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How Pirated Software Impacts Free Software
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?'"
I'm going to post this anonymously for obvious reasons. I have a few Windows XP licenses, but they are all OEM XP Home/Media Center licences that came with the computers. Those systems were so crapified by the OEMs and/or in such a bad state (my wifes computer was a mess when I took control over it) that even reinstalling the OEM version would have been a major headache.
I help exactly one person with an OEM XP Home machine and it gives more headaches than my custom installs. My custom installs are based on a Corporate Edition Windows XP Pro. Those never give problems unless it is hardware. Simply said: Windows XP Pro Corporate^WPirate Edition gives me better *value* for less money. It's the only software I pirate: all other programs are either free as in beer (iTunes) or free as in Freedom (OpenOffice, The Gimp, Firefox, Thunderbird.....)
Just to appease those that say I should switch to Linux: I'm typing this right now on Ubuntu Linux, but I have a long way to go to convert all machines that I maintain.
Does anyone have a mirror of the original article?
it's the swords -
The following replies are posted by unwashed nerds.
OEM licences are cheap, but if XP lasts for 5 or so years and in that time you upgrade your computer 3 times then you've bought OEM Windows 3 times.
Even if you buy a boxed version of Windows XP then you will still have to pay for OEM XP with each PC. This is the injustice in the way Microsoft bullies OEMs into not selling naked PCs.
Maybe this is just tinfoil hat stuff, but could this all be part of Microsoft's strategy? Are they that smart?
A-Bomb
...only if your privacy means nothing.
Not sure why there is this pervasive myth that OSS is free. First, it costs people time to develop and contribute to OSS projects. Not all OSS is successful; a lot expects that others will contribute to grow the usefulness of the software.
Then there is the configuration and maintenance cost. It costs people time to install and maintain a Linux OS loaded up with software. Support isn't always free for applications. A lot of OSS software I've seen pushes the "Here is the *tool* free, now pay us to train you, and/or make it work for you."
Call me flamebait or a troll. I just don't think piracy equates to free. A lot of people know that copying Windows (or software of choice) is theft. The problem is the perceived value of the software, and OSS has a similiar perception issue...
/\/\icro/\/\uncher
Or this is what has happened in my case.
I pirate everything I can. Never paying for any of the software I use. I start using Debian on my servers. Wow this is better then NT!
I then start using it on my workstation, and discover I like it MORE then the free copy of Windows I had.
I miss the games that I played (but never payed) on Windows. I miss the Apps like CorelDraw, MS Office, and all the games. But then I discover FREE software that works almost as good.
I now use Linux exclusively on my workstation, my Moms, my Wifes, my In-Laws, and a few of my Clients PCs too. I use Linux because it is better not because it is free.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
Pirates are hurting free software? I think we are cutting ninjas way too much slack here.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
Yes, windows is free for many people, whether pirated on bundled. However, it is the pain and grief (the viruses, the malware, the ridiculous restrictions, the evil DRM) that is caused by using windows that will make people want to switch, not a diffrence in retail price. And people seem to be switching, however slowly.
> Ummm, that's not exactly an insight. Any story here about software in China mentions that point.
The point was that is isn't just China. And it is a good point, but one I have realized for years. It's why I don't make a big issue of the free beer aspect in discussions. Because Windows is free, almost nobody ever sees a line item on a ticket for a Windows license. It either comes preloaded or bootleg.
Which is the big point the linked article got wrong. Microsoft would never officially make Windows free for home users because it would hose the preload arrangments and they are THE key to maintaining the monopoly. The second problem with the piece is the assertion Microsoft can't acknoledge the benefits of piracy, they have in the case of the third world and China.
Linux must be better than Windows on the merits, disregarding the stocker price. The Thinkpad I'm typing this on came preloaded with XP Pro. It hasn't accumulated a day of runtime in the four years I have been using it. Guess that says how value I see in it.
I kept it just in case I needed to update firmware or call for tech support and they wanted to insist I show the problem exists in Windows. At some point I figured I had better boot over and let it update to SP2 so as to avoid being a menace to the Internet if someone ever used the Windows side. After which it now silently updates the firmware in the Cisco WiFi card at every boot and now I have to remember to reflash it back before shutting down anytime I let XP start. Big disincentive to NEVER boot that turd.
