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India Presses Microsoft For Windows Discount in Wake of Cyber Attacks (reuters.com)
India is pressing Microsoft to offer a sharply discounted one-time deal to the more than 50 million Windows users in the country so that they can upgrade to the latest Windows 10 operating system in the wake of ransomware attacks, Reuters reported Friday. From the article: Microsoft officials in India have "in principle agreed" to the request, Gulshan Rai, India's cyber security coordinator, told Reuters over the phone on Friday. If Microsoft agreed to such a discount, it could open up the global software giant to similar requests from around the world. Rai said the government was in talks with Microsoft management in India. It is not immediately clear whether any other countries were seeking similar deals.
lol @ Satya Nadella. Hey, call Microsoft support. I bet "Steve from Austin" will help you!
India has had EVERY opportunity to get off of Microsoft's garbage platform. Superior, FREE alternatives have existed for decades now. But instead, they chose to steal and pirate Microsoft's proprietary software, and now they want a bail-out. This makes me sick. Fuck Gulshan Rai and all of the asshole Indians who refuse to switch to Free and open source software. People have worked damn hard to create these alternatives to proprietary software—often the reasoning being that it is more accessible to those in the third-world—yet it's easier for them to simply steal. India deserves all of the ransomware it gets. Pricks.
Your computer have virus.
At least it is for Windows 7 and 8.x - Microsoft offers it free for those that use "accessibility tools" - in other words, if you upgrade, run the screen magnifier once, and you've met the legal requirements for the free upgrade.
All of the mechanisms are still in place to activate the latest (Creator's update) Windows 10 installs using Windows 7 or higher keys. They'd be hard pressed to change this, since many upgraders will not have a valid Windows 10 key if they had to move to a new or used replacement PC system.
Quite frankly, Microsoft isn't that concerned about consumers still getting a free upgrade; the bread and butter for Microsoft has always been licenses on new laptops and desktops and, of course, licenses to businesses. Microsoft actually wants users to migrate, for many reasons, most of which are good for consumers.
"I see your free operating system. And I raise you waiting two years then complaining the price your charging is too high"
This meal is awful.
And the portions are so small.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
More like Microsoft Press. This is an amazing marketing strategy. Last week it was that european country and the London police, now all of india. You get an upgrade! You get an upgrade! Everyone gets an upgrade! Now the whole world runs Windows 10, the most amazingest stablist securist OS* evar** ***
* version of windows
** still supported
*** not liable for any hacks of Windows 10
They must think this is some kind of 13th century thugee bazarr.
OK, you get a dollar off for every bag of human feces you collect from the street in front of your office. You probably can get a $20 discount for 10 minutes work.
Seriously, this is a typical Indian move.
I am pretty sure that it is something which is woven into their culture.
I have several India firms as clients. Typically they are serving as an OEM for a larger US or EU brand, but they are responsible for getting all of the certifications ahead of time.
So, we give our standard offer. They say, no no no, that is WAY too much. Way more than your competitors.
We say, what are you looking for?
They say, it must be at least 40% less than this.
We say... OK, we can do 30% less, but we will not offer any support. If you do not know how to fix something, or fill out some form, then it's not our problem.
They agree.
Then, they fuck everything and demand support and extra support. I forward them the earlier emails and reminding them they agreed to no support and tell them that I would be happy to send out a new offer to include support at our standard list price. They decline.
Then for the next project, they ask for an even bigger discount because the support last time was not good. Every..fucking...time.
A vector for them to force their contribution to the mass surveillance drag-net onto millions of innocent people
"I see your free operating system. And I raise you waiting two years then complaining the price your charging is too high"
Have you ever done business in India? This move makes perfect sense to them.
The business culture in India is the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition minus long term planning and the charm.
They were thinking:
Rule of Acquisition 11: "Even if it's free, you can always buy it cheaper."
Now they are thinking:
Rule of Acquisition 184: "A Ferengi waits to bid until his opponents have exhausted themselves."
Rule of Acquisition 34: "War is good for business." (or disaster in this case)
But what they forgot:
Rule of Acquisition 82: "The flimsier the product, the higher the price."
Unknown Number : "The more time they take deciding, the more money they will spend."
That usually results in the one making the threat being paid to install Microsoft Windows.
A discount to one group will certainly be passed along to other consumers. So I have to subsidize discounted India licenses now? Seems like something the Indian government should be doing
Hello, this is Windows Support. Your computer is showing us that you have . .
Eff you, India.
