Hacker News Reader

Comment by foobaw | Hacker News Reader

Apologies for asking but how does a company like MS steal thousands from you? Enterprise SW?

Perhaps before your time, MS was a monopoly and you literally couldn't buy a computer without paying them, whether it ran windows or not. They sold crap at premium prices. They forced computer companies to pay a DOS/Windows license for each machine MADE, not if it ran their OS.

The used dirty tricks to sink their competitors, stole ideas, products, etc. They were the original bastards of the tech industry.

I have hated them since I was a kid...in the 80s.

This Simpsons scene summarizes things nicely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H27rfr59RiE

https://www.wired.com/2008/06/gates-monopoly/

The part where you "literally couldn't buy a computer without paying them" is simply not true. I bought a lot of computers and computer parts at the time, and probably the only time I "had" to pay for an MS license was when buying a laptop. (But I got that one used, at a much cheaper price, on eBay, so...)

You are vastly exaggerating.

Exaggerating, but not vastly - it really did used to be quite difficult to buy a computer that didn't have Windows pre-installed.

It's still pretty difficult to find a laptop without Windows. I had paid about a thousand dollars of OEM licenses that I didn't want and never used.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundling_of_Microsoft_Windows

I have bought about 10+ machines which has windows pre-installed, but I immediately wiped to install Linux. At 50$/OEM license, thats about 500$ I have lost. Not sure I would classify that as stealing, but some people do.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundling_of_Microsoft_Windows#...

I accidentally left a (mostly) empty application service running on Azure for about 7 months on their Pay-As-You-Go plan. I racked up over $500 in charges that I didn't know about, and I felt robbed. In reality, I'm just kinda dumb.

Wasn't there a way to contact them and ask for a rebate or something? They can be understanding of that kind of stuff.

Time spent re-installing Windows?

At least with linux, you got some command line skills (back in the day).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com