"Roy Schestowitz" <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:2469033.9SKS0peN0R@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Fighting Piracy? Microsoft is not by your side
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | To avoid this loss, Microsoft has to make sure it is the only player
> | in race and to make that sure PIRACY MUST GO ON. Hard to digest, yet
> | this theory scores . People might be thinking otherwise, but piracy
> | is helping Microsoft to establish itself in emerging markets and
> | fend off threats from free open-source programs.
> `----
>
> http://www.cjnepal.org/story/433/fighting-piracy-microsoft-is-not-by-your-side
An OSS or Linux advocate should examine this hypothesis to see the lesson
contained therein. Perhaps Microsoft does indeed ignore some level of
software piracy to obviate some threat that Linux would be chosen as a
substitute, but to believe that theory is an admission of belief that Linux
for free cannot stand against Windows for free and so the obvious conclusion
is that the users perceive Windows to be superior. The history of commerce
has never been that an inferior product could supplant a superior one, even
where there was a price differential to aid the lesser offering. People
would perhaps live with the poorer choice until economic circumstances
enabled them to avail themselves of the better one, but there is always the
belief that the better product is more desirable. With desktop computers,
there is very little cost difference to start with and, if you price
equivalent systems with Linux preinstalled versus Windows preinstalled, you
rarely, if ever, find any cost advantage accruing to the Linux computer. In
many instances, due to the sheer volume of Windows computer production, the
buy is better served, if he wants a Linux computer, to purchase a Windows
computer and install his choice of Linux rather than pay the higher base
cost from a custom supplier.
I also find that the author's claim
"Lets try to analyze the loss of Microsoft alone because of piracy. The
worldwide estimate is that, the MS windows run on 90% of PC's worldwide and
95% of them ( among home/single users ) are pirated."
is absurd on its face. The vast majority of computers sold are preinstalled
with Windows and there is scant necessity for a user to pirate the Windows
OS, since it is likely already legitimately installed on the computer from
the outset. I don't know how the author arrived at a figure of 95%, but it
is clearly erroneous.
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