OEMs buy licenses in bulk they do not pay $100 a pop and it doesn’t get passed onto the user as a full $100 add on. Similarly if you’re building it yourself you can buy for significantly less from a reseller, many of which are wholly legitimate.
Which is less than the $140 that Microsoft charges for Win 10 Home, but it's still substantial: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/b/windows
Really, why wouldn't they? If you can't get it cheaper, they have no reason to sell it cheaper. Easy profit.
I don't think business-targeted sales are particularly in-scope. And even if they are, that only makes it worse, as it implies they're getting an even more significant profit margin.
> Similarly if you’re building it yourself you can buy for significantly less from a reseller, many of which are wholly legitimate.
The horses mouth charges $140+, which is significantly more than the $100 that was about.
If you need multiple copies you can work with a VAR (Value Added Reseller) to get better pricing.
CDW.com is the big name in VAR's but they have enormous turnover in staff. I try to build relationships with smaller VAR's. I like these guys: https://greenbeetech.com/ it's a small company with two guys running it who have decades of VAR experience (former CDW people).
Navigating the process of compliantly licensing Microsoft as you scale up is quite a job. Having a good partner to help your organization stay compliant is very valuable.
Because illegitimate keys can be banned (and the hardware using them can be blacklisted) if they are found to be stolen or acquired in some other way that Microsoft does not like.
It's also a huge liability of you're doing any professional work with unlicensed and/or potentially illegal software licenses.
> It's also a huge liability of you're doing any professional work with unlicensed and/or potentially illegal software licenses.
is it really? at worst it's copyright infringement
Elite controller was $99, and I laughed when it was on sale for like $150 last week as a best ever deal.
Oh, wait the discount also applies to former employees?
Edit: yes if you are part of the alumni network. It has a fee but it is good value. TIL.