Democrat delenda est
Once in a while I can show someone Linux and they just use it. It doesn't matter if it's free or not. I just show them a better way. It doesn't always work but lately it's getting easier.
... he's a Microsoft-centric developer and his name happens to be Robert...). While he didn't want to install VMWare Server, I was able to find a means of translating a VMWare machine to a MS Virtual PC machine so he could run it that way. After he got this thing up and running, I couldn't get him to shut up about exactly how cool and powerful this thing running Linux and free software really is.
...and then there was this other guy who was actually spending MONEY on porn sites! I was aghast at how stupid that was... I installed Azureus on his machine and showed him "empornium" and a few other sites and told him to go to town and not to forget to cancel his secret credit cards.
On the laptop of a blonde college-girl, I installed F7 and then installed vmware server and client along with WindowsXP Corporate^WPirate Edition. (She calls it 'baby windows') From that platform, she runs all the stuff she needs or wants... Linux stuff for as much as possible and "baby windows" for anything she can't figure out. So far she's ecstatic about Linux... it doesn't crash, it doesn't slow down after it has been running a while and it doesn't get the spyware/malware crap that she managed to collect while running Windows. I have also given her other pointers when it comes to other activities such as music downloads... (simply, I advised her to NOT DO music downloads... share them on the school's LAN and if you can't find what you're looking for that way, ask any guy to download it for her...of course he will! She avoids the risk and the complication.)
I recently introduced a very handy VMWare appliance (ESVA if you're interested) to my brother (Let's call him Microsoft Bob
My point is, sometimes you just gotta find the right catch...
The largest customers of Microsoft Windows are businesses, not home users. Businesses generally buy new OEM hardware and get the OS and Office with the machine. There are cases where they might get some older hardware together and run a not-so-ligit OS on it, but I think that's the exception. Most PHBs consider the warranty coverage of new hardware to far outweigh the advantage of trying to keep current hardware around.
If you want Linux on the desktop, then businesses are where it has to start, and home users will follow.
Not a typewriter
But there are many websites out there that will tell you the TWO changes you need to make to just about any WinXP CD so you can burn one that will be anything you need.
Start with a retail version and build an OEM version that will accept your OEM license key.
Is it "piracy" then?
I've done this when I want a completely clean install at work. None of the OEM crap. Just vanilla WinXP.
The only downside is having to hunt through the vendor's website looking for drivers for all the hardware. And you don't get the vendor specific apps.
There is definitely a valid point to be made about the circumstances surrounding "Free Windows." For me, though, Office is a better example. Consider the facts: Office is pretty much never part of an OEM pre-load unless you pay for it. So everyone is aware of how much it costs.
You can buy a $350 Dell and then add $150-$400 for Office. I'm not sure if non-students qualify for the $150.
Yet the fact that so many people "require" you to use Office makes me think they assume it is free, which can only mean that everyone pirates it. For example, I was interviewing for jobs once and submitted my resume as a PDF generated with OO. They kicked it back and said they needed it in Word format so they could index it properly. I know OO saves in Word format, but I don't trust it for someone as important as a resume. Without a test machine with Office, it is hard to know what formatting/conversion defects might appear that would make me look like a dufus to the prospective employer. (Now cue the "you shouldn't work at such a stupid place anyway" comments- you're probably right!)
Also I've heard some schools require kids to do work in MS Office at home. Are they really telling parents they have to go out and spend $150-$400? Or do they THINK they're telling parents and kids to use something they already have? If they already have it, how many of those are pirated copies.
So yeah, if it suddenly became impossible to pirate office, I really think that at a minimum, schools would change their tune.
I'm not a MS basher, and try to stay pretty objective. But the fact that we, as a society, have convinced ourselves that we HAVE to use Office and make our own policies enforcing it's use... well, it drives me nuts! It is such a cliche by now, but still so valid- most people don't use 10% of the features in Word or Excel.
