zlacker

I wonder why in these threads nobody ever says to just pirate Windows. It's not hard to do. Sometimes people will float security concerns but it's a safe process if you just load an official ISO and then crack it, and even if it were questionable on the security front it's not like you're doing anything that really needs that sort of security if you're just playing video games. If Windows is going to make itself mandatory for some games but they're also going to pull nonsense like in the OP, piracy seems like a reasonable option to voice your objections without abstaining completely.

And yes there are also ways to stop data collection if you're concerned about giving that to them.

>>skeake+(OP)
Because that's not objecting; you're still feeding into the power Windows has over computing.

Bill Gates said so himself in 2007: "It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when there's piracy than when there's not,"[1]

I'm not pretending that the intervening 16 years hasn't changed things; I am happily gaming exclusively on Linux after all, something most people didn't truly expect back then. But that statement remains true regardless.

[1]https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007...

>>bilege+j4
I think at some point the onus lies with the games that have Windows as a requirement. Them having that mandate at all is what's feeding the power Windows has over computing. Of course that also relies on people playing those games so you could still in some way blame them, but gaming has hit such a critical mass that certain games will always be sustainable regardless of how predatory they are. At that point if you want to, for example, play with friends and not be left out, the least wrong option for you would be to pirate Windows to deny Microsoft of everything else.

>>skeake+K8
With Valve finally managing to make fetch happen, any large company starting a project today must consider the value of releasing on Linux for Steam Deck.

The problem is the games coming in the next years started development five years ago.

>>philis+Jo
The real sore spot is with multiplayer anticheat, about 50/50 according to https://areweanticheatyet.com/ ... plus maybe a few singleplayer games with draconian DRM. Otherwise, things usually just work with the occasional hiccup (those hiccups, in all fairness, can be a real PITA to resolve though from my experience; but things are getting better with time too!)

>>skeake+(OP)
> Sometimes people will float security concerns but it's a safe process if you just load an official ISO and then crack it,

What makes you think the crack you apply to your official ISO isn't compromising your OS?

> even if it were questionable on the security front it's not like you're doing anything that really needs that sort of security

If you're going to install steam on your PC, then you'd be giving an attacker access to your steam account and if you ever install or use a platform that doesn't already have your credit card info stored then the attacker gets your credit card data.

> And yes there are also ways to stop data collection if you're concerned about giving that to them.

This isn't true. There is no way to stop windows from collecting data. No version of windows is capable of disabling all data collection, and there's no setting you can configure that can't be undone by MS at any time, and without any notice at all to you.

At best, you can install a copy of windows on a machine that is left offline 100% of the time, but i think most gamers would find that unacceptable since even if you don't care about MMOs or multiplayer, steam is still pretty popular.

I don't object to the idea of pirating software you don't like, don't want, but feel "forced" to use, but the idea that there are no real risks to your security or your privacy by doing it is just plain wrong.

Just use linux. It can play plenty of games.

>>autoex+nv
> What makes you think the crack you apply to your official ISO isn't compromising your OS?

I guess the crack being FOSS with readable source code helps. It's a 9000 line cmd file with insane Windows-y things everywhere that make it hard to read, but being open at all and with that many users gives me quite a bit of confidence in it.

https://github.com/massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts

>>skeake+Bt3
That is encouraging. At a quick glance, the offline activation stuff looks reasonably clean too.