Is There Such Thing As Software Communism?
Last Friday was the start of massive nationwide raids on companies using pirated or illegally acquired software (I think initiated by BSA or Microsoft). Many computer cafés scramble for help on getting legit OEMs and boxed of Windows 98SE, Windows XP Home and if no other choice, Professional. There was a 30-day warning.
Most of the shops didn't have ample time to go legit and even many vendors ran out of stock. This forced most of them to close down temporarily.
This crackdown is working somehow but for many shops that couldn't afford to, per unit, shelf out PhP8000 for the latest Microsoft operating system then additional PhP6000 for the Office productivity suite instantly, opted to migrate to Linux. Articles of Software Revolution or Rise Against Software Imperialism also started to circulate around. I think this is the part where the plan backfires.
This will be evangelized among shop owners to give up Microsoft products. I suggest that Microsoft should lower the price. I'm aware that there have been considerations for computer rental shops that special licenses or agreement were being offered but I believe it's not enough.
I read in a news article that Microsoft cannot give a lower price for the Philippine market because everybody will go here to buy licenses/copies. With what I know about the license (I'm not quite sure so please correct me if I'm wrong) is that you could only use the software within the bounds of the country that you bought it. Or is this only for Microsoft server systems (SQL Server to be exact)? If it is, why won't Microsoft apply it to Windows XP? For frequent fliers (international level) that would use the software could get another kind of license which will allow users to jump from one country to another without braking the agreement.
My prediction is that support and use of Linux will increase if Microsoft will not do something about their pricing schemes.
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2 Comments:
if they're going to implement that windows xp will be only used for our country what would happened to us business man that travel outside the country every now and then?
I mentioned it at the last sentence of the second to the last paragraph. I thought of it too since I travel at least once a year.
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