In regards to home users, not really much do discuss; most believe that MS Office is part of the OS and don't know where apps start and the OS ends, this will be a tough group to educate but the vast majority aren't pirates and just live with what their OEM puts on their PC. That article was nothing more than a perfect example of a classic Dvorak troll.
The 'offical' OEM version has all the crap off. It's just like windows xp, without all the extra crap OEM's put on. I think Newegg sells these versions.
You can torrent an 'offical' OEM version of Windows XP and use the cd-key on the sticker on OEM computers. I ditched my OEM XP disc since it would always install miscellaneous junk and nvidia's drivers, which I don't need now that I have an Ati card.
Slashdotted: use the Coral Cache: http://tlug.jp.nyud.net:8080/articles/Windows_Is_F ree
www.tdobson.net #### Dare to Dream #### blog.tdobson.net
And the problem is -- it is better. Look at modern desktop distros like Ubuntu. Nowadays they support a lot of hardware out of the box without having to do the work of loading a single driver. Everything is clean and well-integrated. Most applications that people need are installed right out of the box. It doesn't suffer from the maladies of spyware, adware, or viruses/worms/trojans or drive-by downloads.
My blog
"People don't want Linux not only because Windows is free, but because Windows is much better."
This is the unpleasant truth that nobody wants to admit. Linux is free and yet every day, millions of people all over the world use pirated Windows instead. On a level playing field (Linux = free, Pirated Windows = free), people overwhelmingly choose Windows. If Linux was anywhere near as good as Windows it would be far more popular than it is today.
You can claim that Linux is better. That's your opinion. Just like people used to swear that Beta was superior to VHS.
The author of the article repeatedly claims that everyone should switch to Linux because it's "almost as good as Windows". Unfortunately it's not. When the best applications aren't available on Linux, that's not "almost as good". When you have to carefully pick and choose your hardware because only a few have Linux drivers, that's not "almost as good".
I've tried to like Linux. I really have. Redhat, Suse, Ubuntu. But it is vastly inferior in all the ways that matter. And the actions of millions of people all over the world shows that they feel the same.
Another point that's being missed: Removing the preinstalled version of Windows on a PC (by installing something else over it) is NOT free.
The cost includes:
- the perceived risk of loss of the machine (and the money invested in it) if the install of the alternative OS goes wrong so badly that it can't be backed out and the machine recovered to its previous working configuration.
- the cost of porting his data and working procedures to a new environment and learning to be efficient in this new environment.
The cost is even higher if the machine isn't fresh, but he's been working on it for a while. Now he's risking his current working environment and the associated data.
(And yes I know about backups and having to reinstall Windows from time to time. So what? That's also fraught with risks of loss. The cost of having to recover from backups is something he knows in his guts from past experience. So now he should volunteer to incur this cost when he doesn't NEED to, in order to switch to an unfamiliar environment and incur the porting cost as well? You have to be perceived as a LOT better to get him over that hump.)
The way to break this cycle is what Dell is doing now: Provide new machines with Linux preinstalled for less than the same machine with Windows preinstalled. Then he has a known-good-system with support and only has to incur the porting cost, much of which he'd incur in migrating to a new machine. (And how good it is that this is happening at the same time as the rollout of Vista, increasing the porting cost for sticking with Windows by adding the migration to a new version.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
For many people, both computer hardware and computer software are cheap compared to the time they spend using their computer, dealing with computer hassles, etc. For someone who's a professional graphic designer, for example, the price of a nice mac with a big screen, and copies of all the Adobe stuff, are just tax-deductible fixed costs of running their business. For people like this, the most important consideration is maximizing their productivity. If they're already used to Photoshop, then switching to GIMP isn't likely to make them any more productive. Ditto for switching from Windows to Linux.
Since it's all about time for professional users, any time spent screwing around and getting the dang thing to work is a disaster. I'm not sure whether Linux is significantly less usable than Windows or MacOS X at this point; the question probably can't be answered because it involves a lot of value judgments, lifestyle choices, and personal issues like technical and educational background. But what I'm absolutely certain of is that any computer is a lot of hassle to set up and maintain. Slashdot users may consider that hassle to be a kind of fun, but that's not the case for most people. So let's say, for the sake of argument, that Windows, MacOS X, and Linux are all about equally full of hassles. Well, the person who is already running Windows has already worked out the hassles with Windows. It's going to take them a huge amount of time to work out all the new and different hassles of a different OS.
