Zorin pro being pirated

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47

Don't worry I torrent with a VPN and with a VM it's 100% safe because I also consume the video in the VM, and after I'm done I just get on with my life.

I know that torrenting can get you a virus but I never torrent software 90% of the time, I ussually torrent movies or shows because in lockdown I basically have ntg to do.

PLUS this also saves my dad a lot of money, a show at a cinema is about RM 20-40 which is about $4-10USD per person, and usually you will get drinks etc. Ticket prices are also rising anyway! We don't have money for other things.

HECK, even my mom started torrenting, because I taught her. She said it was a great idea!! So idk will I stop? Maybe not, I like free stuff because I have no money.

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I know what you mean about ticket prices. Even way before the pandemic started, the last time I went to a movie theater, was back when the first Avatar movie came out. A 3D movie ticket was at least 20 bucks per person!

Then when you add concessions, 10-dollars for a bucket of popcorn, 3 dollars for a soda, 4 dollars for some candy, holy moly guacamole batman, were now up to, like 40 dollars with tax included!

Eventually, we got our first big screen TV back in 2010, a 60" plasma display, sucker weighs 100-pounds, heavy! And you will be amazed, that TV is still running today, despite all the naysayer's, that said plasma sucks, its gonna die fast.

Well, I will tell you something, plasma displays still look better then your average LED TV today! The biggest drawbacks to plasma's, is they are super heavy, and they use a lot of power, despite them being born in a supposed power efficient timeframe.

OLED TV's are pretty much the only TV's that can really go up against a plasma, when it comes to beautiful colors, and very nice blacks. But, OLED's can suffer the same BURN IN that plasma's can. And OLED's, despite being a technology that has been out for years, really hasn't come down in price much.

My previous TV that I used my computer on, was an LG LED 47" TV. Yeah, well, it didn't last long, bought it in 2015, had to replace it in 2019. So what was all that plasma don't last long? HAHA, yeah right, 2010 plasma TV still going in 2021, 2015 LG TV dead in 2019.

The TV I use with my computer now, is a TCL 55" 4K TV, which is an upgrade from the dead now LG. Also, the TCL TV has HDR as well as 4K, superior technology. And where as the old LG costed 450, the TCL cost 350, talk about value!

No, my TV will never wow the famous monitor and TV obsessed Linus from Linus Tech Tips, cause my TV isn't the latest greatest, most bestest thing on the planet, but it is great for what I need.

So the question I have to ask you is, with all these fancy big screen TV's we got now, with 4K and HDR, do we really need to go to theators anymore, even if there wasn't a pademic? The answer is NO, I don't think so, which is why I abandoned going to theators after the Avatar movie.

You certainly won't catch me in theators today during the pandemic, thats for sure! Oh and BTW, when is that hot shot James Camron ever going to release his new Avatar movies that he supposedly has been working on for years and years? Its like Gabe Newell and Half Life all over again lol.

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It is already clear, AMC and Regal's stocks has dropped low. They clearly are dying. Streaming services are the way to go! AMC is now it's in debt, they're going to die soon.

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A curious article I read today in online economic magazine.

Housing price is unexpectedly increasing many parts of the world. Apparently people spend way less money on vacation, restaurant and entertainment. At the same time, they work at home and realize that they need more space.

The end result -> more money into the housing market.

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51

Supply chain shortages contributed to this, as well. In the meantime, wages stay the same.

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52

You are so right!

I have a neighbor who recently moved out. She lived in a 1980's home that went through only 1 renovation. This was a very small home mind you, it was probably bought for around 50-grand when it was brand new.

Well keep in mind that the renovation was a giant one, its not like the whole entire house was renovated! If you asked me what the realistic price that house should have been sold at in a much more normal market, considering its age, I'd say 40 to 50-grand.

But because were living in crazy times where realtors are hopped up on cotton candy, that same house I told you about, got sold for 137,000 whopping dollars! Thats right! I would have never paid that if it was me.

But as I understand it, whoever moved into that house, they needed a place badly, and I think they just took it up the behind in the cost just to get a place to live in. I've never met our new neighbors there, don't care to know them.

Were living in Covid days baby, I have 0 want or drive to get to know new neighbors or be anywhere around them. I am fine to live vicariously through the internet on my fancy shmansy MSI GE76 Raider computer lol.

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53

Kedrik really said it best. "I like free stuff because I have no money."

