Windows -at this point- is free to use at least for personal reasons and there are zero consequences if you don't activate your copy. They used to give you deadline in the XP/Vista era to activate your copy but not anymore. All you get is a watermark in the corner that either bothers you or not. They are as well very sloppy with closing activation methods, they could just close a new gate every patch Tuesday but they don't do it. It is far far more important to them that everyone is using windows and there is a high chance based on last week's news that there will be a subscription "premium" version like in any app that removes ads and enables AI features.
Well, that is a consequence. Just not a very big one. You also cannot change the background in the settings, though that is also a very small consequence. Yeah, they are only small and you can likely live with them, but small and tolerable are not zero.
there will be a subscription “premium” version like in any app that removes ads and enables AI features.
This makes me glad I no longer use it. An OS should not have ads baked into its core and there should not be a subscription for it.
Windows -at this point- is free to use at least for personal reasons and there are zero consequences if you don't activate your copy. They used to give you deadline in the XP/Vista era to activate your copy but not anymore. All you get is a watermark in the corner that either bothers you or not. They are as well very sloppy with closing activation methods, they could just close a new gate every patch Tuesday but they don't do it. It is far far more important to them that everyone is using windows and there is a high chance based on last week's news that there will be a subscription "premium" version like in any app that removes ads and enables AI features.
Well, that is a consequence. Just not a very big one. You also cannot change the background in the settings, though that is also a very small consequence. Yeah, they are only small and you can likely live with them, but small and tolerable are not zero.
This makes me glad I no longer use it. An OS should not have ads baked into its core and there should not be a subscription for it.