MS and the 3rd world

[e6626550w]

This relatively new tactic of MS to slow down piracy via it's various verification schemes introduced in XP and now Vista unless some geek finds a way around them seems to me to be short-sighted. If it does work and a way around it can't be easy figured out, most of the countries of the world will go to Linux.

I lived for several years in the Philippines. Practically none of the software used there is legit. Like many of us, stealing it is fun plus the fact, they simply don't have the bucks to buy Vista even if they cut the price by 80-90% for countries like the PI.

Stop a little piracy and lose the world? Is this what Gates has in mind? I hope his verification schemes are foolproof, it'll be the beginning of the end for King William and his monopoly.

eileen...

[smoker]

unfortunately (or not), the internet is full of fixes and cracked versions of xp and vista, ms has wasted a lot of money trying to stop piracy, and the fact is, if they had just reduced the price of their os, more people may have bought a legal copy!

[ankursethi]

Vista back here in India comes at a 16000 INR price tag. Sixteen-bloody-thousand! You can buy a fully functional PC for that much, with a free cheap webcam thrown in for good measure.

I know only one person who uses legit Windows, and that's only because his dad gets it for free from his office (long time M$ customers).

[Tundro Walker]

My roommate is the same way...an MS hypocrite. He loves using it, because he gets it for free. He got Win98SE from me. He got WinXP from school (when he was getting an Assoc in IT). Now he gets Vista free from where he works.

Of course he doesn't mind all the little bugs and stuff from MS...he hasn't had to shell out $500-$1000 for them.

But, so you'll understand his mind-set, just the other day when he was cleaning out his desk, he tossed away a $700 Sun Solaris OS package. He got it from work, wasn't going to use it, so he just chucked it. Crazy...

As for MS and the world, I thought they scaled the price depending on the market. I guess that isn't the case. Yet, Gates is doing the $3 XP (Vista?) for 3rd world countries charity thing. Oh, how gracious of you. You realize your price-gouging tactics are losing hold in certain countries, so you "charitably" come in with a low-cost $3 version of it, which most folks still couldn't afford, and try to look like the knight on the white horse.

If they would just charge a modest $50 for the whole darn OS (and include the hobby version of the VB IDE, too!) it would dollar-cost average and it'd work out better. I mean, they're selling the OS, the FOUNDATION at such an outrageous price, that it's hard to justify trying to build a house using it these days. And, if you go the cheap route and just get the upgrade CD's for a $100 or so, you're screwed the next time you have to reinstall. You have to play obstacle course with your CD's to load Win98, then upgrade to XP, then upgrade to Vista. What a hassle. It's like they're TRYING to make it harder then it has to be for the legit users. Meanwhile, the pirating users have a cheap, complete copy of the program, with a hacked key, and are going about their lives for free or a small, modest price.

[Circus-Killer]

well, here in south africa, to upgrade from home basic to home premium costs ZAR1800 (south african rands). nobody can afford prices like that, so everyone just copies. i dont know of a single person who runs a legal copy of windows at home. and as stated before, if the prices werent so high, people wouldnt be bothered with illegal copies. i'v e always said it, if MS lowered there prices to R20 per windows (as apposed to R1800), they would still make more of a profit than they currently are, because all those people that dont run legal copies would run to buy it at that price. so clearly, somebody is not using their business noggin up in redmond.

anyways, i just bought a laptop that came with vista home basic. i was actually considering staying with vista, but upgrading to at least home premium. but at R1800 (i only bought the laptop for R5500), it just seemed like such a waste of money. ended up formatting the hdd and installing ubuntu. now all i need is those cool ubuntu stickers to cover up the vista one :D

anyways, point is, who knows what MS are thinking with their prices. it's like trying to open a restaurant and charging R1000 a meal. Of course people going to said resaurant will rather sneak food in their purses. okay, just kidding, but you get the point. piracy is a direct result of MS's own greed. if they just charged prices that people can afford, there would be very little piracy. as i always say, the day MS drops their price of their current OS to about R20, I will RUN and buy a copy.

and more on top with the actual topic, MS needs to drop their prices for the sake of the South African people. how can you expect a new company, starting out, 10 people max, to afford MS licenses (remember that all things MS cost about 10 times the amount it does in America). Now, South Africa isn't exactly completely third-world, in fact a good portion of it can be considered first-world, but we are still struggling as a nation to stay on our feet. now you have a company like MS that kicks out our knee-caps while we struggle. anyways, i think ive made my point. i dont feel that MS gives a rats *** about the third world, in fact, their business practices seem to me that they are aimed at destroying third world countries and increasing povity and unemployment.

