In article , Roger Blake
wrote:

nonsense. win10 works when not connected to any network and microsoft
*cannot* deactivate anyone at random because they feel like it, and
since there is no requirement to be online, there isn't any way they
could even if they wanted to.

The number of Windows 10 installations not connected to the internet
is miniscule.

it doesn't matter how many there are.

your claim was a win10 system was 'a terminal on microsoft's network':

In article , Roger Blake
wrote:
Basically with Windows 10 your PC is a terminal on
Microsoft's network

since win10 works offline without issue, that is clearly false, and
it's also false even when connected to the internet.

there are many reasons to not like win10, but that isn't one of them.

Once you are connected, they have control. Microsoft can
change their activation policy, as well as what happens to non-activated
systems, at any time.

actually, they can't.

if microsoft tried to randomly deactivate systems, there would be a
*lot* of backlash and a lot of lawsuits, plus whatever they did would
be ineffective for any system that's offline, as above.

As I said, product activation alone is enough to
keep me away from Microsoft products aside from any other considerations.

then you won't be using computers anymore, since nearly all software
today has activation in some form due to rampant piracy.

and it's not just software. cellphones, cable tv and many other
products require activation to work.