts, no pre-installed OS 😋😋
Mine was a Tuxedo with Linux preinstalled. But we are a rare breed, even among users of Linux.
No matter what distro it came with, I’m sure it was the wrong one 😆
I buy all my shit second hand. All 3 of my laptops and my desktop were bought used. I love e-waste and I know that it loves me too.
That said, I did forget prebuilt shit already has a license cooked into it lol. So yeah, my bad.
My laptop came without an OS
The thinkpad I bought (Not a used one btw) didnt had any os installed
Where do people buy computers with linux from normal shops?
Thinkpads frequently were sold with no Windows at the time
They’re all corporations and schools.
I once bought a oem resold windows license key for 3 dollars on ebay. I consider myself a sertified licensed windows holder
