Re: xxd -i vs DIY Was: C23 thoughts and opinions

On 5/29/2024 8:18 PM, bart wrote:

On 29/05/2024 22:46, Malcolm McLean wrote:

On 29/05/2024 20:59, Michael S wrote:

On Wed, 29 May 2024 14:07:00 -0400
James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> wrote:
>

On 29/05/2024 18:27, Malcolm McLean wrote:

On 29/05/2024 13:10, David Brown wrote:

>
It wasn't the cheapest available, and 64 GB memory (and 4 TB SSD)
don't come free.  (And I buy these bare-bones.  Machines with
Windows "pre-installed" are often cheaper because they are
sponsored by the junk-ware and ad-ware forced on unsuspecting
users.)

Yes, I got a job at Cambridge which didn't work out (Cantab dons,
much less tolerant people then their counterparts at another
university, but that's another story). And I was given a brand new
Windows machine, and told that we had to use Linux. So I installed
a Linux version which ran on top of Windows. No good, I was told.
Might cause problems with that "interesting" set up. ...

>
They're quite right in that regard, as I can testify from personal
experience.
>

... So I had to scrub a brand new version of Windows.
It felt like the most extravagant waste.

>
Keep in mind that, as David pointed out, the "waste" was probably
negative. You got a better price on the machine than you would have
otherwise, and erasing that malware gave you more space to put useful
stuff on your machine.

>
May be, for laptps that is true. But for mini-PCs it is very different.
Windows is surprisingly expensive in this case. OEM license is sold for
~75% of retail license price.
>

Exactly. Windows costs a fortune.

 
Actually I've no idea how much it costs.
 
But whatever it is, I'm not adverse to the idea of having to pay for software. After all you have to pay for hardware, and for computers, I would happily pay extra to have something that works out of the box.
 

And Microsoft spend billions developing it.
>
Baby X can't compete.

 
Huh? I didn't know Baby X was an OS!

Windows costs anywhere from say $20 to $150.

When the price gets down to $5, we get "suspicious".

People on USENET who have bought the cheap licenses,
for the most part are not reporting problems, so somehow,
these keys are legit. And they're not "manufactured" keys,
they seem to be normal keys. But with no "readout mechanism"
for users to use, we don't really know where they came from.
They could be Enterprise machine COA keys (Enterprise setups
don't tend to use the key the machine came with), they could
be MSDN subscription keys chopped up, and so on.
Some sort of weird source. They are likely to be OEM and
not transferable to another machine.

Retail keys can be moved, such as if a machine dies, you
can move the key to a replacement machine. But then you'll pay
a high price for that.

The two copies of Windows 8 I bought, were $40 each direct
from Microsoft (introductory offer). I don't think Win10 and
Win11 had an intro offer, nor the 3-pak of the family pack edition.

If you want the machine to have a key, you can do it, but
you don't need to pay full price for it.

The $20 keys are not located at your local computer store,
they come from sketchy online sellers. Part of the fun is
not knowing what is going to happen.

   Paul