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Comment by joshuapants | Hacker News Reader

This move makes sense: better to have people running a legitimate copy of your latest OS than a pirated copy of a 15-year-old OS. All the better to try and convert them to paying customers of Microsoft services.

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Bill himself said in the 90s - "About 3 million computers get sold every year in China, but people don't pay for the software. Someday they will, though. As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."

Interestingly, that quote is from almost 17 years ago and they don't quite seem to have figured out how to "collect" yet.

Oh they do indirectly. The continued ubiquity of Windows reduces the chance of something else stealing some momentum first there and then wider perhaps globally.

It isn't really "if they are going to steal it we want them to steal ours" as quoted directly, it is "if they will only accept free, the we'de rather they be part of our ecosystem for free instead of encouraging someone else's to grow".

They did very well. When you and everyone around you grow up using Microsoft's OS and office suite and then you start your own business, you will choose to run Windows and MS Office in your company - and since you want it to be a legitimate operation, you will buy the software.

And then there are various ways to pass the bill for your software further - e.g. to the taxpayer, if you're a government organization or a company funded by EU grant (I used to intern at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory; I'm pretty sure Microsoft makes a boatload of money on the licenses for all those thousands of Windows machines that run there).

It's a brilliant strategy. Adobe uses it too (Photoshop is so trivial to crack that it must be intentional).

I swear that MS only introduce the online serial code checks etc after the BSA threatened to expel them. Before that you could install Windows and Office as much as you wanted with just a serial code. No check back to a server, or any kind of hoopla over swapped motherboards on already registered copies.

No rush, it's not like MS is running out of money :)

And they've prevented hundreds of millions of people from going with a different OS, thus eliminating potential threats.

Unfortunately. I think if the Chinese government forced/encouraged everyone to go Linux a long time ago, instead of having to pirate Windows, the Linux ecosystem of programs would be much richer, too. And OEMs wouldn't release 99% of their machines with Windows on them by default.

This way we would've had competition on the desktop and in the browser market way before Android and iOS started appearing on tablets.

They tried and failed:

"Once the world's second-largest Linux distributor, Red Flag Software has shuttered reportedly due to mismanagement and after owing employees months in unpaid wages.

China's state-funded answer to global software giants like Microsoft, the Chinese company filed for liquidation over the weekend..." (2014)

http://www.zdnet.com/article/chinas-home-grown-linux-os-shut...

Only if linux would work out of the box, no driver issues, no need to change files with root... more user friendly.. They decided to make linux for the tech people

Well, this is partly true, in that "they" decided to make Linux for themselves, and they were tech people. But a lot of the out of the box problem with drivers are out of the control of the people making the kernel -- device manufacturers guard the design of their devices, and thus they're the only ones who can write the necessary drivers. And with Linux having a smaller share of the commodity PC market than Windows, Windows gets most of the resources devoted to writing drivers.

Either way, with linux I have to waste a lot of time to make it work, with windows, just works. At least this happens to me.

Are you trolling?

No, for sure. I tried multiple times to like linux, but everytime makes me hate it. Yes, more than windows.

Oh but they do. Regardless of target market, Chinese manufacturers build and test pretty much all their hardware with Windows; that means every other consumer also gets first-class support for Windows in their computers/devices/peripherals/gadgets, which means they keep buying Windows machines and paying the MS OEM tax.

I don't know if it is still true, but Chinese OEMs used to be a "pay what they will" business model for Windows licensing from Lenovo on down. There was simply no way to audit/enforce the OEM licensing agreements.

Think of the education market. So many schools in the US are full of Macs. You won't see that in China as Apple hardware is cost-prohibitive for them. Getting the mindshare and comfort with Windows pays dividends long term

Source (if anyone wants): http://news.cnet.com/2100-1023-212942.html

Absolutely. And the pirated versions keeps getting updates just like a fully paid version of Windows.

The subsequent versions of Windows are far more locked-down/limited with respect to user control and customisation than XP, which is likely why it lasted for so long.

How do you mean?

It looks like it is windows 7 and up, not XP and such.

They are making the free upgrade from Windows 7 and up globally, but this article seems to imply they are going to make an exception for China and make the upgrade free for all Windows users.

The title does seem to imply that. What the article in fact says is that the free upgrade is being offered globally, but the motivation behind it is to re-engage with Chinese Windows users who have an unlicensed OS.

AFAIK, upgrades are only supported from Windows 7 and up regardless whether the product is paid for.

That makes sense, given XP can install and run decently on a machine that would choke on Windows 7, if it would even install. Minimum system requirements are still a thing, and as light and efficient as Windows 10 is, it's not meant for 2001 era technology.

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