| ▲ | jayd16 5 hours ago | |
You paid for windows 11? They basically give it away to end users. | ||
| ▲ | dijit 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] | |
Yes, I paid for Windows 11. It came bundled with the £1,900 laptop I bought. The fact that the licence cost is hidden in the hardware price doesn't make it free. And even if it were free, which it isn't, that still wouldn't justify ads. Android is free. Linux is free. Neither ships with gambling app promotions in the system UI. Microsoft made $20 billion in Windows revenue last year. They're not a scrappy startup looking for alternative monetisation. The ads exist because they can get away with it, not because they need to. | ||
| ▲ | somerandomqaguy an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | |
OEM volume pricing is $20 USD or so for system builders like Dell, HP, etc last time I saw it, but that was a long time ago. So technically yes it was purchased if you bought a system, it was just built into the price. | ||
| ▲ | layer8 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | |
Not really. Only upgrading an existing Windows 10 installation is free. | ||