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How Pirated Software Impacts Free Software

Posted by kdawson on from the free-as-in-cracked dept.

jmglov writes "Dave Gutteridge has an unusual take on why people are not interested in saving money by using a free-as-in-beer OS like Linux or *BSD: because Windows is free. At least, that is an all-too-common perception, thanks to bundling and piracy. Bundling is a well-known problem to the adoption of open source operating systems, so Dave takes a look at the piracy issue in depth. His title may offend you, but his well-written article will most likely get you thinking hard about the question, 'how much does Windows cost?'"

1 of 530 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Windows isn't free by westlake · · Score: 0, Redundant
    This is the injustice in the way Microsoft bullies OEMs into not selling naked PCs.

    There is no bullying required.

    The OEM system install puts the Windows PC on a billion desktops. PCs sold to customers as a ready-to-run home appliance or office machine. Not a kit of parts.

    WalMart sells a $2000 Vista Ultimate HP Pavilion laptop with HD-DVD Drive. DX 10 NVIDIA 8600 video. Integrated WiFi, Bluetooth, webcam, HDTV tuner, fingerprint reader...

    You plug this beast in and you are good to go.

    You don't have to install the OS. You don't have to de-bug a failed install You don't have think about hardware compatibility. You have a functional set of drivers, set to intelligent defaults.

    You have a warranty, a service contract, if anything goes wrong.