[Tundro Walker]

Just looking at a ratio comparison, a new copy of Vista costs about $400 here, while a new computer costs about $1000-$1200. That means just the Windows OS could be ~35-45% the price of a computer. Doing the math on R1800 / R5500 = ~33%, so, looks like you're getting price-gouged just as bad. But, when you start doing the monetary conversions, I bet you're really getting ripped. I know one guy in Britain on here told us how much a new comp cost, and it'd seemed like a proportionate ratio. But when we converted pounds to dollars, man, his comp cost like twice as much as one does in US.

Unfortunately, I foresee MS kinda turning into an HMO / PPO scam thingy. You know, how a lot of folks have to have a job in order to get the medical insurance. Well, I could easily see some companies working a deal with MS, allowing their employees to purchase OS licences at a cut-rate. This would be a case of "company store" syndrome all over again. You can't afford something on your own, but you can get it from your employer for a deal. But, if you left, you no longer get the deal. This makes you enslaved (indirectly) to the company you work for and the OS. Seriously, you can't afford to go to the hospital w/o health insurance. But, most folks can't afford to have health insurance without getting it through the company they work for. I could see companies leveraging this tactic in other areas, like software and other "perks". Crazy.

Ugh, we're moving closer and closer to our Cyber-Future, but it's not turning into the Star Trek utopia folks would like. It's turning into a Cyberpunk / Blade Runner future of Mega-Corps finding ways to enslave people through capitalism, consumerism, and legalized vices (computer games, pharmaceuticals, etc).

[Johnsie]

I hate to stick up for' the great satan' on a Linux forum, but I heard Microsoft was going to release cut down cheaper versions of their operating systems so that poor people could afford them. I also know that Bill Gates personally donates a lot to charities that help people in 3rd world countries. Probably more so than anyone in the Linux community does. Microsoft also provides many jobs in countries like India. I'm not sure that families in third world countries can make a living by working for a Linux company. Maybe I'm wrong though. Sorry if this offends people, I just though you should hear some of the positive things that are going on rather than the usual anti M$ rhetoric :-)

[jiminycricket]

I hate to stick up for' the great satan' on a Linux forum, but I heard Microsoft was going to release cut down cheaper versions of their operating systems so that poor people could afford them. I also know that Bill Gates personally donates a lot to charities that help people in 3rd world countries. Probably more so than anyone in the Linux community does. Microsoft also provides many jobs in countries like India. I'm not sure that families in third world countries can make a living by working for a Linux company. Maybe I'm wrong though. Sorry if this offends people, I just though you should hear some of the positive things that are going on rather than the usual anti M$ rhetoric :-)

EDGI = Education Government Incentive, a Microsoft 'charitable' program for developing countries



1 One key element of the program is to

2 sink the EDGI bids with Microsoft's

3 philanthropic or community affairs efforts.

4 And Plaintiffs' Exhibit 7140.

5 It says, it is critical, therefore,

6 that the GM ensure that long-range community

7 affairs approaches are synchronized with the

8 business needs in the sub.

9 So EDGI has the added benefit to the

10 outside world as appearing to be based on

11 Microsoft generosity, but in fact the program

12 is intended only for use where Linux is a

13 threat.

14 Microsoft executives have in fact

15 insisted that this program and its successor

16 program called Partners in Learning are

17 charitable and intended to benefit developing

18 countries, but that is not what the evidence

19 will show from Microsoft's own documents that

20 create and outline the program.

VolumeXIV-December82006.txt from Comes v Microsoft in Iowa.