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Correct, but that's cost is only if you buy windows 11 for a machine that has never had windows on it,
11 is free for any windows user that has 10. It also comes pre installed on most PCs you buy and very rarely is that cost of the license noted on the device your buying (unless you use the customize settings on an online store)
I'm also pretty sure there are still ways to upgrade to 10 from 7 and 8. Windows did this to make it harder for people to switch to a different OS because most people remember when they had to "pay" to upgrade to the latest version.
It also comes pre installed on most PCs you buy
That's because you're paying the manufacturer for the licence and yes they likely get a discount but it's still a lot of money you could save.
The average consumer either doesn't go to the manufacturer site or doesn't care enough to look into alternatives. They want something that gets their school/work done.
As some in the IT field who regularly deals with people that have a 4+ year degree and then tell me they are "tech illiterate" is astounding.
In the past they were hand held so much that the previous techs had a password book of everyone's password for multiple applications.
Luckily with a lot of pushback from our current members about how insecure and dangerous that is that has changed, but we still have users even after 3 years since the change message us through a depreciated system asking for their password.
The average consumer either doesn't go to the manufacturer site
Where does the average consumer get their computer then? Also I do know a few people using lubuntu instead of windows on their laptops.
Knowing a few people running lubuntu doesn't make it an average. That is just a personal bias.
From experience almost all the computers I serviced over the last few years were either bought at Walmart, Best buy or Amazon that could also be a bias, but it spans over multiple cities with a good hundred clients The only time I started to see computers that were consistently bought from the manufacturer is in a business environment. But the specific one I'm in doesn't support Linux at all within production.
Knowing a few people running lubuntu doesn't make it an average. That is just a personal bias.
I never said it did, I was just trying to explain/give examples that Linux isn't just for tech professionals.
From experience almost all the computers I serviced over the last few years were either bought at Walmart, Best buy or Amazon
If that means that they didn't even look at the manufacturer site, that surprises me, I've found often that some stats are just left out of product descriptions, which to be fair is the same on manufacturer sites (I've never found SSD speeds for instance) but nonetheless there's usually a lot more info than looking at the label in a store. Even my less tech savvy relatives managed to figure that out, but then did ask me about the relevance of some stats.
I believe they ended the free update from 7/8 to 10 when windows 11 was introduced. And I doubt ms is still selling windows 10 licenses.
Ah I just checked there used to be a loophole by going through a disability program or using an alternative authentication method provided by Microsoft that would activate the 10 license after the update. Looks like it was patched in September 2023 though.