There is a nice review of this concept here which points out that it is precisely corresponding with the definition of ransomware.
I am sad to report that I found this via the flathub forum where I was looking to see who was paying for “turning Flathub into a full-fledged application store” - it’s the same company as was behind this dystopian concept.
“If a customer is not able to pay their insulin they should die.” Those bastards behind any private healthcare system.
This deserves to be seen till the end of capitalism: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/11/goldman-asks-is-curing-patients-a-sustainable-business-model.html
There is one tiny good thing about that outcome - It would convince people that corporate control over your hardware is out of control, you need to demand it, or learn to hack and take it.
PAYG PC is a system tried by M$ in 2006, nothing new. Even PAYG PC from Endless are in Atchive.org, that mean its a abandoned project. Currently Endless offers the Endless OS, free of any charge. The PAYG system is used also in other products, its similar to the leasing system. If you lease a car and don’t pay, you also lose the right to use it.
If a company lease you a PC, its normal that they include a system that depends on the payments as in any other service, if you don’t pay your bills to your ISP, your hosting service, Water or Electric company, they also shut down their service.
In the PC, because of the low costs which can have a basic PC currently (used in the third world less than $100-150, or old donation PC), this system PAYG did not proceed.Even in the western world, most computershops offers it’s PC to pay in 10-12 cuotes without interests.
look at their website now, without archive.org. Apparently they are a non-profit that really want to help people afford computers now…
