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The Empire Strikes Back - in China
jaymzter writes: "Reuters is reporting that Microsoft is dumping $750 million into China over the next three years. According to MS CEO Steve Ballmer, "What's good for the local industry in every country is good for Microsoft", especially when that other country is actually promoting and developing home grown Linux. From the article it looks like MS is willing to overlook China's legendary software 'sharing' as long as the government stays tight with Windows."
How lovely that an illegal monopolist is using it's ill gained cash to empower a repressive regime all in the name of extending their brand! Microsoft, the Imperial Robber Barons of the 21st century.
Power really does make strange bedfellows.
I'm interested to see what countries like china, who are pushing hard for the use of Non-MS s/w (from MS point of view), will do when MS throw money at them?
What were their original intentions?
-Open source is better we should use it
-Lets scare MS into giving us a better offer
I hope/feel China is of the first, but I wonder about others. I live in the UK where our authorities (NHS IIRC) were looking at Linux til MS gave a discount
Having worked for a few commercial software companies, one being a music software company that was one of the more pirated at the time, I found that the company's standpoint on piracy was that it was not all that bad, in most cases.
Those who will use your software in a professional capacity will usually pay for it.
Those who will not use it in a professional capacity, will learn it and possible work for an employer who either already owns it or will likely buy it for said "now former non-professional" to use it.
At the end of the day, you have an increased user base. Revenue doesn't really change as the non-professionals wouldn't have paid for it anyway.
Of course, I didn't work for Microsoft or a similar company who's products are meant for absolutely everyone (in their book) and thus every pirated copy really is considered lost revenue.
China is a country where many computer users can't afford the MS license fees. China is a country that is suspicious of the US. Windows is an OS that is primarily designed with the English language in mind.
Linux is free/cheap, Linux is open source (you can find backdoors if they exist). Linux is also primarily designed around English however the code is available to be modified and I'm sure there's quite a few Chinese Linux distros.
I can understand why MS want to keep China using their products, there are some very talented chinese programmers working on Linux.
Agreed with your points, but there are a few more things to consider:
Microsoft really is lagging in the Chinese market (200:1 copies of licensed Linux to Windows according to some estimates). This is because the only competition to pirated Windows at the moment comes from Linux.
Also, Gates at one point make a comment to Money magiazine (in 1998) where he stated that they need to get the Chinese addicted to software, so they will start paying for it. This has seriously hurt Microsoft's image in China (can you say Opium War?)
Finally, the major anti-piracy cases Microsoft has tried to bring in China have been ill-timed and seriously backfired.
So Microsoft is coming in from behind in the fight against Linux in China, and it is trying to make up for past blunders...
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
I believe that there should be a 'personal use' license for most of the big software packages out there. They could make it downloadable (even if it did require registartion) or put it in the stores without hard-copy manuals, or a box. Sell them in a shrinkwrapped jewel case and price it like an audio CD.
The pros would still pay for it, and it would do wonders for increasing the user base.
I believe, IMHO, that people would be more than willing to pay for good software if the prices were not as absurd as they are now (for big packages anyways, think MS Office, or Adobe PhotoShop)
Geoff Holden
IIRC correctly, you did not propose a theory, but rather made an arbitrary assertion, something along the lines "Current Microsoft OSes don't crash." Not "rarely crash" or "crash less often than they used to" or even "crash less than other OSes". Now, to give examples that current Microsoft OSes (by that I assume you mean Win2k and WinXP) can crash, as some of us have done, is indeed proof that your assertion is in itself not true (i.e. they do crash, regardless of actual frequency of occurence). Now, if you have an actual theory to formulate, we can have an intelligent conversation. Otherwise you'll just end up offering opinion as fact, as you did in your original post.
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"Well, that's nice, but in intelligent circles..."
Tinky Winky : All a are b.
La La : c is a but not b.
Po & Dipsy : Uh oh!
Wow. You are so goddamned cool.
Get back to me when you can speak Chinese without an accent.
And it's the Japanese that have no phonetic distinctions between l's and r's.
Fag.
Now I see that I have been right all along!! I'm not really pirating MS software, I'm helping MS to maintain their dominant user-base!
Yes, you are. You are an accomplice to a corporation with the morals of a drug pusher.
Get legal. Use open source.
MS: Free, as in "the first one is on me"
MS: Unfree, as in "We'll charge you when you're hooked"
Only suckers play MS's game. If you are already dependent, *plan* to get off their software. For all new projects, use open source equivalents. For old projects, gradually port them to the open source equivalents. You *can* do something about it. Start now.
I am anarch of all I survey.
"They execute more people than any other country..."
Yes, and USA wins the second place in this competition.
Isn't this just a standard Microsoft practice anyway? When was the last time Microsoft or the BSA actually cracked down on home networks which had 5 copies of windows all using the same serial??? The cash cow for Microsoft is in getting government compliance... tax the government... hrmmm....
Does it go on forever?
Of course, probably nothing would come from that anyway, what with "intellectual property" being so screwed up in the west ("What's ours is ours, and what's yours is ours. Now bend over!", say the corporations, with the court system seemingly going along with this).
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