Now that was all about professional users. The article's points about cracked software are mostly relevant to students and casual users. To a student, it may really make financial sense to spend a weekend obtaining and installing a cracked version of Photoshop, because he simply doesn't have the money to buy a legal copy. The thing is, it's very common in the retail world for businesses to offer different pricing to people who have different personal priorities about money versus hassle. Airlines sell first-class tickets, but they also sell economy tickets. Supermarkets give their best prices to people who have membership cards and who are willing to clip coupons from the Sunday paper. The existence of cracked copies of Windows is another example of the same thing. Microsoft is very happy that a broke college student pirates Windows, because the student doesn't have the money to pay for a legal copy, and if he wasn't using bootlegged Windows, he might get in the habit of using some other OS.
Re cracked software, I think there's another phenomenon that the author of TFA isn't cluing in on. Commercial software tends to exploit users. For example, I've bought Mac software (Mathematica) that wouldn't work on my new Mac because it had a later version of MacOS; their response was that I needed to buy a new version of the software to work on the new OS. In the same era, I bought some Mac music software with a copy protection scheme that involved inserting a special floppy every time you wanted to run it; I bought a new mac, which didn't have a floppy drive, and the software company told me I needed to buy an external floppy drive in order to keep running the software. A very common experience is that you buy software, find out that certain functionality is broken, and are forced to pay for an upgrade in hopes that it will fix the bug. The whole computer hardware and software industry runs on principle of the upgrade treadmill: software companies arm-twist you into buying new versions of software, which then won't run or don't perform acceptably on your hardware, so you have to buy new hardware. One response to this (my response) was to switch to Linux. But a completely different, and not so unreasonable, response is to fight back by pirating your software.
Find free books.
I paid 250$ for XP Pro 5+ years ago. I plan to use it until it isn't supported anymore (probably 2-3 more years). That will come to about 3$/month over its lifetime. That may not be free beer in the strictest sense but it's pretty damn close (my budget column for actual beer in that period of time dwarfs it in any case). Getting a pirated copy isn't worth the hassle of manually downloading patches (I'm not 100% sure but I don't think automatic online updates work for pirated copies).
The Windows OS will live and die based on the quality of its competition (already there and then some) and third party support from developers (that part is annoyingly slow to come but it'll happen). The actual cost is no big deal either way (many many Linux users pay more than 3$/month for patches and aren't going bankrupt).
More telling is that people willing PAY for Windows, even though they know that Linux is free (I'm one of them). Awareness of Linux is certainly up, even though usage (on the desktop) is still as negligible as it has been for the past decade. It can be said that Linux makers literally cannot give it away. That says even more about Linux than many people would like to admit.
I don't respond to AC's.
Yes, they are.
Red Hat: while their binaries are not free, the source is, and there are people dedicated to converting the source back into binaries to hand out freely (CentOS).
SuSE: openSUSE is free, and SLED is more or less a freeze of openSUSE. In addition, SLED can be had for free (beer), but you can't update from the SLED repositories (openSUSE's repos works just fine though)
"I think an etch-a-sketch with an ethernet port would beat IE7 in web standards compliance."
... to get rid of the Microsoft monopoly, and happen to be proficient at C programming:
you could cooperate with the ReactOS project (a windows compatible OS) and lend them a hand or two.
I'd love to help them, but I have little spare time and I'm not very good with C - just C++.
That sticker with a license key and hologram? I've been told it's phoney key - Microsoft revoked the license keys for OEM machines and I guess is issuing ones they have no intention of honoring, so they can't be used to reinstall the OS from scratch.
See the OEM is just a hard drive image, so you can't install non-default features (like asian support).
AND you can't take a real Windows disk, install it on the machine and use the phoney license key that came with the machine to authenticate.
AND apparently, that phoney key doesn't entitle you to buy and install a replacement OEM image either - they don't replace the disk. The piece of paper is nothing!
