Using Windows 7 RC? Pay Up Or Auto Shutdown Warned 430
CWmike writes with a warning that free preview copies of Windows 7 in the wild will start nagging users to pay up in a couple of weeks until ultimately shutting down the PC altogether in a month. "Microsoft unveiled the schedule for Windows 7 Release Candidate's retirement in May 2009, when it issued the early look to the public. At the time, it said Windows 7 RC would expire June 1, 2010. Before that date, however, users are to receive warnings of the impending end. Starting on Feb. 15, Windows 7 RC will display notices every few hours that the machine will periodically shut down beginning on March 1. As of March 1, PCs running Windows 7 RC will automatically shut down every two hours. Those shutdowns will come without warning."
Really? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Really? (Score:5, Funny)
Hi, I'm a PC (Score:5, Funny)
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and random restarts of Windows 7 was my idea!
Personally I like the random restarts. It reminds me of good ol' Windows Me.
Re:Hi, I'm a PC (Score:5, Funny)
``and random restarts of Windows 7 was my idea!''
Does this satisfy your need? Windows 7 in 7 Screenshots [inglorion.net].
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What surprises me more is that people are still using the RC. Why would anyone do that? I've seen 7 on my dads alienware(*) laptop. Frankly, I wasn't impressed. Feels like Vista, but a bit faster. XP is not an option since he wants to use the full memory instead of being limited to 3.5Gig. At least it doesn't feel sluggish, but on an i7 I wouldn't expect that.
(*) My dad is a strange creature.... He buys the highest end laptop he can get/pay and then uses it for years.... The laptop the i7 replaced was
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CPUs aren't getting much faster quickly, ditto video cards [...]
Actually, they are, it's just that typical requirements are plateauing.
Really, I don't know who came up with the idea that PCs should be replaced annually or even every two years or so.
No-one outside of enthusiasts does this. Businesses typically work on a 3-5 year cycle, and home users frequently even longer.
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Probably not typical, but a friend of mine is still running the RC. Why? Here was the situation. His laptop was acting up last summer. Constantly shutting down. I told him I would reload it for him. It came with Vista. I backed his stuff up, wiped his partition clean, and started installing Vista from scratch. It simply wouldn't finish installing. I tried several times with the same result (and no, I'm not so stupid that I don't know how to install Windows). I thought it was probably a hard drive o
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Re:I run Windows 7 RC (Score:5, Informative)
If you could update from the RC to the final I would.
It was explicitly stated during the RC process that it may not be upgradeable to the final version. Anyway, I have updated it and it works fine for me and most. Here's how http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/3075/how-to-upgrade-the-windows-7-rc-to-rtm/ [howtogeek.com]
Backup everything and try it before a fresh install.
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You don't need to download anything from Steam, just copy the files. There are instructions on their site.
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Steam alone is probably going to take all week to get everything re-downloaded.
Just as an fyi: So long as you preserve the Steam directory, you shouldn't need to reinstall any of the games as far as I know. The last few times I have formatted, all I need to do is possibly reinstall the steam client itself and all of my previously installed games have worked fine afterward. It's one reason I tend to get games on Steam now instead of elsewhere if they're released at the same time.
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1. Would cease working after the cut-off time
2. Should NOT be installed on any sort of "production" machines (it's a RC after all)
3. Would not be officially upgradeable to the W7 final
And now you're complaining of all of the above.
It's like buying fresh milk and whining it went bad 4 days later. you had been warned. What did you expect?
If you have a legit purchase, google for
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Nothing wrong with Windows 7, tho. I don't see why the reluctance to switch from XP.
I remember when XP came out and activation was the hot issue, everybody was saying how they would never consider switching from Windows 2000 to XP. Now it's the same story with Windows 7 and XP.
I have been using Win7 64 bits with no issues whatsoever and about the only software that I have found not to run was "Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines", but then again, that game was buggy even in the recommended OS.
UAC was not th
It's a good thing. (Score:5, Informative)
Since the RC doesn't get any updates, less vulnerable boxes in the wild is always good for all of us. Why is this being spun as a bad thing?
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The RC is still getting security updates.
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I don't know why this is even a story. It's a total waste of bandwidth. This shutdown is part of the deal of using the RC. Maybe there are people out there who downloaded it off bittorrent without realising it was limited, but then that's their own stupid fault.
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I don't know, I think that if I'm told a beta is going to be valid until June, I wouldn't expect harassment 3 months before that time.
