Microsoft gives up on charging for Windows in China

[jimbo45]

Hi there

Long after the OFFICIAL end of XP people are still working on updating it --there's even a "Reasonably accurate and safe" SP4 for it !!!!!.

I'm sure the same will happen with W7 too so if W10 has things like forced updates / subscription models / "non hackable activation" then Windows 7 will just go on for ever and W10 will fail dismally.

If you let Pirates into the door then you can't close it again -- either give the OS away FREE or make it Cloud only. Now giving it away FREE to everybody shouldn't cause any problems with current users of other windows OS'es as NOBODY has had to pay for W10 (yet). So EVERBODY should get a copy - no upgrade from previous OS required.

Ms will still make a Fortune on supplying services so they could easily afford to give away the OS --they could shut down all their activation servers and call centers dealing with activation -- save them a shedload of money too.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Boozad]

The OEM hack probably explains why now, only retail serials qualify for an iso download.

Where did you get this information from?

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Huh!! just idly looked at a new Windows 7 OEM 32bit pack this evening I have spare and low an behold it says on it quote "WIN HMPREM 7 SP! yada yada - Not to China DVD LCP" but of a mystery to me now letting them have Win10 yet the 7 they can't have??

All a but of a joke really.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Agreed

...
but to the NAY sayers here on Windows 10 -- I'm trying it and have been quite impressed so far - any Win 7 user would not have any trouble using it (unlike Win 8).

Agreed.
When I fired up W10TP b9841 (last year) I "felt at home" right away.

That's not to say that I agree with all of the decisions that MS has made with W10.

 

[Anshad Edavana]

If MS really want to stop piracy in China, there is actually a way to do it - simply stop releasing Windows and Office in Chinese language. Chinese people are the worst English speakers in the entire world. They neither speaks nor writes any language other than theirs. English version of Windows and Office will be unusable to them. MS has nothing to gain from China.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

If MS really want to stop piracy in China, there is actually a way to do it - simply stop releasing Windows and Office in Chinese language. Chinese people are the worst English speakers in the entire world. They neither speaks nor writes any language other than theirs. English version of Windows and Office will be unusable to them. MS has nothing to gain from China.

This I like :roflmao::roflmao:

 

[Layback Bear]

Anshad that is one fine idea.

I kind of think the old business way.
Every customer is a good customer but only when they pay.

 

[whs]

If MS really want to stop piracy in China, there is actually a way to do it - simply stop releasing Windows and Office in Chinese language. Chinese people are the worst English speakers in the entire world. They neither speaks nor writes any language other than theirs. English version of Windows and Office will be unusable to them. MS has nothing to gain from China.

That would not work. Some Chinese would have that translated in no time.

 

[Anshad Edavana]

That would not work. Some Chinese would have that translated in no time.

Windows uses MUI based interface languages. These are digitally signed files which are not easy to tamper with. Creating your own MUI interface without help from MS ? , i don't think so. For example, Windows\en-US\explorer.mui is the language resource file for Windows explorer in US English versions. Try replacing that file with another language MUI and you will see.

 

[jimbo45]

If MS really want to stop piracy in China, there is actually a way to do it - simply stop releasing Windows and Office in Chinese language. Chinese people are the worst English speakers in the entire world. They neither speaks nor writes any language other than theirs. English version of Windows and Office will be unusable to them. MS has nothing to gain from China.

That would not work. Some Chinese would have that translated in no time.

Hi there

Don't assume either that all the Pirates are Chinese -- there's plenty of people in Europe and elsewhere who speak the main Chinese dialects -- so a translation would have appeared in ZERO seconds flat.

If you do any sort of trading whether on the "markets" or in physical goods it's generally a BAD practice "To chase Losses". It's often better to write them off and use a different business model / system or whatever.

Giving away W10 shouldn't "irritate" existing OS users as NOBODY has had to pay any money for it. I'd forget the whole "Upgrade" thing which has opened a whole can of worms about Piracy. Just bite the bullet -- give away as many copies of W10 that people want -- and then Sting them for things like service / subscriptions etc.

In any case that's the direction Ms is going in these days --it wants to reduce its reliance on the Windows OS itself as a revenue stream.

Several billion Chinese (and others) paying a few cents every so often for subscriptions and services is better than billions of people paying NOTHING and distributing all sorts of "unofficial mods" to the OS.

You can see the same idiocy when some companies try and recover uncollectable debts by using "DCA's" or Debt collection agencies. These have ZERO legal powers and operate by threatening all sorts of nasties ranging from Court summonses (which they can't do of course) to public flogging etc - and rarely recover anything significant. Whereas if the business understood the frailities of Human Nature they would be able to recover much more by dealing with the customer humanely rather than handing it over to some anonymous agency whose only method of operation is to resort to Playground Bully tactics. !!!!!

Ms need to accept the reality of the situation -- Windows if not given away is GOING to be pirated whatever you do -- so accept it and make your money on providing services that windows users will HAVE to pay for -- like say Utility bills or Satellite TV -- almost ZERO hacks on those. !!!!!!

As for the language interface -- it's quite easy to have most of the OS in another language - for example I have Office 10 and Windows 7 Icelandic Language interface packs - these install on top of say a Base English version and while not exactly equal to having windows 100% in the target language - it covers about 90% of it -- more than enough even if you DON'T speak English or whatever.

In any case have a look at this Software from China -- I'm not saying or implying that the company is anything less than 100% honest - but you have to ask yourself -- when running this would you realize that it WASN'T ms OFFICE if you didn't know !!!!!!!!!

Office Suite Download by WPS Office

I use it on ANDROID and it's very good !!!!!!! (formely known as Kingsoft Office).



Cheers
jimbo

 

[Anshad Edavana]

As for the language interface -- it's quite easy to have most of the OS in another language - for example I have Office 10 and Windows 7 Icelandic Language interface packs - these install on top of say a Base English version and while not exactly equal to having windows 100% in the target language - it covers about 90% of it -- more than enough even if you DON'T speak English or whatever.

Those are official language packs released by MS themselves - not any kind of hacks or packs created by third parties. If MS never releases a Chinese language pack for Win10, then there won't be any.


Unlike in USA or Europe, you can buy laptops without any OS in Asian countries. That's the root cause behind large scale piracy in China.

 

[eatup]

Lol, who needs W10, when XP is clearly superior. Asians aren't as dumb as us Westerners. Good luck trying to get users to switch from XP to 10 (via pirating 7) no matter how FREE the upgrade is.

This from a proud XP user who sees no use for any OS based on the Vista NT 6.x kernel (Vista/7/8.1/10/11?). Nothing these "modern" OSes can do that XP can't do better!

 

[whs]

Lol, who needs W10, when XP is clearly superior. Asians aren't as dumb as us Westerners. Good luck trying to get users to switch from XP to 10 (via pirating 7) no matter how FREE the upgrade is.

This from a proud XP user who sees no use for any OS based on the Vista NT 6.x kernel (Vista/7/8.1/10/11?). Nothing these "modern" OSes can do that XP can't do better!

Hmm, any minority report is welcome. But I think you overestimate the capabilities of XP. But in one point you are right - the Chinese are certainly adventurous. The made an XP phone.

Chinese Company Shows Windows XP Phone | PCWorld