I mean really, how many users, without super-computer-competant friends, actually upgrade their base OS?
I have upgraded my version of MacOS a twice, but I am a top end user. The Macs my parents own haven't been upgraded
in quite some time. In the time that I owned Windows PCs, I didn't upgraded th eOS, I got a new PC. This seems the
way it has been with most of the average users that I know. They use the same version of OS that was installed and use
it for a few years until the whole machine needs to be replace and they replace the whole lot.
In that sense, the OS is always free because they never made a line item payment for the OS on purchase, and never
upgraded the machine they originally purchased. People don't choose Linux because it requires them to do something
other than plug the box in. Unless they special order something, but your local big box generally offers PCs with Windows.
That is the facts of the matter. Linux may be a good copy of server room Unix but it is a poor copy of windows. All the things that Windows works hard at are actively avoided by Linux users and developers: Backwards compatability, working with all available hardware, installing easily, requiring no configuration.Ok, and after we give up on all that what do we get. Buggy software, source code that won't compile, rpms that still need another package (that usually doesn't exist, or else needs another package itself), driver installation that requires you to know exactly which processor you have and to compile against kernel source and ugly fonts. Oh and don't forget that the UI looks exactly the same as all the other UIs, there is no innovation, and the whole thing is a total copy. And at the end of all this, when the user complains about the crapness, they are told if they stopped complaining and started developing then maybe the world would be a better place. Well guess what - they are back on windows ASAP. If the Linux user community realised how dissappointing the actual user experience is for the typical end user, and that money is not really a big thing involved in something I spend 8 hours a day in front of, they would realise how far they have to go before they are anywhere near the desktop. Geeks only.
The OS should always be hardware-integrated like the Mac because for 99% of users the entire hardware is useless without it. Users see the OS as part of their PC. When the OS fails they want it repaired and they don't want to pay because they already had an OS. Cracking Windows is seen like a restore from backup. They never for a moment consider that naked is the natural state of their PC. Same as turned off is not seen as the natural state.
As we go to no moving parts the OS is going to disappear into the hardware like firmware, it will come on a chip on the mobo, and it will finally be where users want it instead of how Bill Gates and Richard Stallman think it should be done. Ubuntu should not come on a DVD, it should come on a PC. When the PC is one chip what will be the rationale for selling it with some assembly required?
I'd be willing to bet that Microsoft, the BSA and the court systems are going to rule this installation "pirated" and I can't blame them. However, what was I to do? This machine was reinstalled way before Ubuntu became viable. (I reinstalled it in 2004 or so, I think...)
For a while I ran a pirated version of EZ CD Creator. I freely admit it. How was it justified? I have an older HP computer that did come with a wonderful recovery CD. My copy of the CD burning software became corrupted and would no longer launch. No problem. Uninstall the corrupt one and reinstall from original CD.
The uninstall went fine without a hitch. The OEM restore CD was a problem. The entire disk was just a Norton Ghost image. There was no way to reinstall my legal copy of the CD burning software without completely dumping my existing configuration, files, data, and later installed software.
To legally reinstall my software comes with the penalty of wiping my hard drive! This was unacceptable, so a replacement was borrowed from a friend. I would gladly tell the software vendors that I would stay legal if they provided installation disks that work without hosing the installation for the products provided with the hardware.
This is one of the issues that got me to seriously consider Linux. Software that works, is legal, and can be reinstalled without problems.
I am no longer running the pirated software so at the moment I am safe from a BSA raid. The older machine came with Windows 98 SE. It came to the point of the annual reformat/reinstall cycle and things were back to normal except now it's dual boot with Ubuntu. I still use Windows with the serial port to use my GPS software and National Geographic "Back Roads Explorer" topographic map software. For the occasional gig, I use Freestyler. Qlight is getting better, but not yet as functional.
Now that MS Office 97 is getting obsolete, the real cost in upgrading was a prime reason to dual boot the machine. Windows 98 didn't come with MS Office. Ubuntu does come with Open Office. I couldn't justify the cost of Photoshop. I used Arcsoft software that came bundled with my camrera on Windows 98. I now use The Gimp. Instead of pirating a copy of a CD burning software when my Windows 98 copy goes south, I use Ubuntu. A Right click on an iso in the OS gives me the option to burn to CD. Nice. No 3rd party software needed at all. Instead of Voyetra for recording audio, I use Audacity.
