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Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users this summer, but Microsoft is also extending its offer to software pirates. Kind of takes all the fun out of torrenting it now
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Is that Microsoft, or some pirate who forced Microsoft to say this kind of stuff. 
The sh*t I complain about
It's like there ain't a cloud in the sky and it's raining out - Eminem
~! Firewall !~
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Free doesn't exist, so what's the catch?
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The 'catch' is, it's only for the first 12 months after release. After that you either have to pay or pirate it for real. It's a way to get everyone to leave older platforms rather than force-feed the upgrade the way browsers do (which would likely get MS in hot water with regulators).
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There's little cost to duplicating a license.
The catch is marketshare. Microsoft knows that they need to own the platform, or become the next IBM.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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The moment a pirate buys a paid app from the store, they're ahead of the game. 99% of their sales come from oem pre-installs or site licenses; even if every geek building his own box decided on bootstrapping from Warezdoze 7/8 to Windows 10 it's not a meaningful amount of revenue they're risking.
I strongly expect that next spring/summer the free upgrade program will be made permanent instead of being allowed to expire.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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No way on Earth this happens if Gates or Ballmer was in charge. 
Contrary to popular belief, nobody owes you anything.
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They used to have roll-out events and give away free stuff. I got Win 7 at the roll-out; otherwise I would probably still be using XP.
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Of course... but a few roll-out events is not free copies to everyone with a pirated copy. This is a BIG shift in ideology.
Contrary to popular belief, nobody owes you anything.
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Since you don't have a pirated copy and you didn't buy it, you will probably not be able to upgrade for free. 
Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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Dunno. Though I might via the MSDN subscription I have from work anyway -- though I'd prefer not to use that.
Back just before VB3 came out, MS gave out some free copies of VB2 (I got one), then once VB3 launched they gave it free to anyone who had acquired VB2 in the previous six months, including me.  Not that I used it; I couldn't figure it out. 
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PIEBALDconsult wrote: couldn't figure it out
That's because you were too smart.
#SupportHeForShe If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.-John Q. Adams
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
Only 2 things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.-Albert Einstein
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I never doubted that. Glad I never paid money for that shtuff.
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OK, so what I'll do is, just before the Win 10 release, I'll grab a Win 7 torrent and install it on all my XP machines (but not on the Vista machine, because I like it the way it is).
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Seems overly optimistic to me. My projected timeline looks like:
2015-2018: 3 years wasted trying to convince MS, Apple, Google, etc to add us govt root certificates to their OS repositories by default.
2018-2019: 1 year wasted writing an RFP for a contract to provide commercial certificates to the US govt.
2019-2020: I year wasted bidding on the RFP.
2020-2022: 2 years wasted resolving all the protests by CAs that lost the bid.
2022-2026: 4 years wasted pushing through all the contracts needed to update the eleventy zillion websites that were written by contractors and which didn't have a maintenance contract in place to allow the upgrade.
2027: US govt sites are all HTTPS enabled.
meanwhile....
2021: HTTPS becomes obsolete and is replaced with something else. 
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Dan Neely wrote: 2021: HTTPS becomes obsolete and is replaced with something else.
I was thinking the same thing. 
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Well, at least they're not trying to ban HTTPS altogether[^]! 
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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I have a browser plugin which forces the web to SSL where available, and you would be amazed at the amount of websites where they have purchased an SSL certificate, but the actual website falls to pieces when you actually try and use the HTTPS version of their website.
It's not bloody difficult! 
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Emsisoft (AV software maker) study of the percentages of PUPs (potentially unwanted programs) that popular download sites, like download.com, and tucows.com, bundle with their downloads: [^].
The only "eye-opener" for me in the study was this comment about SourceForge:
"SourceForge may do a good job at keeping their top ten applications PUP-free; however, some PUPs are delivered through optional installs per the freeware vendors choice. Sourceforge provides software developers the option to make cash with their freeware through software bundles, and apparently some software vendors chose to do so as you can see in the above screenshot with the popular Sourceforge application FileZilla."
«To kill an error's as good a service, sometimes better than, establishing new truth or fact.» Charles Darwin in "Prospero's Precepts"
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Message Removed
modified 17-Mar-15 22:47pm.
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Message Removed
modified 17-Mar-15 22:47pm.
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Few platforms draw the same amount of ire as ASP.NET (or .NET in general) from the development community. "In time we hate that which we often fear."
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Qn-Why I don't like such article?
Ans-Because it's contentless.
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