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Microsoft Offers Pirates Amnesty and Free Windows 10 Upgrades

Posted by Soulskill on from the fighting-fire-with-free-gasoline dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft will make Windows 10 available as a free upgrade even to pirated copies of other Windows operating systems in China. Terry Myerson of Microsoft's operating systems unit made the announcement at the WinHEC technology conference in Shenzhen, China, and then told Reuters, "We are upgrading all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10." Microsoft has a history of attempting to tackle massive and rising software piracy rates in Asia and developing countries, and periodically offers low-cost "licence amnesties" to the worst-offending countries, such as Indonesia and Kenya. Update: 03/18 14:59 GMT by S : Microsoft has clarified that the free upgrade will be offered for unlicensed copies of Windows worldwide, not just in China.

5 of 322 comments (clear)

  1. Don't take it - its a trap by Chrisq · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Don't take it - its a trap! They'll have you locked in and in future you'll pay

  2. Re:so, the key to amnesty... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Opposite effect. After being able to purchase a copy at $30, I can't fathom paying more than that for future versions, so I pirate it for free. Getting me "hooked" just makes me steal it, it doesn't make me pay 10x what I used to pay.

  3. Re:so, the key to amnesty... by rahvin112 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They haven't done this kind of thing before. The rumors are this is SaaS in that you can download and install it for free and even use it for a year for free but after a year they hold the whole thing hostage and demand money from you. SaaS in the retail non-business market is just insane, I hope the rumors aren't true but I suspect they are given the success they've had with office365.

  4. Re:Free is still too expensive by Binestar · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I call shenanigans. You're not going to do anything with a windows 8 machine until you install third party software anyways. What is the issue with installing a third party start menu? If the product is available and does what you want for the price you want (classic shell is free), what's the problem?

    Disk IO is better in windows 8 than in 7
    Startup times are better

    I wouldn't necessarily spend money to upgrade from 7 to 8 on an existing PC, but new PC, I'd just get it with 8.1 to start.

    --
    Do you Gentoo!?
  5. Re:I want to get paid by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I do not want this deal - my embroidery software requires XP, and the sewing machine will not work with newer software. There is no way I would replace my old "Made in Switzerland" machine, with a modern "made in Korea" one.

    --
    Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII