"Your version of Windows is illegal."

[Confuscious]

Today, I went to a "middle class" hospital in Khorat for stomach ache (it is not allowed to mention the real name).

 

Everywhere, there were screens displaying the queue numbers at the different departments, screens displaying their packages on sale, etc.
But every screen was showing a pop-up window at the middle of the screen saying that they were running an illegal version of Windows and in the bottom-right a pop-up message was showing the version of Windows and the text to "update" their version.

 

This is not limited to Khorat and I have seen the same thing in many places.
Even on ATM machines.

Khorat has a few good universities and one of them has even developped their own version of Linux which is pretty good.
As fas as I know, Khon Kaen has also their own version of Linux and is also pretty good.

I have seen the staff and the students writing Linux programs, and they were pretty good at it.
They surely could write a simple program that display the queue numbers.

I can not think of a logical reason why a big hospital or an ATM company is risking all kind of legal procedures while they could have a better operating system and better programs locally.

Do you?

[SuperSaiyan]

Someone who was hired to do it took the money and delivered that and since the guy who hired them is at the top, nobody is going to question him.

[Woof999]

I've seen it many times on major bank ATM machines here, at airports (IIRC) and many other large company IT equipment.

 

For a business it's $200 or so per machine. A normal home user is in the $125 price range and I would guess that a decent amount of Windows OS users on this forum don't have a legal license.

 

I can't see Microsoft suing anyone here in the near future.

[OneMoreFarang]

17 minutes ago, Confuscious said:

I can not think of a logical reason why

Correct. There is no logical reason.

This is Thailand.

Don't try to find logic where is no logic. You won't find what was never there. 

[NoDisplayName]

That seems strange that MS would go to the trouble.

 

More likely somebody at the hospital clicked the wrong link in the wrong email and entered their password, and they got some malware loaded.  When they eventually follow the links to "download free update now", the hacker will gain control of their system and hold their records hostage.

[Confuscious]

1 hour ago, Woof999 said:

I've seen it many times on major bank ATM machines here, at airports (IIRC) and many other large company IT equipment.

I have even seen an ATM machine in Bangkok running on "Windows for Workgroups".
No kidding.

[Confuscious]

3 minutes ago, NoDisplayName said:

That seems strange that MS would go to the trouble.

 

More likely somebody at the hospital clicked the wrong link in the wrong email and entered their password, and they got some malware loaded.  When they eventually follow the links to "download free update now", the hacker will gain control of their system and hold their records hostage.

I can imagine that the hospital is still running an older version of Windows because of the third party software and this particular version of Windows is not supported by MS anymore.
 

[richard_smith237]

15 minutes ago, NoDisplayName said:

That seems strange that MS would go to the trouble.

 

More likely somebody at the hospital clicked the wrong link in the wrong email and entered their password, and they got some malware loaded.  When they eventually follow the links to "download free update now", the hacker will gain control of their system and hold their records hostage.

Nope... dont think so at all... 

 

Worked for some big companies over here, and in many Asian nations... 

 

The software is so commonly bootlegged...    most just don’t see it as an issue until it becomes an issue the people who point it out are just ’thinking too much’ !!!.. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ozimoron]

Hospitals are always short of cash and have higher priorities than Windows licences.

[seajae]

have seen it many times, thais do not like to pay for something they can get for free, buy a new computer/laptop they load it up with pirate ware, see the screens in many govt offices & businesses with pirate windows as well as other programs on them, its extremely common here. I make sure I always have  registered programs on my computers and my wife asks me why I pay for them when I can get them or nothing, says it all really

[Kwasaki]

My copy windows 7 has been fine a notice from Google has appeared saying I must get windows 10 to continue to get protection updates.

[Confuscious]

1 hour ago, Kwasaki said:

My copy windows 7 has been fine a notice from Google has appeared saying I must get windows 10 to continue to get protection updates.

Like I said already, switching to Windows 10 moght give you free updates (if your PC/Notebook is able to run Windows 10) but it will mean also that a lot of existing software might stop to run.
My computer switched from Wiindows 7 to Windows 10 and a lot of software I was using almost daily didn't work anymore.

[Confuscious]

2 hours ago, seajae said:

have seen it many times, thais do not like to pay for something they can get for free, buy a new computer/laptop they load it up with pirate ware, see the screens in many govt offices & businesses with pirate windows as well as other programs on them, its extremely common here. I make sure I always have  registered programs on my computers and my wife asks me why I pay for them when I can get them or nothing, says it all really

Most of the existing programs are available for free on the internet.
I switched from Microsoft Office to Libre Office and I am very happy with it.

[The Fugitive]

14 minutes ago, Confuscious said:

Most of the existing programs are available for free on the internet.
I switched from Microsoft Office to Libre Office and I am very happy with it.

Absolutely agree! Libre Office seems faster, lighter, more responsive etc. than Microsoft Office. However, as a basic computer/office user, I find that the suite of on-line Google 'Docs' are almost always sufficient for my purposes.

[The Fugitive]

2 hours ago, seajae said:

have seen it many times, thais do not like to pay for something they can get for free, buy a new computer/laptop they load it up with pirate ware, see the screens in many govt offices & businesses with pirate windows as well as other programs on them, its extremely common here. I make sure I always have  registered programs on my computers and my wife asks me why I pay for them when I can get them or nothing, says it all really

It probably goes back to the days when the software you wanted cost more to buy than your machine. Many people, quite rightly believed 'that can't be right'. Things are more relaxed today. The software distributors have accepted they can't beat the pirates so offer basic versions of programs for free and only make us pay for the fully featured version. Even unactivated Microsoft Operating Systems will continue to work with very few restrictions.  

[Kwasaki]

1 hour ago, Confuscious said:

Like I said already, switching to Windows 10 moght give you free updates (if your PC/Notebook is able to run Windows 10) but it will mean also that a lot of existing software might stop to run.
My computer switched from Wiindows 7 to Windows 10 and a lot of software I was using almost daily didn't work anymore.

Yes thanks I am aware of changes.

My laptop computer I only use for online UK bank, Wise and Netflix, get most other things from Internet.

I Google when I want to wipe history and run a check on virus etc dunno if that's any good but it looks good. ????

 

[Rimmer]

A profane post has been removed

[lungbing]

7 hours ago, Confuscious said:

Most of the existing programs are available for free on the internet.
I switched from Microsoft Office to Libre Office and I am very happy with it.

I went off Libreoffice when I found on my machine a file detailing the  hyphenation rules for the Zulu language.  And I'm sure I installed English only.

Now I use Softmaker Office.  It's free and  you get the equivalent of Word, Excel and Powerpoint.   No doubt there is some obscure function that isn't available, but for the little use I make of it Softmaker Office is fine.  I had loads of trouble getting rid of MS Office, it didn't want to go.