Intensified Battle Lines
,----[ Quote ]
| Some years back Open Source Industry Australia (OSIA) spokesperson
| Steven D'Aprano had posed a most intriguing question, "If Microsoft
| has a problem with piracy, it shouldn't be blamed on OEMs who sell
| PCs with Linux pre-installed or no operating system at all. Should
| we discourage supermarkets from selling plain bread, because
| shoppers might steal butter from elsewhere?"
|
| [...]
|
| For long now a tag has been associated with Linux. Industry players
| and resellers say Linux has become a smart, official, cheap and
| convenient form of piracy. The charge, is however, outrightly
| rejected by the Linux vendors.
|
| At their end, open source vendors will not miss an opportunity to
| assert that anyone who has benefited out of piracy is the
| proprietary vendors, like Microsoft.
|
| [...]
|
| Partners are already moving close to Linux vendors for various
| reasons. The days to come will, therefore, offer interesting
| battle lines unfolding between MS and open source players.
`----
http://www.channeltimes.com/India/Columns/Intensified_Battle_Lines/551-80562-751.html
http://tinyurl.com/37n6do
Also new, from India.
I use GNU/Linux... and I am HAPPY with it!
,----[ Quote ]
| Two-three months back, there was a news in rediff.com which said that
| the biggest girls school in Kerala has changed the policy and they
| use GNU/Linux for teaching. Those small girls learning computer,
| learn GNU/Linux only and they find it very easy. As they have
| never used MS Windows, they are unbiased.
`----
http://cleverviv.wordpress.com/2007/03/02/i-use-gunlinux/
Related:
Microsoft Exec Admits That Company Benefits From Piracy
,----[ Quote ]
| Jeff Raikes, head of the company's business group, said at a
| recent investor conference that while the company is against
| piracy, if you are going to pirate software, it hopes you pirate
| Microsoft software. He cited the above reasoning, noting that
| users of pirated Microsoft software are likely to purchase from
| the company later on.
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20070312/165448.shtml
Chinese attitude on buying Vista
,----[ Quote ]
| I've mentioned above,the price of Vista is higher than RMB2000 (about
| USD257) may not shake users in developed countries, but do you know it
| is equal to the average monthly salary in China's economic center
| Shanghai!So please take this fact into consideration before
| criticize our behavior of buying pirate softwares.
|
| recent survey of public opinion from China's portal NetEase shows that 81%
| of netizens think Microsoft is forcing them to use pirate Vista...
`----
http://ya.iyee.cn/2007/02/chinese-attitude-on-buying-vista.html
Why Piracy Hurts Open Source
,----[ Quote ]
| "...John looks at this from a different direction. He shows you why
| software piracy hurts Open Source software--the free stuff you are using."
`----
http://www.tuxmagazine.com/node/1000266
Microsoft seals its Windows and opens the door to Linux
,----[ Quote ]
| Now comes the really interesting question. With Vista's activation
| technology, Microsoft has the power to stamp out piracy everywhere. But
| will it choose to do so everywhere? After all, if folks in China or
| Thailand or Ethiopia have to pay for Vista, they won't be able to run
| it because they won't be able to afford the licence fee. In which case
| they may finally wake up to the attractions of free software such as
| Linux - and it's easy to imagine what that will do to Microsoft's
| plans for world domination.
|
| It's a delicious prospect: Microsoft impaling itself on the horns
| of a dilemma it has created for itself. Roll on Thursday.
`----
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1956941,00.html
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