A Vista kill switch would be good for Linux

[dbarrow]

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=339

*He makes a good point! Vista may be what it takes to push open source to the mainstream.

[Tortanick]

I can't see why M$ is against piracy, this just reminded me that the Monopoly that binds software makers, hardware makers and even webpage designers to use the "Windows Standard" is partally based on piracy. I think how many people would be forced onto open soruce if they had to pay to go without Windows.

[PeteF]

Excerpt from article:

A person in China for example making $300 a month will save up and spend $400 on a computer. They will spend 100 Yuan (about $12) on home grown software but they will never spend $100 on software when they can buy a black market copy for $1. If that wasn't available or if Microsoft made it impossible to use the software because of WGA, they'll simply stop using Windows and stop using Microsoft Office and use Linux and Open Office.


I agree, completely stopping piracy of Windows will drive more
and more people to Linux who can't afford to pay the normal price
of Windows.

I think MS could save themselves a lot of grief by simply making
their software more affordable and including something like a
printed user manual. I base my theory on what I saw many people
doing in the 1980s when computers were relatively new and software
was outragously priced. At that time, basic software titles like Lotus123
sold for $200-$300 or more, and the DOS OS only cost about $50 and
included a printed manual. For the most part, people would buy DOS
but go to extremes to pirate programs like Lotus123. Why? Becasue
they simply could not justify spending hundreds of dollars just to do
spreadsheets, or wordprocessing or whatever.

Sometime in the early 1990s many major software products began to
sell for under $100 and included printed manuals. This is when I
noticed the same people who were previously pirating the SW and
copying the documentation, suddenly began to buy it. See, it's very
simple, if you over price a product and make people feel ripped off
they will go to extremes to pirate your product. Even normally honest
people will pirate your product. However, if you price your product
fairly and give people real value for their money, most people will
not pirate your product.

MS is guilty of producing an over priced product that comes
with no printed manual and this makes people feel like it's not
worth the money. The recent drive by MS to end piracy of
Windows is nothing more than an effort to squeeze out some
more profits, but it is short sighted thinking becasue they will
end up forcing many people who simply can't afford the
outragous price of Windows to move onto alternatives like
Linux and OpenOffice instead of the outragously priced
MS Offiice.

How many more millions does Bill Gates really need?
It's the greed for money and increased profits that
will eventualy bring Microsoft to it's knees.

Mark my words: It all begins with Vista.

---pete---