Because nobody has written the code to make it “not function like that”.

No

Can’t be purchased standalone. Part of a prebuilt only.

I don’t think so. Two paid upgrades in eight years.

• Bartender 2 - September 2015
• Bartender 3 - September 2017 (Free upgrade)
• Bartender 4 - April 2021
• Bartender 5 - Sept 2023

It works. End of thoughts.

Lots of steps to “figure it out”. Could’ve just pinged the hostname.

Not a big secret. Pretty sure they even announced it.

I like to save them for a rainy day when I need an OCD fix.

$4 would get you an egg sandwich, a coffee and a pack a smokes in ‘83.

Chicken and egg. The tuitions have been able to reach the insane heights due to the ready availability of these loans.

It was a lot harder to get loans thirty years ago. Almost on par with the criteria for any other personal loan. A four year CompSci degree that could be had for under $25K, in total, opened the door to a $45K to $60K entry level position for a typical graduate.

Availability of loans broke wide open, under the guise of providing opportunity, and now the same degree costs 5-10x with yet the typical entry level salary remains more or less the same, give or take a few inflation points.

Because the alternative makes a lot more money.

Agreed. I’ve probably got 100 keys registered with GitHub and 98 of them the private key is long destroyed due to OS reinstalls or whatnot. Format machine, new key. New machine, new key.

As you suspect, only during the sixty or so seconds that they are valid.

SMS-based codes tend to be longer lived.

They’re useless without your other authentication factors, e.g. login, password.

Because every OS they ship with they need to support. Lenovo already has a viable, cost effective, support model for endlessos because they ship and support it for educational customers.

It’s not commercially viable for them support other OS that there is near no demand for relative to their overall sales.

Your assertions are not supported by industry analysis.

While this years survey is closed, the results haven’t been published. In last year’s survey, MacOS slightly edged out Linux, moving to second place.

Credential stuffing is, first and foremost, a user issue. There’s only so much you can do when people use the same password for all their different websites.

That being said, there are some “above and beyond” steps a platform can take and most companies definitely don’t.

Two thoughts on StackSocial. Even if they legitimately are an MS partner that bar is so low as to be irrelevant. I know, I’m an MS Partner. All it takes is an email address and two (maybe three) checkboxes to become a Partner at the lowest levels. Additionally, the product isn’t actually being sold by SS. the vendor is “SmartTrainingLab” which appears to only exist in the context of selling cheap keys via Stack Social and it’s clone, other clone, e-commerce sites.

As for selling Windows at a loss… They’ve always been split-brained on that front. They only just stopped giving away free upgrades to Windows 10/11 in the past few weeks despite that offer having expired over seven years ago. The real Windows Desktop OS money has historically been from the fees that OEMs pay for licensing. That’s why the retail price is so high; it establishes the baseline from which OEM discounts get negotiated. The $199 actually is pretty reasonable considering inflation, etc. Windows 3.1 was $149, Windows 95 was $209 and Windows NT 4.0, which current Windows is descended from, was $319. I wouldn’t even pretend to know what they’re going to do on that front but a subscription service seems highly possible, though I see it most likely being bundled as part of the Microsoft 365 products; you get the upgrades for “free” with one of the (product formerly known as) Office 365 consumer subscriptions OR you get ad-laden upgrades for free OR you pay $99 upgrade pricing.

It eludes me why people purchase these grey market products over just running unactivated. They’re not valid licenses, they just overcome the technical limitations of non-activation. Generally speaking, you’re supporting criminal enterprise for the sake of being able to change your wallpaper.

Edit: Truth hurts, I guess.

6.2 is just over nine minutes a mile. Amateur runners typically move faster than that. 12.4mph would fall on the slow side for an amateur cyclist.

Like it or not, this is the curse of modern media and, in particular, social media (including Lemmy). Boring details don’t get clicks or upvotes. Hype does. If you spend much time being exposed to one sensational headline, article or discourse after another, you’re going to have a much different view of the world than those who don’t.

If you don’t believe me, walk away from internet media and cable news networks for two weeks. I guarantee you’ll notice some change in your perspective and, possibly, an even see improvement in your overall mental health.

Lemmy isn’t just “one thing”. Every instance has its own rules and standards. Lemmy itself has zero policy with regards to free speech, for or against. Nor does the Fediverse as a whole.

You can start your own Lemmy instance and have all the free speech you want.

As has been pointed out previously, this isn’t about censorship. It’s about low quality posting. Even if the information is completely valid your post to Reddit violated the sub rules and your low effort conspiracy postings on Lemmy serve no value.