Re:Really? (Score:5, Insightful)
And you just couldn't read a few words more to understand the whole thing and that it starts to shutdown every two hours on March? The original warning about that wasn't that it works until June, it was that on March it starts to shutdown every two hours, and finally on June it will stop booting. That's three months for you to take your files and settings and update. Stop being so freaking difficult.
I know it's the usual thing to badmouth MS on slashdot, but everyone knew it was going to expire and you would need to update.
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What gets me annoyed is that it won't accept my authentic license keys, presumably because they're for the wrong version of language. That means I can't activate it without having to wipe the system and download and burn the installation media.
Normal... (Score:2, Funny)
Rebooting every few hours, then not booting at all? Many Windows users will just think this is normal.
Without warning? (Score:5, Insightful)
Uh, it's going to notify you... ...that's warning.
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True, the warning will start Feb 15h, and Microsoft doesn't release security updates for the Windows 7 RC code, so we're ALL better off to see these machines change to a different OS. The previews of Windows 7 were aimed at a tech savvy audience and hence I do not see any issue... except typical Slashdot "LOL M$ SUX WHATEVER IT DOES" bullshit.
Re:Without warning? (Score:5, Funny)
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Not only that, but it was made perfectly clear when you received the key for it. This shouldn't be a surprise for anyone who has a legitimate copy of the RC.
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Not to mention that it was never released as anything but temporary, or the two weeks of "That thing you're not paying for isn't the real product" camp over the summer.
Re:Without warning? (Score:5, Funny)
Uh, it's going to notify you... ...that's warning.
Yes, but it will notify you without warning.
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So, you get a 15 day advance warning for the impending shutdowns. Also, Microsoft has mentioned earlier, on several occasions, that this was eventually going to happen with the RC version. It's only fair: you can try it for free, but you have to pay to keep using it. Not different from any other na
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If you're not going to read the article, at least glance at the summary:
So, you get a 15 day advance warning for the impending shutdowns. Also, Microsoft has mentioned earlier, on several occasions, that this was eventually going to happen with the RC version. It's only fair: you can try it for free, but you have to pay to keep using it. Not different from any other nagware.
Not only that, it's not regular shareware or trialware, it was specifically aimed at tech savvy tinkerers that fiddle with OS installs most of who already must have moved on to the RTM, Ubuntu or XP. Hence it's not like it's being sprung as a surprise.
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Well, where would the fun be in that? And, more seriously, the article seems to say
Meaning, I think, you'll get a warning that you might get a shutdown at some point. But, when the shutdown happens, it might come without a more imminent warning. The linked
..so? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:..so? (Score:5, Funny)
Hey, it's our M$ bashing article of the day, I've been waiting all day for a nice 'M$' bash post full of venom and vitriole, please don't rain on the parade! LOL M$ SUX!
Re:..so? (Score:5, Funny)
NOTE: Since multitasking is disabled in iPhone/iPad, I can only bash one evil empire at a time.
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Well, atleast the Apple bashing has some legitimacy... no multitasking and no political or offensive apps, whereas this post is devoid of any juicy bashing material.
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Re:..so? (Score:5, Insightful)
> Windows is a commercial product.
Exactly right. Bootleg Windows is the #1 competition to Linux. So if ya want to bring about "The Year of the Linux Desktop" helping Microsoft turn the screws on unlicensed installs is probably the most productive thing a non-coder can do. Especially outside the US.
Re:..so? (Score:5, Insightful)
> Three stories the geek will studiously ignore:
We don't ignore them, we understand them to be unimportant. Please take your astroturf campaign somewhere people won't call you out and laugh.
> Microsoft revealed that it had sold over 60 million Windows 7 licenses through the second quarter.
So what? Just means that after a couple of YEARS of pent up demand because of the Vista fiasco retailers had a decent Xmas selling season for PCs despite the generally crappy economy. Almost none of those 7 licenses were actual retail sales in the normal meaning of the word. Yes, we all understand the Microsoft tax still exists despite multiple consent decrees so every PC sale is also a Windows sale. But those would have been Vista sales a year ago and XP before that. Hell, about half the netbooks this Xmas were still XP. And to be able to show a increase in revenue they had to jack the OEM pricing on 7 oretty steep. That is a longterm opportunity for the Penguin Army.
> Apple's Aug. 28 release of its Snow Leopard...
