In article , Mayayana
wrote:

| Huh? The brand new hard disk needs an operating system.
| Where am I supposed to "get" that operating system?
|
| same place you got the original.

Circa 1998 a Windows PC came with a Windows CD that
could be used to install Windows on any other PC, or to
reinstall. It was an actual copy of Windows. Since then Microsoft
has gone to great lengths to lock the OS to the hardware
and render a PC as a disposable appliance. With XP, MS
instituted Product Activation, tying Windows to the hardware.
The public has been trained to see Windows as part of the
PC, and trained to see the PC itself as a single unit, when
it's actually just an assemblage of parts put together by
the OEM company in a branded box.

everything is an assemblage of parts.

users don't care about the individual parts. they care about the
finished product, a working computer which helps them get work done.

Microsoft now make a lot more profit from people like
Danny D. Most people buy another Windows license with
every PC purchase.

that's because it's bundled with every pc purchase.

And many people buy another PC the
first time their current PC "doesn't work".

that's because buying a new computer is usually a much better choice
than putting money into an older computer, broken or not.

Meanwhile, pressure
from Microsoft and plunging PC prices have all but eliminated
"white box" PC shops, so it's very difficult to buy any PC
without also buying a Windows license.

so what? windows is licensed per machine so you need a windows license.
might as well get it bundled.

It's possible, through various means, to make sure that
one has a backup of the OS in the case of hard disk failure,
power surge, nasty malware, etc., but most people don't
know anything about that and don't realize they're at risk.

if you don't make backups, then you will be screwed when a hard drive
crashes. this applies to anything, not just windows.

Danny D. might also be able to successfully reinstall using
an OEM disk with his existing product key. But where will he
get a basic OEM disk? He can't use his product key with
any other license type. And only people who build their own
computers are likely to have a generic OEM Windows disk.
(Microsoft have been careful to cover all the angles.)

recovery disk.

From what I've seen, even the average tech. support
person doesn't create an install disk or make a disk image
for customers. So any failure that can't be fixed by re-installing
from a "restore partition" usually means buying either a new
PC or a new copy of Windows unnecessarily.

whose fault is that?

Actually, even MacOS could be installed to a "white box"
at one point. Then Steve Jobs returned to Apple and locked
it to their hardware.

nope.

before steve jobs returned to apple in 1997, mac os could *not* be
installed to a generic 'white box'.

apple did have clones in the 90s, but those were really licensed mac
motherboards with minor modifications by the clonemakers. mac clones
was also a really stupid move and caused apple to lose money, which is
why it was ended.

Probably the Microsofties got the
idea from him.

windows activation is because windows was widely pirated, not just
people getting it off pirate sites, but those who bought one copy and
installed it on multiple machines.

They might not have dared to try pulling
it off otherwise. But Steve Jobs was more clever. He
provided the appearance that Apple was actually building
the hardware, so rendering the software virtually embedded
didn't seem so odd, even though Apple is really just the sole
OEM company for MacOS. They don't make the hardware any
more than Dell does. They just design the package.

anyone who thinks a mac is just a repackaged dell or lenovo but with an
apple logo is very mistaken.

But Windows
comes in several packages, which dilutes their brand.

it doesn't dilute the brand, but it does confuse people on which
version to buy.

HP,
Dell and Acer all manage to create the illusion that they
built the hardware, but since there are several Windows OEM
companies there's no "Microsoft computer" in the same way
that there's an "Apple computer".

there are microsoft computers, which is ****ing off their hardware
partners.

(Apple lovers often refer
to "Wintel" because they've been trained to view Macs as
appliances with embedded software, but there was never
such a monolithic Windows hardware brand.)

nonsense. the term wintel did not originate from apple fans and macs do
not have embedded software either, nor are they appliances.

where do you come up with this ****?