Taking this from a scientific perspective;
Many people would be far more willing to spend the money if it was within their means to do so. The Spanish word for a criminal is "desperado."

Greed is not a Rich Persons disease that only rich people get. Not is it a poor persons.
It is human nature to not understand that there is a Maximum cap to how much we can have that we can also enjoy.
Jeff Bezos has more money than he understands. If you slipped a few million dollars out of his account - would he notice it missing? He gets more pleasure out of seeing the number of accumulation grow, than he does from actually having it.
When those that have-not pirate, it is almost a self inflicted wound.

Even so, Kedrik also raises a different point (inadvertently): Movies are not a necessity. Not a Need. To pirate media is to ensure that someone else slips closer and closer to being a have-not, too. The theaters going belly up; Those are jobs lost. Ordinary people wondering how they will feed their kids, make their rent... Kedrik, as you watch your parents struggle, you do the things that make other kids parents struggle for money, too.

I find these concepts interesting in the Open Source world of Linux. For example, Zorin OS is free and open to all, without need for Piracy. And Zorin OS is lucrative, at least enough, to fund the ZorinGroup, due to the support of those that have and are willing to spend.

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Ah, they're going to get replaced by robots anyway :robot:

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Greed - and shooting oneself in the foot.

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And do not forget that musicians are also people. They have to feed their family and pay the rent - said by a wife of musician.

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And, I used to be a regular content creator and contributor on Youtube. But because of Youtubes modern policies, I had to have at least 1000 subscribers and 10,000 views to earn monitization. In 4-years of service to the community, I never met that threshald.

So for 4-years I was making video's, spent 150 dollars for a camera, another 100 dollars for a gimbal, 100 dollars for a PRO tripod, several more in batteries, accessories. Never once did I feel like I was being properly appreciated.

Cause at the end of the day, not only did I never meet that unrealistic Youtube threshald requirement, but I had a patreon link, and I never gained a single patreon. The unfairness of the entire system kept me down.

Yet, you find Youtubers like Markiplier and Linus Tech Tips who have millions of dollars, and people just throw them money in which they do not need. Smaller channels like mine who needed it to support the channel, never made a cent.

Oh sure, I had some people who told me they loved my video's, well if they loved them so much, why didn't they support me with a few bucks? Yeah see, thats the reality right there. My ship as I'd put it was sinking.

Eventually, the new COPPA policies went into placem and then I was like, ok this is just too much. Now I have to fear possibly losing my channel to a COPPA violation, because Youtube fooked up, got in trouble with the FTC, and now we all have to pay for it.

Eventually, I just had enough, no support, things getting worse on Youtube. Until Youtube gets a direct competitor that is worth a darn, and you can actually earn money on it fairly, then there is no point. I hemreraged money for nothing.

On the plus side, I still have nice camera's if I want to film stuff. But yeah, my Youtube days are over. When you mentioned musicians need support too, it made me think about how I could have used support but got 0. I still to this day think its completely unfair the way Youtube manages the monitiziation system.

And furthermore its so obviously unfair, when Youtubers who have millions of networth already, and people just throw donations at them in snapchats and whatever else, while the little guys struggle, and some fade away like me.

So thats my take on this world of supposedly people should support the little guy, but reality is, they don't support nobody but the most popular in the world who don't need your money.

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58

Not sure how the current Zorin Pro policies work, but this can be solved if the Zorin devs implement some kind of user authentication for the Pro edition.

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59

True! A lot like a Windows License key correct? That usually worked pretty good from my memory recall. Cause if you tried to use an invalid key, it would not let you unlock the OS. So, ya, I think that would work awesome!

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@StarTreker, you think microsoft has good ways for protecting Windows ? Windows XP had almost the same way of activation as Windows Vista and Windows 7, they emulated the activation process from oem manufactures. Oem manufactures posted a slic.bin file in the bios and needed a certificate in windows to activate, that one was used in loaders and for bios mods (people added the .bin file in their own bios). Those activations could not be banned by microsoft because every oem machine acer, dell, hp and so on had 1 and the same production key for each edition. Microsoft was happy to tell a few years ago that their windows vista/7/8/8.1 and 10 never got cracked...DUH! you made it so easy people didn't even need to have cracks. Windows 10 they use kms activation tools. People find their ways one way or another.

I have a legit W10 pro license bought so no i don't pirate, i just read alot on the net.

