Software Piracy & Communism!

[retroborg]

And, don't forget people... I repeat the same and lazy sentence. You should only download games, movies, music & programs which you already own because if you download anything else...
Your Souls will be burn in the fiery pits of Hell and be tormented for all of eternity!!!






No wait! There is Tile Coasters, Aprons and even Tote Bags!
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/store.as...superstore.460

[atrull]

if you don't care to play games, you can get away with running mostly free software these days anyway

[ajbrun]

if you don't care to play games, you can get away with running mostly free software these days anyway

I know - that's what most people don't seem to realise. I can't think of anything that doesn't have a free equivilant. If people became more aware of this and started using programs such as openoffice (office), GIMP (photoshop) and Nvu (dreamweaver) a bit more, then MS & co might be forced to bring down their prices through lack of sales.

I will admit that the paid for programs are generally better and more stable than the free ones, but at least they're free. If prices came down to about £40ish per program, then I'm sure a lot more would actually buy rather than use it illegally. They may even win over some of the people who've gone over the the free versions.

Most people I know haven't even heard of most of the programs I've mentioned. They're only popular because they're well known, and they're well known because they're popular. It's a simple matter of awareness. I could say the same thing about FF/IE. I thinkthere would be FAR more FF users, if people became aware of its benifits for example.

Some people however (I know of a few), are just afraid of change. If it's looks slightly different, then they won't use a program.

I do suggest to people that they should try OO or GIMP for example, but their general responce is "why change, when I'm getting the MS version free anyway"? Their argument is that either way they're not giving MS & co any money, and if both versions do pretty much the same thing anyway, then why make the change? The only difference is that one's leagal and one's not.

[Knoxville]

If m$ priced the products reasonably piracy would be nowhere near as rife, I know a business that builds pc's for the consumer market and even they only ever install a bonafide copy of windows if its paid for seperatly and requested.

£30/40 for xp home/pro I'd pay, an extra £20/30 for office, i'd pay gladly..............£520 for the pair? your havin a giraffe tbh.

[Jonny M]

I keep trying to shift to Linux, but every time I'm held back by the lack of (good) video editing software. That and I like Photoshop too much.

[Rave]

if you don't care to play games, you can get away with running mostly free software these days anyway

Well, I'm still addicted to Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, which cost me precisely nowt. There are still dozens of busy servers for it.

[XA04]

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