• pulsewidth@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    34
    ·
    18 hours ago

    Even Windows 7 actually didn’t care if you had no key.

    You could leave it unactivated forever and the worst thing that would happen is it would have a “Activate windows” watermark message bottom right over the desktop, and it wouldn’t let you change the personalization settings eg theming (oh no).

    • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      4 hours ago

      Never had to pay for a key anyway. I just hopped on eBay and looked for machines that were “for parts only” where the seller took a very nice picture of the bottom of the computer.

      It was very nice of them to share that software with me once they were done using it.

      • Droechai@piefed.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        15
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        17 hours ago

        I miss all those super weird XP editions seemingly made by colourblind and hyper 8 year olds (at least in taste). Like rockets, gold or muscle car themed distros.

        Nowadays all themes seems so… adult and boring. Tried to find some weird stuff in Plasma but alas

        • Shellofbiomatter@lemmus.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          4 hours ago

          That’s not related only to windows themes. It’s an overall design shift. Cars, phones, businesses, PC parts, everything has been shifting towards this adult, boring, sleek, corporate, uniform, grey look.

        • Techno-rat@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          edit-2
          16 hours ago

          Hannah Montana Linux OS keeping this proud tradition going singlehandedly. ✊

          Edit: not singlehandedly, just learned of the two other parts of the holy Linux trifecta, RebeccaBlackOS & Justin Bieber Linux Distro