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I never knew all the ins and outs of that, and that is because I had a legit license key, and there was no need for me to hang around pirate circles, but I also did follow any news about that kind of stuff either, so I truly never knew. Thank you for enlightening me about what was going on over the years.

Truth is, I never knew how the license keys worked. I figured it was just like a password. I had no idea. But you are right about that when it comes to hackers. One thing I do know, is hackers will find there way around anything. Cause of course, thats exactly what they did with the TPM modules.

MS says, you need the TPM module functionality. Yeah, turns out, those encryption keys that go into TPM, are hackable, thats right. So all a hacker has to do, is dive deep into your TPM they cracked open like a tin can, steal your key, and unlock your computer. MS don't want to admit it but their idiots over there lol.

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64

This is not really new... It used to be you could buy Zorin Lite or Zorin Core on a CD/DVD disk and have it mailed to you by third parties. Their reason for the price: Cost of the disk, postage and their time burning it. :expressionless:

Looking at the listing you point to- it does not claim to be Zorin OS Pro.

It's not limited to Zorin OS. Used to be (Maybe still can) you could buy a disk of Fifty Games on eBay and other such places. It was all free open source games that the seller burned onto one disk, then sold.
As long as the seller is Upfront and honest about it - it's generally accepted.
A point of interest: Zorin OS Pro is sold, yet contains all freeware.

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67

That does kinda make sense - they're still doing a service by providing physical media, and in the case of Zorin that physical media is itself a useful tool (I've used Zorin bootable USBs to recover files from a computer with a corrupted/non-booting hard drive before).

I always like to keep a bootable device on hand for recovery.

As for pirating... I only ever do it if a) I'm deciding whether or not to purchase something, which happens very rarely these days thanks to user reviews largely making demos obsolete or b) I can't actually afford to buy the software. The alternative to me pirating is never me buying the product - it's me ignoring the product altogether and never even considering paying for it.

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This nails it, really.
It kinda makes sense.

It's not for me. Something about it doesn't sit right with me. And if I can't make my own bootable USB stick... Plus, I'd rather spend $20 for my own USB stick than $30 or $40.

If we replace "software" with "car" - Would you still steal it?

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I would absolutely download a car. Would I steal someone's physical car? No, because the cost of creating a new car vs the cost of creating a new copy of software is fundamentally different. Buying software is more like real estate where the owner makes a large upfront development investment and then sells temporary access to a part of that investment for (usually recurring) fees. Some of that investment is recurring for dev costs and building maintenance for example, but there is little to no cost per "unit" delivered. If you find a way to make access affordable and convenient... you don't have a piracy problem outside the people who legitimately never had money to give you in the first place.

Preventing piracy completely doesn't really change anything except make me unlikely to ever try or consider a product - it's not like putting a lock on the program magically grants me the money I'd need to buy it. Because If I can afford to buy it, buying it is what I do.

This gets a little muddier with donations, as in the case of Zorin I am really not certain it's a good idea for me personally to pay $40 given the amount of money in my accounts and my status as an unemployed dependent who couldn't quite finish his CS degree for mental health (and US higher education greed/incompetence) reasons. I'd also never pirate Zorin when I can just install the Zorin pro suite of software on the free version (although doing that still kinda feels like cheating Zorin somehow, even if it's more like paying to support an idea rather than for the "privilege" of the "pro experience" like how most software companies organize their consumer relationships).

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You know what I don't really get? Is software that is sold in the professional industry. So you have your innitial cost for Adobe Premire, what is it 600 whopping dollars? But the costs dont' stop there!

Now, you got to pay like monthly or yearly fees just to keep the software supported and updated, and continue having the ability to have the right, to use services regarding the software that you innitially bought, for 600 dollars.

Now I ask, do you think that is right? I personally do not, and I think its a perfect example of unfettered capitalism, or form of monopoly. Professionals in the business will pay the outragious costs, cause they have thousands of dollars to burn.

Take Linus Tech Tips as a perfect example. Last I checked, he had a multi-million net worth, a company size of 58 people. For him, he can easily afford to eat the cost. But just cause you are loaded in money, and can afford to pay, and pay, and pay some more, still don't make it right.

This is another reason why I am a big fan of open source software on Linux. We don't operate on the platform of, feed us, feed us some more, feed us till the day you die mentality. And that is why Linux will always be different then companies like Microsoft and Adobe.

Ripley and Aliens said it best. "You know Burke, I'm not sure which species is worst, but at least you don't see them foooking each other over a GD percentage."

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