You probably paid a Windows license for your Linux machine, if you didn’t buy it second-hand. Everyone buying a computer with Windows preinstalled buys a Windows license.
The thinkpad I bought (Not a used one btw) didnt had any os installed
My PC all come as parts or second hand. Sometimes both.
Some mini PCs are possibly interesting new, but I wouldn’t be getting one with windows if I do ever get one.
I bought a Framework with no preinstalled OS 😋
Edit: Desktop was built from parts, no pre-installed OS 😋😋
Mine was a Tuxedo with Linux preinstalled. But we are a rare breed, even among users of Linux.
No matter what distro it came with, I’m sure it was the wrong one 😆
My laptop came without an OS
Weirdly enough there is a massive subset of people who buy the latest parts with little research beyond “Hey gpt what card do I need to play fortnite max settings” and assume massgrave (if theyve even heard of massgrave) is a virus
I had a colleague in work come to me with exactly this, they’d got AI to spec them a PC for their kid to fit a certain budget.
The problem is the AI was using pricing data that was about a year out of date. It also massively over-specced (calling for 64GB of RAM for Roblox!).
The funny part was even when he challenged it back saying he couldn’t find that RAM for anywhere near the price GPT quoted, the AI just argued back saying whatever store it was must be trying to scam him because RAM shouldn’t be that expensive.
I still have my win 3.1 license and floppies in the attic
make copies for archival
I got a Windows license key back when Windows 10 launched. It works even with a fresh Windows 11 installation. You can end your search now.
(Funny thing is a couple years later, I would main Debian for about two or three years and it is installed installed on my laptop)
Me too, they just accepted my cracked Win7 installation and gave me a valid license for Win10 back then. Probably it was easier and more long-term profitable for them to simply dole out valid licenses, to bring those people into the fold.
I have my OEM DVD for win 10 in the cupboard.
Found the massgrave script recently when trying to get a win10 install running on an older system. Damn, works like a charm
Between Ventoy being able to make an installer that bypasses Win11’s TPM requirement, and massgrave, it’s trivially easy to put Win11 on older machines.
Now, why you’d want to is another matter. But sometimes you need to.
Never heard of massgrave, used ventoy before but I don’t think I have ever put a windows 11 ISO on it.
Does £1.23 for windows 8.1 pro count?
Every business and government in the world? Once when I started a new job, the IT guy asked if I needed to use things like Word or Excel, because it’s $500 per year per employee for an Office365 subscription and they’re trying to keep the costs down. That’s on top of the Windows subscription.
clearly you have never been to LATAM, India, Indochina, middle east, Russia, China or Africa
Most folks are on a license that includes m365/office, windows enterprise, exchange online, sharepoint online, some entra/intune/defender things and more for about $380/user per year.
I have worked in a place where 100% of the workforce used linux, which was logical seeing as the product was also linux
I wouldn’t say every business, I’ve definitely worked somewhere where all our machines were cracked. but that’s going to be the exception not the rule obviously.
Back when I was in the Army… we definitely had some means to tactically acquire Windows licenses.
I worked IT in the Army and whenever they asked me how I did it, I told them to not worry about it.
We also never paid for winrar. So if you wonder where that huge budget goes to, it is not to Windows Licenses or Winrar.
I’m working at a university, and hoo boy, did we use a lot of cracked shit. And funniest thing is that half of that shit can be acquired legally for free as part of education licensing.
I’m happy to be the part of reason why in recent years my department has been shifting towards FOSS alternatives. Like yeah, it’s not morally wrong to pirate from the likes of Adobe or Microsoft, but I’m not a fan of people even simply making a habit of using software from aforementioned companies.
I was at school over a decade ago and we all had GIMP on our PCs
They’re happy with the data you’re paying with
Basically every device sold with windows is licensed, and the cost of the license is baked in
Sadly every nearly every windows-capable device sold without windows also has the cost of a windows license baked in too.
I recently wanted to buy one, and the option without windows was actually more expensive…
MS had agreements with the big names where they got their license cut for every device sold. It didn’t matter if it had windows or not. Someone had to pay for that.
When I bought my first laptop you couldn’t buy one with Linux preinstalled but I did decline the windows license and apply for and get a refund from Dell
You all are using windows?
My Linux Mint laptop is being whiny, so I’m using my emergency Windows 10 laptop rn.
Funny, because my windows 10 pc was really whinny. Constantly said stupid things like “I want to ba Windows 11 when I grow up”. So I decided to spare it the misery and it is not whining anymore as a Linux Mint.
But at work, I am forced to use windows 11. That shit is aggressively designed against the user, I hate it with all my heart.
I own a few LTSC licences for W10 and W11.
I buy them from a grey market seller based in Europe for about $25 a piece
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I bought a license for my custom PC.
…They were good for ~2 years until a Win11 update, which then said its invalid. Now it keeps prompting me to buy a new one.
Never again.
Corporate aside I’ve interacted with more people who paid for winrar than windows.
