OSDev.org

[quote="Osbios"]@pcmattman: And you dont think the DÅ

pcmattman wrote:

Craze Frog wrote:Justification doesn't have anything to do with the law, and while he obviously did something illegal, so what? Let it be his business as long as it doesn't harm anyone else.

Unfortunately this forum is hosted on American servers, and hence if the federal police decide they don't like what's being discussed Chase is the one who catches the blame. I have a feeling he won't like that.

It's not forbidden to discuss illegal matters.

no, but it's forbidden to possess illegal software and then post pictures of it.

and what does my screename have to do with any of this? last time I checked it wasn't even a word... it's a byte.

As Craze Frog said, Microsoft didn't earned cash from these products, so... ? And they are, like, more than 14 years old! Who will use them anyway?

Unfortunately, they are still M$'s intellectual property. I am not a great advocate of software copyright law, and in fact my country does not recognise it (United Kingdom), however as was said the servers are hosted in the US and as such the forum falls under US jurisdiction. One may even argue that the entire world is US jurisdiction with their current foreign policy of pointing a nuke at anyone who dislikes/doesn't cooperate/doesn't eat hamburgers them.

And, for God's sake, 3/4 of computers in the government (Slovakia, Germany, Hawaiian Islands, it doesnt matter) are using pirated software. "So what?" I say; for example when you would got invited to Bush's mansion, you would surely see what I mean.

Yes, of course. I'm sure the White House uses pirated software. Its not as if they'd get it free if they asked. Idiot.

Not everybody in the world are earning 2600$ monthly and spending 200 bucks for only a OS; that is not cheap.

I assume you're earning USD2600 p/m. I earn GBP1250 and get to take home ~GBP1000 (slightly less atm as we're mid-tax-year and I'm currently crossing tax bands). Granted this is only a placement student's wage, but it's what I have to live off, run and insure a car off in the highest insurance band city in the UK, Manchester.

Now, USD200 is ~GBP100, and that is the same as my car insurance, less than a third of the price of my rent, in fact was how much it cost me to buy the parts for a small testbed machine. I could afford software that price if I wanted to. I wouldn't because 1. I don't need it, I use linux and 2. I can get it free from university anyway. But the point is I could, and software is more expensive here than anywhere else (along with hardware and all other electrical goods).

inflater wrote:Not everybody in the world are earning 2600$ monthly and spending 200 bucks for only a OS; that is not cheap.

$2600 per month = $31,200 per year.

Say you have a job worth $15 an hour. You work an average 9 to 5 (8 hours) on weekdays, 5 days a week = $600 per week (students can get some slack since they'd earn a little less per hour and won't work 9-5x5)

$600 per week = $31,200 per year. Of course, you'd take a few week off for holiday

An assuming you know a bit about computers, since you're on a OSDev forum, you are probably far more qualified than most receptionists/managers/etc who got the job just for knowing how to operate a word processor that earn around $20-$30 an hour.

So unless you are;
- Live somewhere with extremely low wages,
- Live out in a rural area where you can't get a job doing anything computer related,
- Or, stuck in a dead-end job and aren't motivated to expand your searching and look for a career with a little more room to advance,

I would not expect $2,600 per month to be out of reach for most people on this forum.

Besides, unless you are buying a new OS every month, spending $200 every 3-4 years is not that unreasonable ($200 over 3 years = $5.56 per month), and considering the amount of money you are all ready probably spending on your computer, including hardware upgrades, Internet expenses, etc, $200 over 3 years isn't going to make much difference.

I'm not saying you should buy Windows or anything, or if the OS should be worth $200 or not (and if you take the whole priority-software-route then you'd end up buying Office, commercial anti-virus software, Visual Studio, Photoshop, etc), but I'm bringing the cost into perspective.

MessiahAndrw, the one part of Doctor Who you've downloaded is "illegal". Watch out, because here lies the RIAA!

I said I was willing to pay for it - I ended up getting the DVD release , even if it is a remake made from still images instead of the original episode.

01000101 wrote:I'm a beta tester, and have tested the many RC beta's of vista and was part of the whister project and have (a about a year and a half ago) tested the server codename 'longhorn' alpha release.

I did too for Vista and Office 2007. They expired though after a certain date (usually the product's shipment date) There's one clause in their EULA that says you may not change your clock back to before the expiry date if it is past the expiry date in your time zone. Nothing says you can't found a new timezone!

