Did you pay for Windows?

carambola5 · Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2002 8:16 pm Post subject: Did you pay for Windows?

Assuming you've used Windows on your home machine, did you actually pay for it? Even paying a "discounted" price for something like a student price counts as paying for it.

The motive for this thread is to see the impact of the price criterion in choosing Linux over Windows.

Edit: changed the first option to be more general (ie: if you voted for it already, then you're still within the bounds of the option).
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snutte · Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2002 8:30 pm Post subject:

I dont know if i actually own a windows license. Since my old school threw out a hole box of windows 95 packages i took one of them. So i have the CD and my own serial.
But the only time ive used it was in vmware.

JanErik · Guru Joined: 28 Oct 2002 Posts: 447 Location: Finland

Never paid for any software!

Matje · Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2002 8:58 pm Post subject:

Are you Bill Gates in disguise? :-)

Only windows I got the legal way was a OEM-version delivered with a pc :-)

Other ones were bought too... once upon a time... by someone... :-)

jonemi · Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2002 8:58 pm Post subject:

Time for predictions!:

I predict the majority of users that will respond did not pay for Windows. Furthermore, I predict that this thread will be deleted by mods as it discusses illegal activity.

pjp · Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2002 9:05 pm Post subject:

You forgot the option "All of the versions of Windows I used were legally obtained". Options that mention not all were paid for suggest something "fishy".
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gsfgf · Veteran Joined: 08 May 2002 Posts: 1266

1x OEM - Win95
2x Retail - W98 / W2k
2x Beta (but i probobly still shouldn't have had them)- ME(for a week) and Whistler(XP_rc1 pre-luna)
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darktux · Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2002 9:26 pm Post subject:

Payed for what?
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Cid Highwind · n00b Joined: 09 Jul 2002 Posts: 53

1x Win95 OSR2, included with a computer (this may count as paying for it)
1x Win98 SE, Christmas present from a relative who worked for Microsoft
1x WinXP, my roommate got it for free (along with visual studio .NET) from the MS presenter at a computing society meeting, then gave to me since he already had a copy

Cloim · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 02 Aug 2002 Posts: 99

For windows versions i've used:
started out on win 9.x, crappy, never liked it.
upgraded to win 95, better, but still crappy, never liked it.
bought another comp with win 98 or 2000, crappy, never liked it.
bought another comp last spring with XP on it. This time I actually liked it. Much better than any previous version I've tried.
Only major problem was buggy software. The supplied word processor (MS Works) tended to crash frequently. I wanted to try something else out, but had no comfidence that anything else would work. If MS can't program a simple ap for their own OS then who can?
So after about a month I then upgraded to Linux Mandrake 8.2. Lots of potential, but I really wanted to try Gnome2 out, so ...
A month later I upgraded to Gentoo 1.2.
A month later to Gentoo 1.4rc1.
Been here since it came out. Still have an XP partition for some reason, but I'm having difficulty recalling why.
All versions paid for, up to and including Mandrake.
Will probably buy some gentoo-logoed merchandise some time next month.

Carlos · Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2002 2:17 am Post subject:

Speaking of paying for Windows, Lawrence Lessig made a very interesting point about pirating Microsoft software at a lecture he gave in Tokyo a few days ago. Of course, a lot of piration goes on in the US and other first-world companies, but in poorer places, from India and China to Eastern Europe, sometimes even a majority of the software used is pirated. The strange part is that despite the fact that these people have less money to spend on software than those who live in richer nations, use of GNU/Linux and other Free operating systems is not very widespread.

So he said there should be a joint campaign by RMS and Bill Gates to say that pirating Microsoft software is wrong. :wink:

Of course, Gates wouldn't like that; it's in his best interest to allow piration in poorer countries (in the best-case scenario he'd engage in price discrimination, charging very little in those countries and the current high prices in the US, but that doesn't go over well with politicians and the like) so that he can maintain footholds in those countries and keep up Microsoft's ridiculous market share.

I've paid for all my copies of Windows, but the last one was Win98 SE.
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gfunkmonk · Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2002 2:19 am Post subject:

1 x Win95c
1 x Win98
1 x Win2k Pro
1 x WinXP Pro

I don't remember paying for any of them ... :lol:

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Pigeon · Guru Joined: 21 Jun 2002 Posts: 307

1x Win 3.11
2x Win95
2x Win98
1x Win98SE
1x Win2k
1x WinXP

I payed for 3.11 and one copy of 95.

Can O' Beans · n00b Joined: 12 Dec 2002 Posts: 50

Got Win3.1 with my first PC, so I guess thats "paid for". Win95 was bought by parents.

Then got Win98, Win98se, WinNT 4.0, Win2000, Win2000 Adv Server, WinXP by.. um... well..

The version of my WinXP was released secretly by Microsoft so I guess we'll consider that one as "free"

With all the problems Windows has, theres no way I'd pay for it. The only reason it's installed is because it's required by the other software that I happily paid for. The only thing I need it for is games (Battlefield 1942).