When you add up all the costs with a Windows install and typical applications, Ubuntu was an easy switch. Of course there is still a dual boot partition for the occasional GPS map load and gig. The rest of my machines are not dual boot.
The truth shall set you free!
I disagree. I learned basic computing on some low end Win boxes. Slowly, the news discussions about the MS Trilogy of Windows-Office-IE Explorer began making me think.
... glitches! But wait... more deep breaths... weren't we complaining about IE6 glitches? So in the spirit of the article, "if each is free and both have glitches, then MS doesn't really have an advantage, do they?" (And who pirates IE? That's super-free, because of the whole MS bundle trick the DOJ became amused with.)
... but this is OSS Office software! The second part of the MS trilogy defeated! Sure I can survive a botch or three!
... as comfy.
... will actually enable me to take a crack at a Linux desktop ... *gasp*... in the company!!
... needs to be GOOD. Currently, I'm a gibbering hatchling. But one hysterical blunder at a time, I'll learn enough to only look like a fool instead of a menace. Then I can broach the idea. I am lucky enough that my boss is actually pretty pro-tech, even if he needs help on the details. I think he'll see what I'm trying to do.
... look! here I am! Free-Source software! MS has lost a prisoner! And who plays games at work anyway? So who needs DirectX 10?
Firefox proved to be the easiest switch. Easy install... and
Now, I did happen to glance at Open Office in the Version 1.x stages. I had my ideology all lined up... but it was so different, that time cost forced me to decline. Life progressed, and one day on a lark, I murmured, "Gee. What's Open Office up to these days?". Now, having first suffered horribly for 3 days on V1.x, I was *grateful* for the incredible improvements in the (then-beta) V2 next generation. I still run into amusements like printing workbooks instead of sheets,
But that last one is really tough. I am sorry to say, making the OS switch is NOT as easy as the app switches. My first day I managed to nuke my music player because I somehow turned off the GUI window. (A fit of completely inspired bravery into the command line and the manual got it back two hours later.) I'm still motivated. And I'm still researching, at a glacial pace. But that "comfy-MS" feeling is my vote for the reason no one has switched. The only reason Mac is surviving... is because Apple is pulling out every last ounce of strength they have to market themselves
Re: The resume point, I disagree. Borrow a friend's machine, whip up your resume, save the file, and that's the only windows-created file you'll ever need, right? If not, make the file yourself.. and get a friend to *check it* before you send it to HR.
Looking at the types of word docs I see being created, I have never heard of people rushing towards Office in stark terror *if they know of an alternative*. The problem is mindshare. "You mean, something *else besides office* can create a spreadsheet!?"
The kiss of death in business used to be the weird proprietary apps that only run on windows. However, we just switched to a unified server running clients... while not marketed as such, that windows server
The last remaining problem is - the advocate of anything new
I have a static workflow, so once I nail the pattern,
My email is visible. My remarks are sincere. Any of you Penguin hotshots who want to volunteer to be disaster-mitigation resources, let me know. I'm right on the money the perfect switch candidate. So for all the otbers like me out there, I'm game.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
How should those people be handled? Is Piracy still piracy if it's the same version as what was there before?
Yes, it's absolutely piracy.
We need to be more tough on pirates and terrorists. In the music industry we use fines of $100,000 per 5MB of illegal pirated contraband. This should be increased to $500,000 per 5MB for Windows because it is such an important piece of software. Since Windows is about 1 GB in size that means we should be fining them about a gajillion dollars per theft. If you have multiple pirated copies then we must treat it as a commercial operation, and then clearly we are talking about *much* larger numbers.
Once the fine has been paid the pirates should then be sentenced to death by hanging. This is a good way to prevent re-offending.
I know that some of you think this is a little harsh but we must remember what the world was like when we were too gentle with pirates and terrorists. Do you want events like 9/11 to become a regular occurrence?
I'll probably be modded down for this...
but not everyone sees it that way.
