Ladies and gentlemen, young and old, today we have a very special event to share. As if this 2020 of plagues and rockets needed anything else, «2kliksphilip» on YouTube decided to go beyond memes and mockery by buying nothing less than a license and the physical CD copy of WinRAR. Yes, despite the eternal trialware and direct competitors offering identical functions at zero cost, the WinRAR installation disc still costs 39 dollars, and below you can enjoy his unboxing…
Legend has it that buying a WinRAR license is the last test before entering Heaven. Others say there is a long-term psychological experiment behind the trialware, which seeks to gauge users' guilt for using a resource without paying. If there is any truth to that, I can only say two things: The experiment failed, and we will all go straight to Hell.
The WinRAR license for one computer costs 29 dollars on rarlab.com, or 39 if we request the physical copy. In both cases, VAT is not included, so some users may end up paying more for the program... in a parallel world, of course. The memes speak for themselves, and crossing the nagware barrier, the fact is that WinRAR has no restrictions. However, someone accepted the challenge. Took responsibility. Slightly restored balance in the galaxy. It's «2kliksphilip», who bought the WinRAR CD, and published the unboxing:
The first thing that catches our attention is that the disc does not have the rarlab.com address, but instead features win-rar.com... where the license is even more expensive: 43 euros including shipping and maintenance. Either way, everything inside the envelope is the disc, with a personalized print and a clear home-burned look. But a trained eye will quickly detect that the copy takes up half a CD. The 64-bit WinRAR installer averages three megabytes, so what's going on? It turns out the CD loads a full-screen installer, with access to 94 different versions, that is, 47 language packs in 32 and 64 bits respectively.
The installer copies the trialware edition of WinRAR to the system, and its registration is done with the second option, which transfers the key. The funny thing is that the first time it threw an error, but on the second try it worked without problems. The last detail to highlight is that (as expected) the CD does not contain the latest version of WinRAR. The official site already offers the beta of build 5.91, and the maximum on the CD is 5.80.
That's it! A real, physical copy of WinRAR on a CD. I think I'm a bit disappointed, because at least I expected a brochure with a message... "Thank you for your purchase", "We appreciate the error", "So long and thanks for all the fish", or something like that.
