piracy killing open source

[karellen]

Even without pirating, the majority of people still choose to pay for Windows, rather than download a Linux-distro for free,

nope, here you are wrong. the majority won't pay. either because they can't (being too expensive) or because they don't want to. I asked all my friends this question - after previously showing them what's the deal with Linux- and they all said they'd rather switch complete to Linux than to pay thousands of $ for all the programs they are now using for me. make the same poll in India or China or Brazil or Kenya and see the results

[rune0077]

nope, here you are wrong. the majority won't pay. either because they can't (being too expensive) or because they don't want to. I asked all my friends this question - after previously showing them what's the deal with Linux- and they all said they'd rather switch complete to Linux than to pay thousands of $ for all the programs they are now using for me. make the same poll in India or China or Brazil or Kenya and see the results

Yeah, I guess you're right, depends on where you live. Still, I think that on a global scale, raising awareness of Linux and "promoting" it, as well as developing new open-source alternatives to Windows-software, will do a lot more for Linux, than would banishing piracy.

[karellen]

Yeah, I guess you're right, depends on where you live. Still, I think that on a global scale, raising awareness of Linux and "promoting" it, as well as developing new open-source alternatives to Windows-software, will do a lot more for Linux, than would banishing piracy.

yes, the only way to go is to show people there is another way, let them try it and some will probably remain loyal

[K.Mandla]

that's why, besides the moral issue of the aforementioned problem, I believe open source will have a very hard time penetrating these regions (and there are much more pirared version of Windows in the world than legal purchased one)...

Actually, my experience has been to the opposite, sort of. Inveterate pirates, once given the chance to download thousands upon thousands of programs for free -- and guilt-free -- find they prefer it to the old, illegal way.

Perhaps the trick is just showing them that there is an alternative to stealing.

[rune0077]

Actually, my experience has been to the opposite, sort of. Inveterate pirates, once given the chance to download thousands upon thousands of programs for free -- and guilt-free -- find they prefer it to the old, illegal way.

Perhaps the trick is just showing them that there is an alternative to stealing.

On the other hand, think of all those teenagers downloading illegal torrents these days, and ending up cramming their Windows-systems with spyware and viruses as a result. If they knew about Linux, many would happily give it a try, as long as it meant that they could keep downloading their torrents without having to worry about sideffects any more. Software pirates may actually be the ideal Linux-user of tomorrow.

[Blue Heron]

To sum up, we shouldn't worry. Where the developers go, the people will follow.

Yeah and developers need money, so Ubuntu should become a platform for closed source software e.g. games.

[Midwest-Linux]

Imagine downloading a cracked Vista or whatever and installing it and later doing online banking and credit card ordering on the internet with that OS and having that info "phone home" to some hacker or identity thieves?

Aren't people the least bit concerned with trojans, backdoors and malware downloading pirated stuff? That alone should scare even more people than just the moral thing.

[IHATEDLINK]

If people can get Windows and Ubuntu for free, naturally, they're going to pick what suits their tastes the most. If that happens to be Windows, and if they have no moral issues getting it from a torrent, then that's what they'll choose.

The fault isn't pirating - the fault is, that Windows appeals to more people, either because these people have never heard of Linux, or because they need Windows for something that Linux can't do for them.

I agree, but, hey, i live in Argentina and not a single one of my friends has heard of Linux. I don't know anyone also that has a legal purchased version of Windows( at least that they bought a PC with windows pre-installed)
I do think that maybe if Microsoft implants more (a LOT more) anti-piracy stuff on their OS's some people will switch but i don't think so.
In Argentina i think that 98% of the computers have Microsoft Windows XP (I also didn't see any Windows Vista around)

So bottom line:
Piracy isn't killing open source, people are, THEY JUST DON´T KNOW LINUX for them the only alternative to windows is a mac and that's it.

[popch]

They should make laws making it illegal for anyone under the age of - say - 21 to use Linux.

[karellen]

Actually, my experience has been to the opposite, sort of. Inveterate pirates, once given the chance to download thousands upon thousands of programs for free -- and guilt-free -- find they prefer it to the old, illegal way.

Perhaps the trick is just showing them that there is an alternative to stealing.

hm...Japan is the 24th state in terms of gdp per capita. Romania is 64th. so you see the difference