Meh. At least most Apple users DO upgrade when a new OS ships instead of waiting for their next system purchase to get it rammed down their throat whether they want/like it or not. But Apple is just a niche player and their business model requires them to remain a niche player. Unlike His Steveness who only aspires to be a cult leader, we want "World Domination"
> For the last day in January Windows 7 Breaks 10% in Daily Tracking.
You say that like you guys in Redmond are proud of it or something. It is a sign of a saturated market. Odds are over half of that 10% was people getting a new machine for Xmas because the penetration numbers for 7 before that was still fairly small. Compare and contrast to Win95's release and deployment rate. That was a product people really wanted enough to suffer through the pain of upgrading.
Windows 7 (Professional 64bit) is actually pretty good, I got it forcefed on a new laptop (but it runs F12 99% of the time) and it mostly works. Both W7 and Fedora screw up some aspects of hot docking, each failing to deal with the external display having a different resolution in different ways. W7 blows up Firefox; every launch throws three error dialogs before settling down and running. F12 instead throws the abrt-tool every time FF closes. Meh, a pox on em all. Bottom line, after seeing W7 it is OK as far as Windows goes. I ordered the XP restore disc just in case I decided W7 blows goats but didn't end up using it. Would I upgrade a working Windows XP PC to it? Why? I can't answer that question and I'd bet you can't either. Since Vista has had some service pack love I'm not even certain I'd recommend spending good money taking an otherwise working Vista install up to 7.
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> Wait, so which is it now? Is it:
> a) Vista was crap, and now people are falling over themselves to buy a windows 7, or a PC with windows 7, or
> b) Almost all of windows 7 sales were involuntary, and not a product of demand
I'll try one more time to explain it.
1. Vista was considered to be crap. EVERYBODY was saying it, the NYT, CNN, everybody. I never messed with it a lot but the one machine I put the RC on worked just fine. Sluggish though and it was an Athlon64. But regardless of fact, perc
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Why does this commercial product work at all without payment?
Re:..so? (Score:5, Insightful)
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That actually kinda sounds like something a drug dealer would say.
Try it for free and get hooked?
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Because it's a trial version. Contrary to other replies, this isn't particularly relevant to it being a non-final version, except that all non-final releases are legally trial versions. However, you can just as well get a 90-day trial version of Windows 7 Enterprise final version [microsoft.com] for free (and if you just want to try it, that's what you really should use, rather than RC).
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Re:..so? (Score:4, Funny)
Windows 35?
Duh (Score:5, Insightful)
This should not be a surprise to anyone. Why is this news?
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Erm.. the OS will clearly say 'Evaluation Copy' on the right. See http://www.istartedsomething.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/windows7rc_large.jpg [istartedsomething.com]
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Aha! Interesting - thanks for that. There are always some sneaky people out there. I would have never thought of doing that (not only am I not sneaky enough, I'm not evil enough either).
Hi! I'm from Google! I noticed the last part of your comment, and I would like to offer you employment!
As a current user of it (Score:2)
That is probably their main target (Score:3, Insightful)
People who've forgotten or being lazy. Not only do they want your cash, but supporting prerelease software is a recipe for problems. They'd like to phase it out and not patch it.
Nostalgia! (Score:5, Funny)
PCs running Windows 7 RC will automatically shut down every two hours. Those shutdowns will come without warning
The periodic shutdowns aren't actually part of the trial restrictions. They're built in to celebrate the 10th anniversary of windows ME
Every two hours, eh? (Score:2, Funny)
That's still a pretty good stability improvement over WindowsME.
Feature or Bug? (Score:3, Funny)
I'm glad there's no bias in the reporting on /. (Score:5, Insightful)
Ok, let me turn off my sarcasm-mode first.
So why the negative article about this? All the users knew beforehand that the free trial would end one day: Saying that it's "nagging" the user to pay up, is nothing more than using some fine choice of words to make it look bad on Microsoft.
Seriously, there's lots of other stuff that you can slack MS for, and you have to do it for this?
Also, you got to love the 'it will shutdown without a warning'... but it warns you from the 15th of February...
Next up: Adobe nags the users after one month of using their trial software. Oh, the horror!
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There's nothing anti-anything up there. There's no opinion.
I think *you* need to *read* the summary again without bias.
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Combining "notification" with "without warning" seems to be a logical error. It is written sensationally. It is written as though Microsoft sneaked this on people, even though we already knew that the machine would begin shutting down every two hours before the RC actually expires. The author either didn't know that or simply left it out of the summary, making it look like Microsoft is throwing this extra wrench in several months early in an effort to get people to "pay up." Even the choice of words (e.
