I have no issue with paid mods, and paid beta access was part of the deal as other options at the time would let you invest but you got nothing from it, this way you get something and can shape it's progress. Everyone wins.
ClamAV is slow to get updates and frankly not a great tool to use. AV is a must as isolation and sandboxing are only as good as the next exploit. Not too mention scams like phishing are not stopped by isolation.
IGN still has one, humble bundle. I'm familiar with the other digital stores like fileplanet, stardock etc, they all sold limited items, as did Steam at the time. There is more then 4.... You might want to count again.
Note how it says on the western side....loot boxes were already in MMOs starting with Maple Story, this is how they payed for the free to play.... Which also came from MMOs. You didn't have to use loot boxes in TF2, you could just buy the item which funded the game and the community members who made those items. It allowed modders to move from a passion project to having a career.
Sell now fix later.... No that's not what early access is. That system which was already in use by other platforms again.... Sigh.... Was a way for players to invest in games. It allowed many huge games to fund their development like Rimworld, Factorio, Minecraft, Baulders Gate 3 etc.
I'm getting the idea you are some young kid who doesn't actually know the industry at all let alone about Valve.
If they killed competition they did a terrible job as there is more now then ever.
Microsoft popularised micro transactions, however they were never used, but DLC which they also popularised along with Sega and Sony adopted that name. Microtranactions were renting software where every time you opened the software or used a specific feature you would be charged a part of a cent, i.e. microtransactions
Loot boxes came from MMOs. The gambling thing Valve has certainly been a leader in.
Sell now fix later, EA and Ubisoft.
Anything with DRM can stop older titles, Steam included. However this is normally after decades of use. This is why many people buy Single player games on GOG.
The worst part of all this is epic used to be good, they made great games, supported modders, released tons of free content, went the extra mile etc. Then they went Microsoft and packed Games for Widows Live, which was so bad it killed the services subscription and the rest is history.....I wish they were.
Thunderbird is very good and new additions are coming on a regular basis now. You can use it with any standard email service, and soon it will work with exchange and hopefully soon JMAP. There is also a mobile version.
The thing with Office is Microsoft has worked hard to keep it's monopoly. Office is it's cash cow and so they avoid standards deliberately to make it harder to move off. There are plenty of alternatives, lots of email software, etc. It's just about taking your time and moving bit by bit. You can install LibreOffice and Mozilla Thunderbird on Windows to try them out. LibreOffice being what replaced open office.
Crazy huh but APNG was so well done it just showed the first frame like a normal PNG in any non supported browser which was amazing. I used to have an avatar which has the TF2 engineer as the first frame and the spy as the second.
NAND can hold data only so long without power being applied. This is why it's useful to a), plug-in NAND based devices like some cartridges, SSDs, USB keys etc and b) why you should always have backups on different technologies.
It should be noted people in New Zealand are not fond of their current government, not their republican style bullshit. But like many countries the same people who voted then in will do so again at some point.
And the i7 is.... What.... I7 in laptops don't mean a lot as many are low speed CPUs and some are high where as on desktop they are almost always high-end.
I have no issue with paid mods, and paid beta access was part of the deal as other options at the time would let you invest but you got nothing from it, this way you get something and can shape it's progress. Everyone wins.