Hello - this is MacroSoft, you killed my father. Prepare to die.
and give me free software haha
and it actually improved the country. It was less penetrating than the sickly-sweet odor of the trash fires burning day and night, and far less offensive than the thick, humid stench of Indian bowel movements deposited on every pathway.
Should I bill them
Sure we'll do that if give us a 20 year tax break on building new manufacturing facilities. Someone has to build all the wireless keyboards, mice, and Clippy Amiibos for the next Smash Bros. game.
I see you may need help doing that hadouken..
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
do you mind if we can upgrade all our pirated copies of windows? It would be nice to receive security updates again!
imagine a world so secure that microsoft has just cause to charge as much as they do. if discounts were requires by law every time they fuck up a lot of things would be nicer.
1890s:
5 November 1891 - A mail train derailed near Nagpur, killing 10 passengers and leaving 35 others injured.
1900s:
24 October 1907 - A passenger train collided with a freight train at Kot Lakhanat station. 11 killed and 27 others injured.
2 December 1908 - 18 people were killed and 20 others injured in a collision of two mail trains at Barana station.
1920s:
A spiral on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, 1921.
April 1920 - 50 people killed and 50 others injured in a rail collision.
7 October 1920 - 40 people killed when the Madras - Bangalore Mail derailed around 3 km after Arakkonam.
1930s:
17 July 1937 - An express train from Calcutta plunged down an embankment near Bihta station, about 15 miles from Patna. At least 119 people were killed, and 180 others injured.
28 June 1939 - 10 people were killed and 21 injured in a train accident.
1940s:
4 October 1942 - 12 people were killed and 40 others injured in a railway accident 40 miles northeast of Bombay.
22 September 1947 - A train carrying more than 4500 Muslim refugees was attacked by armed Hindus and Sikhs at Amritsar station and fired upon for three hours. The attack was a response to the earlier massacre of Hindu and Sikh refugees at the Lahore station. 3418 people were either killed or missing, and 1328 others were wounded.
1950s:
April 1950 - 32 people were killed when a train derailed and crashed into a river.
7 May 1950 - At least 81 people were killed and 100 others injured when a train plunged off a bridge in the state of Bihar.
3 September 1951 - Ten people were killed and thirty others injured when the Sharanpur Express derailed about 11 miles from Delhi.
June 1953 - Five people were killed and fifty others injured in the collision between a passenger and a freight train between Semapore and Kalihar.
4 January 1954 - A passenger train derailed while crossing a bridge near Bhatinda, killing at least 15 people and injuring another 40.
31 March 1954 - 31 people were killed, and 32 others injured near Gorakhpur by the detonation of explosives being transported on a passenger train.
15 September 1954 - A train crashed into a truck carrying students at a crossing 80 miles north of New Delhi, killing 10 and injuring 18 others.
28 September 1954 - A train crashed into the Yasanti river, about 75 km south of Hyderabad, when the bridge collapsed. 139 people were killed and more than 100 injured.
2 September 1956 - A bridge collapsed under a train between Jadcherla and Mahbubnager, about 100 km from Hyderabad. At least 125 dead, 22 injured.
23 November 1956 - 104 people were killed and 100 others injured 175 miles south of Madras when a train plunged into a river from an embankment weakened by flood.
2 June 1957 - 18 people died and 53 others were injured when a passenger train crashed into a stationary train in Bombay.
November 1957 - At least 50 people were killed and more than 50 others injured in a rail accident.
21 May 1958 - An express train derailed near Chamaraj. 31 people killed and 41 others injured.
1960s:
4 January 1961 - Head-on collision of two passenger trains near Umeshnagar. 35 died and 61 were injured.
8 March 1961 - 11 people were killed and 37 others injured in a collision between a passenger and a freight train between Kalihar and Bihar.
October 1961 - 40 people were killed and many others injured when a train derailed 200 km from Kolkata.
22 July 1962 - 48 people were killed in a train crash in northwest India.
12 November 1962 - 25 passengers riding on the roof of a train were killed when they were hit by a bridge girder.
23 December 1964 -In Rameswaram cyclone (also known as the Dhanushkodi cyclone) the Pamban-Dhanuskodi passenger train was washed away. All 150 passengers on board were killed.
19 June 1965 - 15 people were killed when a freight train collided with a train carrying railway workers. The accident occurred about 500 miles from Bombay.
16 February 1
So basically: Nation of asshats asks vendor they stole all their shit from for a discount? Microsoft should just give them a tech support number in India to call.
There is a billion people in India, and only 50 million (5%) use Windows?
So you're arguing that Indian Muslims, or Pakis or Bangladeshers would be better software engineers than 'computer-hindus'?