The OS itself is illegal and sharing it is as well - as it was never for sale. Having screenshots of no known origin is not illegal as we cannot know where you got them - especially since the question is "what OS is this".

I'm not entirely certain but I don't think this is illegal.

MessiahAndrw wrote:I would not expect $2,600 per month to be out of reach for most people on this forum.

And that's because most (well I can't say the word "most" you know) of Slovaks are working in the outland (GB, Ireland, Germany, France etc), they are living there for a year, 2 years, (or they are emmigrants), they are earning money there,.. . And after a year, for example on xmas, my sister usually comes back to Slovakia.
I do not know how her's wage is, but my whole family profits ~1700$ per month (without her). Really.
The daily cost for food equals 15-50$. Include costs for television, phone line (internet too), house, water, electricity etc.

Now do you see how money are worth here?

Regards
inflater

lol this is... interested.

A: the government (USA anyways) does NOT use pirated software. They get audited too much for that kind of malpractice.

B: $160 for Vista Home Premium or $80 for Vista Home Basic is NOT alot of an OS. Especially seeing as how the Vista prices are significantly cheaper than its XP predecessor. It's a one-time payment, and even if that is not affordable in one month, save up...

C: Once the BETA or ALPHA session is completed, you cannot continue to use it. It is made this way to stop reverse-engineers from exploiting the software over long periods of time. This also goes for their old software. No matter if it is still in production or not, it is still under an LLC and probably a 100 copyrights/patents/trademarks that are still active.

Okay, beta or omega version, legal or illegal. Mods, can you *please* close this whole topic? The question was given as "guess the OS" and not "guess where inflater did get that".

inflater wrote:

MessiahAndrw wrote:I would not expect $2,600 per month to be out of reach for most people on this forum.

And that's because most (well I can't say the word "most" you know) of Slovaks are working in the outland (GB, Ireland, Germany, France etc), they are living there for a year, 2 years, (or they are emmigrants), they are earning money there,.. . And after a year, for example on xmas, my sister usually comes back to Slovakia.
I do not know how her's wage is, but my whole family profits ~1700$ per month (without her). Really.
The daily cost for food equals 15-50$. Include costs for television, phone line (internet too), house, water, electricity etc.

Now do you see how money are worth here?

Regards
inflater

Doesn't Microsoft adjust their prices (same with McDonald's, car/TV manufactures, etc) so they're priced to same relative to the cost of living in an area?

i.e. McDonald's wouldn't be successful if they charged ~$10 for a meal in a developing country.

MessiahAndrw wrote:Doesn't Microsoft adjust their prices (same with McDonald's, car/TV manufactures, etc) so they're priced to same relative to the cost of living in an area?

i.e. McDonald's wouldn't be successful if they charged ~$10 for a meal in a developing country.

I wonder. I've been to Pakistan and it struck me that while I could get a complete dinner for some 4 bucks, which is very cheap compared to western standards, It amazed me that I couldn't stock up on technological goodies for the same reduction in price. In fact, it was almost on par with the prices here.

But I think that has to do with the amount of machine labour involved - people can't make a processor with their bare hands, but they can cook a meal.

A lot of electronics are imported and exported, thus a foreign country buying a processor for $300 wouldn't likely sell it for a cheaper price.

For food supplies, McDonalds would likely obtain them locally at a much cheaper price..

In a country without our bovine friends, please don't order a BigMac...

Combuster wrote:

MessiahAndrw wrote:Doesn't Microsoft adjust their prices (same with McDonald's, car/TV manufactures, etc) so they're priced to same relative to the cost of living in an area?

i.e. McDonald's wouldn't be successful if they charged ~$10 for a meal in a developing country.

I wonder. I've been to Pakistan and it struck me that while I could get a complete dinner for some 4 bucks, which is very cheap compared to western standards, It amazed me that I couldn't stock up on technological goodies for the same reduction in price. In fact, it was almost on par with the prices here.

But I think that has to do with the amount of machine labour involved - people can't make a processor with their bare hands, but they can cook a meal.

I guess so. If there was a country where you could legally buy Windows for $20 then everyone would import their copy. Where as saving $6 on a meal isn't enough to get people to import it (and for the fact it'll be a week old when you get it, and you probably pay the difference in postage anyway).

I don't even want to imagine a week-old McAnything. It tastes bad enough as it is (not to mention the idea of fast food).