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Not just "one day", Microsoft explicitly described everything, from the warnings to the automatic shutdown complete with dates for each, on the website you needed to access to register for the RC. And even for the idiots who click OK before reading, they would've known that it was gonna happen based on the same process the Beta went through late last year and all the reports about it.
There are exactly two kinds of people who will be affected by this: first-year engineering students in the southern hemispher
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All the users knew beforehand that the free trial would end one day
The email MS sent us with the licence key for it made it perfectly clear what would happen, including dates, warnings, and 2-hourly shutdowns. No-one with a legitimate install of the RC should be surprised by this at all.
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The point is that it's about as newsworthy as 'water is wet'. If MS doesn't let the copies expire... we'll see a headline here shouting "OMG M$ ALLOWS VULNERABLE WINDOWS COPIES TO KEEP WORKING", since RC doesn't get updates. Damned if they do, damned if they don't.
What service.... (Score:5, Funny)
What service does this auto shutting down reside in and how do we disable it?
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What service does this auto shutting down reside in and how do we disable it?
Sorry, you're probably gonna have to look harder than that. After all, Microsoft infected their OWN product with semi-random "shutdowns". God knows they've had YEARS of experience seeing how others can kill the OS.
Re:What service.... (Score:5, Funny)
The service is Windows, and you disable it by installing Ubuntu.
(You must be new here).
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shutdown -a aborts any current shutdown porcess, so it's almost as good. You just need to be quick.
Ask Slashdot: (Score:3, Insightful)
Do you expect people to get upset over this? What, are they expecting it to just keep on going? My copy never got out of the virtual box. It's just there to figure out how to learn WTF. Come March.. or February, or whenever, whoopee! 25gb freed up.. for the hacked copy.. just kidding. No name, home made boxes with XP are a booming business right now. 7 is still a giant kludge. It's like Microsoft wants people to switch. Seems to be working.. Lots more Macs in my neighborhood.
Windows 7 networking woes (Score:4, Insightful)
Biggest problem with Windows 7 has been the network performance. On a gigabyte network I can not get better than 100mbs performance, while the Linux and XP machines perform as expected. To make matters worse, the network appears to spike and disconnect itself at random times. Streaming a video from the Windows 7 machine and surfing the web will produce stutters. Talked with a buddy that is a a major account TAM--apparently the networking issue has been well known since the RC and affects nVidia and Intel chipsets. My question to him--so what chipsets does that leave unaffected?
I really tried to like Windows 7 but the more I try to like the more I find thinking Ubuntu is the way to go...
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Streaming a video from the Windows 7 machine and surfing the web will produce stutters. Talked with a buddy that is a a major account TAM--apparently the networking issue has been well known since the RC and affects nVidia and Intel chipsets. My question to him--so what chipsets does that leave unaffected?
So is it Nvidia, Intel, or Microsofts fault?
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The same hardware performs as expected under XP and Linux (SuSe, rPath, and Ubuntu), so folks can draw their own conclusions.
So what? (Score:5, Insightful)
So what? Are there people stupid enough to think that a demo version of any software will run forever without nagging and shutting down, or going into limp mode? This is a completely stupid article totally unworthy of being posted on Slashdot.
If you want a legal, free, [modern] OS without nagging or shutting down, install Linux, BSD, or OpenSolaris. Otherwise, pay up or shut up!
Win 7 RC was good (Score:4, Interesting)
I had used it since last May until last December when I bought a discounted ultimate version for $30. The RC had almost everything the final version had, and it was nice for me to be able to try it out before paying for it (and finding a deal). I have no complaint for something that was free for half a year and as high quality as the official version
20 Questions, minus 16 (Score:2)
As of March 1, PCs running Windows 7 RC will automatically shut down every two hours. Those shutdowns will come without warning."
Isn't this a feature of the upcoming Windows 7 "ME Mode", the less desirable counterpart to "XP Mode"?
Wait, so this is a penalty now, and not a feature?
Why don't they call it nostalgia mode, for those that dream of the so called better days of yesteryears?
It's the new power saving version of the BSOD! Instead of a blue\black screen, it just shuts down! Microsoft goes Green!
Thanks folks, I'll be here all week!
Slashdot moderation flaws (Score:5, Insightful)
What a truly lame story. The biggest flaw with the moderation system is that I can't use my mod points to moderate on the actual stories as well as the comments!
we can do that... (Score:3, Interesting)
The biggest flaw with the moderation system is that I can't use my mod points to moderate on the actual stories as well as the comments!
