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Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

birchtree.me

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Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#551

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When did the offshoring happen, because Microsoft has been bad for a long time. Even in the 90s there were so many BSODs.

Microsoft in the 90s was doing things that hadn't been done before with Windows. And the NT line, converging to consumers at XP, solved many of them, and by now they don't have an excuse any more.

I’m genuinely confused about exactly what Microsoft was doing for the first time.

Not the first gui.

Not the first web browser.

Not the first spreadsheet/word processor/slideshow.

Edit: I’ll give credit, NT is good kernel, and had some novel qualities.

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#552
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

General principle: It is way easier to avoid lock in by not being locked in in the first place then to extricate yourself later. It's easy for me not to be locked in to a streaming video service because I had a DVD collection that predates them, and I maintained it instead of being on a streaming service, so I've got a personal collection. It's easy for me not to be locked in to a streaming music service because I ha…

>and I maintained it How do you plan on maintaining your CD and DVD players when the new ones will be sold with a subscription plan like printers?

I've never seen this for CD or DVD players, and only the shittiest printers are sold with a subscription plan. Plenty of unencumbered printers available, and CD and DVD players even more so

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#553

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish Gog made a Steam Deck.

They haven’t even made a Linux client yet. They are about 13 years behind steam

Do you really need a Linux client? just download the installers. They announced a Linux client, and I honestly can't see a reason I would want to install it...

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#555

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fact they said that buying is stealing. They also said piracy is stealing. So if there's no difference I'll go with the cheaper one, thanks.

You know there's something wrong with the system when the version you obtain for free is a superior product to the one you pay for.

Just plain old artificial scarcity, a.k.a. capitalism.

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft in the 90s was doing things that hadn't been done before with Windows. And the NT line, converging to consumers at XP, solved many of them, and by now they don't have an excuse any more.

I’m genuinely confused about exactly what Microsoft was doing for the first time. Not the first gui. Not the first web browser. Not the first spreadsheet/word processor/slideshow. Edit: I’ll give credit, NT is good kernel, and had some novel qualities.

The first one that pretty much anyone could use and was useful for them. We credit Apple for popularizing the GUI, too, even though they stole it from Xerox.

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#557
post #224

The fight should never have been about physical vs digital, but about ownership. If I buy a game/movie/book/song, regardless of where or in what format, I should be able to: 1. Keep it forever without the risk of remote deletion. 2. Use it while offline, unless internet connectivity is strictly required for the experience. 3. Move it between my devices. 4. Backup and archive it. 5. Resell it. 6. Pass it on to my chil…

The problem is that the technology [1] to do this simply doesn't exist. I'd say the core of the problem is that copying a digital artifact is easy, is a solved problem. You simply copy the data that represents the artifact, and now you have another copy. *Deleting* data (and its cousin, *moving* data) is a nearly intractable problem. How can you verify that someone no longer has access to data that you gave them? The…

You're trying to solve with technology a problem that lives in the abstract human world. Even the simplest possible case, you make a physical unique object that you define as conferring ownership to the person who possesses or controls it. Someone steals the object, now the person in possession of the object isn't the owner. There's this allure of trying to tie this abstract notion of ownership to a physical thing but it's breaks down immediately. It doesn't even work for physical objects.

Automated enforcement of ownership rules is completely tangential to the actual problem you're running into. You own a physical book, you make a copy then sell the book. That's a copyright violation, no "verification" or whatever nonsense needed. What happened in regards to ownership in this case is already clear. Companies sure do like DRM but it's as much a pale imitation of ownership as anything else.

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft products are no longer ubiquitous. That's an early 2010s view. In 2026 most clients are running Android, followed by iOS, followed by Mac, and use Google Docs for their office work. Windows is only used on a per-company basis. If your company uses it it uses it, otherwise it doesn't.

You got it mostly right. It's Android, then iOS, then Windows. It is still the number one PC OS, in terms of active users and sales. MacOS is a distant second. Of course in 2026, if you want to make money as a developer selling directly to consumers, your best targets are probably iOS and macOS. Android and Windows are rife with users who'll never buy anything and pirates.

Everyone I see who doesn't use Linux uses a Mac.

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#559
post #42
post #25

Don't buy golden cage BS products, which you don't really own. Consoles, Apple, Google, etc.

But that's all products , and even if it wasn't, consumer choice is mainly driven by marketing spend, which lock-in companies will always have the most of, because they extract the most money.

not all products
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