[jpeter]

Well did they figure it out?

[gibolt]

"Ghost" Windows is a thing of the past, and most modern installations in China are legit. Bing is also an approved search engine, even if not used by a majority of people. I'm sure their revenue is significantly higher than a decade ago.

[rblatz]

Honestly google search has gotten so bad I’ve been meaning to try Bing out, but old habits die hard.

[jabbany]

I guess in a way?

They learned from XP/7 that they'll never recoup it though licenses so now its ads and subscription upsells for everybody.

[SR2Z]

I think they would have moved to ads and subscriptions either way. It's hard to resist that sweet, sweet cash flow.

[hrisng]

Not from China but in the same region. Most new machines here now have a legit OEM copy of Windows. It's getting much more affordable, even in third-world countries now that it's not worth it to risk going for a pirated copy. Still happen, but much less common than it was.

[p1necone]

> Most new machines here now have a legit OEM copy of Windows.

Are they legit legit? Or is this just because it's trivially easy to get a "legit" OEM license for free via Microsoft Activation Scripts?

[metadat]

They've managed to hoist from Windows OS biz to staying relevant, so yeah I'd say they're doing okay.

[colpabar]

Yeah, they're putting ads everywhere and selling all your activity data.

[shuckles]

My feeling is this logic only holds if your product is being pirated because it’s the best. Windows was certainly better than Linux, but ultimately when a consumer can afford it they’d rather buy a Mac.

[mixermachine]

I switched from a PC to a Mac at work. Macbook Pro M2 Pro, 32GB RAM. The performance and battery life are absolutely lovely. Compile tasks run great.

MacOS on the other hand not really. It is better/acceptable after I installed some Plugins. But I still wish Linux was fully supported (and my company would allow it). Even Windows would be an upgrade currently for me.

[DSMan195276]

I don't think it's that simple. Plenty of people won't buy a Mac because it's "different", which of them is 'better' never factors into it.

While I don't use Photoshop I'd assume that logic holds even stronger - if you know how to use Photoshop you're going to ask for that rather than a tool you don't know how to use.

[999900000999]

Alright.

My current laptop was about 750$ , has a 8845HS and I added a 4TB SSD for 200$.

If I wanted to do the same thing with a Mac I'd be spending over 3k.

I actually have a M1 Air, but Apple decided soldering SSDs would be a good idea.

Dualboot Linux and Windows for the best experience...

[eru]

Apple has shiny hardware, yes.

Compatibility for many programs people care about is a lot better on Windows than on Mac (or Linux). That has improved a lot in recent years, of course. Especially for games.

Linux has great compatibility for lots of hardware, but Windows is still better supported. Mac has almost non-existent compatibility for hardware: you need to buy an Apple branded device to run Apple's operating system. For peripherals Windows has probably the best compatibility list, but Linux can often be better for very old stuff. Mac's record is spotty at best.

[tempestn]

Definitely not true for me. I had a windows pc and mac laptop for years (as well as Linux home and work servers), but when it came time to replace the laptop I switched to windows, mostly because it's more configurable. Also integrates better with my Android phone, which I prefer to iOS for similar reasons.

[layer8]

Nah, the hardware is neat for the most part, but a lot of people don’t necessarily like macOS.

[nijave]

No