That is what the Firehose [slashdot.org] is (supposed to be) for. You can go to the firehose, set it to show you upcoming stories, and then vote them down if you think they aren't worthy. And if you see stories in the firehose that deserve attention but are not scoring high enough for the front page, you can vote them up at the same time.
And then in proud slashdot tradition, all those votes will
Microsoft getting free ride (Score:2)
Really, the free trial version of course is a way of getting a large test populatition to shake down the product, to get the product out and get acceptance in the community, to get the geeks familiar with it ahead of time so when the others in their company, friends and family get hit with the new version they will have a up and ready support community. All this microsoft gets for free. This was not a beta version but probably a shakedown version. So the treatment of the user, especiall un-scheduled shutdo
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Wait a minute... (Score:2)
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I'm assuming you haven't used Windows since 98, because my Vista box gets regular heavy usage and has been on for close to 2 months now. I really only have to restart it when I do major updates or on the off chance that some third-party program crashes it.
The most secure windows yet (Score:2)
It just powers off. Hack that China!
Those relying on an RC (Score:2)
I don't care who's software it is, if its been released for this long, its time to pony up or just quit using it.
Windows 7 Wiped My Drive Clean (Score:2, Informative)
After I installed windows 7 ultimate it completely wiped my drive which had windows 7 RC, and installed some bloody system files.
I foolishly was using the drive as storage at the time. One of the worst losses I've been hit with.
I had disconnected all other drives during the actual install of windows 7 ultimate (since windows is infamous for altering boot sectors), and I did not reconnect the other drives until many startups afterwards. Still it managed to completely wipe the drive without me even noticing u
Oh for the love of........ (Score:4, Informative)
Isn't this story perhaps a little hysterical? When the RC came out they were very clear that this would happen, they even gave the dates. They were also very clear you may not be able to upgrade from the RC.
Now it's about to happen and people are surprised? People agreed to help test an RC and in return they got almost a years worth of free use out of a fairly stable OS. Trials over, pay up.
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I'm going to assume you are trying for a joke here. In either case, you are doing something wrong.
Re:What's different? (Score:4, Insightful)
In all honesty, when was the last time you saw a BSOD? I have been running XP at work with 100% uptime for years, and for quite a while kept a Vista dual-boot for streaming media at home with no issues. At least tout the merits of something superior w/o resorting to tired anti M$ rhetoric.
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I know this is Slashdot and all, but I've been running Windows 7 right from the public beta, through RC and final, and it never once bluescreened on me and all shutdowns were for updates or manual restarts.
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Isn't that a good thing for the non tech savvy people(the vast majority) that run Windows? Running vulnerable versions for days instead of rebooting is not good.
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>> Pay for Windows 7
>> Track down a safe and working pirated copy
>> Switch to the joke that Linux is on the desktop
>Or get a Mac.
Oh THAT is really brilliant. How about we add:
Or buy a whole X86 machine with MS-Windows 7 already licensed and installed
Or buy a while X86 machine with Linux already pre-installed
MacOS is not free, any more than MS-Windows is.
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> Yes, being faced with the choice:
> Pay for Windows 7 > Track down a safe and working pirated copy > Switch to the joke that Linux is on the desktop
Or get a Mac.
Buy an OS, pirate an OS, use a OSS OS, and you added "buy high end hardware for it's candy colored OS."
Are you mad? Oh, you're a zealot, my bad.
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So, um, situation normal, then?
Not Quite, they've solved the problem of "unexpected shutdowns" by removing the "unexpected". They just scheduled them so you know what to expect.
Re:Oh wow! (Score:5, Funny)
Hey, Paint has a ribbon interface now! That alone is worth top dollar! : )
Re:Oh wow! (Score:4, Insightful)
I get to pay ...
You don't. You are free to take your money elsewhere - say, to Apple - or keep them to yourself and install some free Linux distro.
Of course, you might want to ask yourself why so many people [reuters.com] are willing to fork out the cash for an "operating system that consistently breaks". Perhaps your last Windows experience, circa 2001 (a scarred WinME user?), is a tad outdated, don't you think?
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The main selling point for me is that it runs my games. That's pretty much the only reason I bother with Windows
I agree. That, and trying to run multiple monitors (not 2, I mean 5 or more monitors) is a real pain in the ass in linux. Those are the ONLY reasons I still use Windows.