I think piracy hurts Linux in developing and home user markets because when one uses pirated software, one is not required to make the decision on whether to spend money on the software or not. Businesses hav greater liability and hence this is less of a factor.
All else being equal, people wills stick with what they know because that always costs less time.
Because I know Linux really well, I generally find that Windows costs me an inordinate amount of time and the opportunity cost is prohibitive (I can do a lot of things on Linux that I can't even dream about doing on Windows without a much larger budget than I have). So I am not going to dismiss the idea that, for Windows power user, Linux adoption takes a lot of time. The systems are different and both have learning curves attached.
This being said, I think that Linux for *average* Windows users has been ready on the business end for quite some time (since at least 2000) and for home use are getting close. There are many applications which still pose obstacles in consumer space, but these will make it soon enough.
In fact, in the business sector, Linux is a no-brainer choice. I am starting to help customers move from Microsoft Access to Once:Radix (an open source web-based program similar to Access but with a real RDBMS behind it). And many of my customers are expressing a desire to get rid of WIndows desktop systems in their places of buisness.
Best Wishes.
Chris Travers
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
Faced with the choice of: pay for Adobe Photoshop, pirate Photoshop, pay for a simple graphics editor which will do what they need or pirate simple graphics editor, people will pirate Photoshop every time. If you sell a simple graphics editor that can be used to retouch photographs (red-eye removal, brightness / contrast adjustment, cropping / resizing, obliterating ex-boyfriends with copied bits of background) you will get absolutely nowhere -- and that's all because of piracy. And the crazy thing is, nobody ever has to make a single pirate copy of your program! Everyone's using pirate copies of Adobe Photoshop that they got from "a friend". They don't get the Adobe manuals, but they can get a book for about £20 that will explain how to use Adobe Photoshop to do all the stuff they could have done in that cheap graphics editor.
The publishers of all these "$EXPENSIVE_PACKAGE for n00bs"-type books have to bear some responsibility for this. They are next-to encouraging wholesale piracy of $EXPENSIVE_PACKAGE. Unfortunately, I can't see any solution that doesn't make things worse. If you insist for someone to prove that they have a valid licence for $EXPENSIVE_PACKAGE before they can buy the n00b's guide, you make it harder to give software and books as gifts (e.g. the software from your mum and the book from your little sister). And you can't read the book before you get the software. If you give the publishers of $EXPENSIVE_PACKAGE some right of control over third-party manuals, you're damaging the free market (to the extent that such a free market exists, what with the damage already done by widespread tolerance of rampant piracy).
The only thing that might come remotely close to cutting piracy is to introduce the concept of laches in copyright -- make it so that if copyright holders don't do something to protect their IP, they lose it. Then this would encourage them to go after home users and casual pirates. But I suspect many copyright holders wouldn't really want this either. They want to eat their cake and have it; they'd rather you were using a pirated version of their software than a legitimate version of anyone else's software.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
I'd love to understand the sociology behind the fact that computer makers put their own name on poorly designed software. Don't the computer makers have anyone smart enough to understand their crud software is self-destructive? Are they so stupid they don't know their software is poorly designed?
I guess that often the non-technical people at technically-oriented companies don't know and don't care what they do. For them, it's just a job. For a technically knowledgeable person, their work is often a satisfying intellectual challenge. But non-technical people seem to be part of an incompatible culture; they lead somewhat robotic lives in which things don't have to work.
How else to explain Toshiba's brainless slogan, "In touch with tomorrow"? Woooooo--oooooo. Spacey. Do Toshiba managers smoke dope? A better slogan would be "In touch with reality."
I once asked a Toshiba technical support representative for tomorrow's stock quotes. Apparently the company has no special connection with tomorrow, unfortunately, in spite of the fact that they say they do, every time I turn on my laptop.
Let's start a campaign to move all the non-technical managers of technical companies into retirement, where they can watch the blinking clocks on their VRCs.
I think the strongest point he makes is that Microsoft could give away Windows for home use. Not dissimilar to the free version of Oracle with the crippled database size and limited SMP that should discourage many people with small business and department needs from looking at PostgreSQL, and MySQL.