Microsoft settles with British software pirates

I wish Microsoft would make it nigh-impossible for people to pirate its software.
It would help linux and OSS immensely.
As it stands right now the biggest competition to linux is pirated windows.

@ Deimios

Rearrange these words to find a famous phase:

Facts. Straight. Your. Get.

"As it stands right now the biggest competition to linux is pirated windows."

Umm, so given that the current market share of Windows globally is 88%, and both Linux and 'Other' COMBINED is less than 2% - YOU say that the biggest competition to Linux is pirated Windows.

Even Apple has almost 10% market share.

What on EARTH are you flapping about?
Even if 10% of those Windows figures are pirated OS, that still means 78% market share for legit windows!

Get your head out of the penguin's behind. Linux is a long....long way behind. Even the iPhone has half the market share of the LInus distros.

Wakey wakey!

Can't you read between the lines before going off on one, mate?

Deimios clearly meant that the uptake of Linux would be significantly greater if people were not able to run pirate copies of Windows, and he's bang on.

Stop being so pedantic.

actually, if 10% of the 88% market share of windows pirated the software, that would mean 79.2% of the software was legit. However, I think your numbers are off since you pulled them out of thin air.

Anyways - imagine if those 8.8% of windows users couldn't get windows for free. Then guess where they would go? LINUX. Or mac, but that's unlikely since these people are already very cheap. That would mean a 10.8% market share according to your question numbers. Not too shabby for something made on people's free time.

I agree with diemio

I've been doing computer repairs for 17 years and I will easily say that I would give more then 40% of the windows systems out there are pirated, even in corporate environments.

Why do you think that MS was flogging WinXP retail in China for 5$ USD. You know I have worked at 7 establishments in my career and I was often asked to get it a system working when there are no legit copy of windows or at least legit key. I was always told "We will buy in our next lot of systems we buy" but that never happened.

The only real reason why MS has become as popular as they have was because of piracy. When I started 17 years ago working with PC's they still had Tandy's and a whole slew of other systems. OS2 Warp was out, Apple, DOS, .... if OpenSource is as mature as it is now back then I would say we would probably be bitching about this and that with linux but we will never know I guess.

Microsoft only started implementing anti-piracy measures once they had around %70+ of the market share. The only reason why they did this is simple, people are lazy and don`t want to learn anything new. Really this is the only reason why any technical person has a job, I been told often "Why do you show people how to do everything and not keep this knowlege to your self, it will give you an edge" my reply is always "No worries people are just getting lazier I will always be employed".

MS didn't care about spreading their digital crack for the first few years cause they knew that people would always come back to get their fix.

Your logic and knowledge is legendary. Your better than half the authors on the INQ.

In my country the rate of piracy in year 2007 as per the BSA official numbers is 68%.

Most people do not have enough money to buy windows, let alone office. The cheapest OEM windows costs nearly the monthly minimal wage. These people will not buy software as they cannot afford to do so, or because of the mentality that you only pay for tangible things. They are the prime candidates for a linux conversion.

If you're curious about which country I'm speaking of, here's a quiz for you;
Our president told Bill Gates:
"Piracy helped the young generation discover computers. It set off the development of the IT industry"

The biggest competition to Linux is people having to associate themselves with nerds like you!

Please go and spam some ware else.

Who in the world would hide under a 10% number while the number of pirated software is totally unknown? Estimates are for stockholders, everybody knows that!

Linux is coming along nicely, and I like it the fact that it can do MORE with outdated hardware that Windows totally cancels on purpose! Windows is a horse that always need a new chariot at every time the horse gets changed. It's wasteful, it's pollutor, It's stupid!

Hey Microsoft! People likes the look of windows, but want the security of Linux, they want a Linux version of windows, don't you get it? Or are you so stuck [making millions] in the unsecured security business, you just won't take the pill?

umm if they couldn't pirate Windows they would go to Apple OS. That makes perfect sense. Someone who can't afford $100 for windows is going to spend ~$1000 on an Apple system to get Apple's OS and use it.

Brilliant thinking there.

Talk about pulling things out of thin air...

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Microsofts own numbers claim a 20% market share for pirated windows, at least in the us. Thats roughly twice the mac os share here.
I can't speak for the corporate world, but i suspect its mostly OEM machines with valid licenses. Also, I have no expirence outside the industrialized nations.
The biggest pirates here are usually the hobby system builders and people using one retail copy for multible home computers. System builders don't generally buy macs. They can't build them, can't upgrade them, you can't get the exact specs you want and you can't even reuse the screen if you opt for the imac.
Apple sells a 5 user family license for osx. I don't know anyone who buys 2 copies of the same program for 2 computers. Multible licenses kinda make sense here for company. But retail versions of windows is s small part of its business. The upgrade version of vista is about the same price as leopard single license.
Linux and windows runs on computers that mac osx won't run on. By my calculations, locking down the windows OS from pirates will not cause people to buy macs.
If windows 7 became pirate proof somehow. Computer users would have 2 real options, either buy a full version of windows when they build a computer or install free software. Its not a hard concept to grasp.

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/os-market-share.aspx?qprid=9

Enjoy whiners.

Charisma Computers, is a foriegn run shop and I've only used it once because they tried conning me

Thanks for the link, it was very interesting.
I changed the timeframe to get the largest spread I could - from May 2007 to today.
The figures are as follows :
Windows goes from 92.90% to 87.90%
Mac goes from 6.48% to 9.73%
Linux goes from 0.43% to 1.02%
I'll pass on the phones
Other goes from 0.19% to 0.58%

In other words, the disastrous Vista debacle has cost 5 points of market share to Microsoft.
Of those 5 points, 3.25 have gone to Mac, 0.39 have gone to obscure, unknown systems, 0.77 have gone to phone systems and 0.59 have gone to Linux.
So those of you who posted nonsense about Linux and its coming of age are clearly trolls. The only OS that is clearly profiting from the Vista disaster is Mac.
Even smartphones are doing better than Linux ! That really says something about Linux's prospects on the market.

You're from Romania ! We had Dracula, and we had Windows (bundled). Now we also have Linux. Hurray !