Hacker group releases updated tool to activate almost all modern Microsoft software

[Liranan]

And with how functional, especially out of the box some linux distros have become, they better keep it that way lol. The only thing Windows truly has going for it anymore is Adobe, Microsoft 365 garbage and for me personally...FxSound. Basically everything is dumbed down with the penguin these days.

As they're moving Office to the web the only two things keeping Windows alive are Adobe (and video editing in general) and gaming. Gimp is a viable alternative to Photoshop and free, as are darktable and my favourite RawTherapee.

 

[arrowflash]

Adding to all the comments in the discussion,

I just don't understand why MS hasn't just made Windows officially free for personal, private use.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Adding to all the comments in the discussion,

I just don't understand why MS hasn't just made Windows officially free for personal, private use.

Well, cause vast quantities of people still pay for it... and that's free money...

 

[acrossthestars]

They literally host their tool on Github, which is owned by Microsoft. As far as I can Microsoft has decided they would rather have those tech savy enough to pirate go ahead and activate a clean (well, nothing that is not MS approved anyways lol) copy of Windows than use virus laden cracks, or even worse, start to dabble in Linux.

It's the same reason WinZip has a perpetual "trial" version of their software. Better to capture a large mindshare of the public visa via piracy, than have users use "better" FOSS options.

Like it or not, most users want the closed-source stuff, it's just that they either can't afford it or don't want to buy it. Regardless, a pirated "legit" copy of closed-source software is still closed-source software usage.