[Linux-aus] Reasons why people use Pirated Software

[Don Knowles]

Hi,

My experience with the people I know is that they don't care where they get
their software from: "Oh good, you've got a disc I can use ..."

They are also used to "you-know-who" software, because they use it at work,
or had a computer with "it" installed before, and have no desire to
*learn*an entirely new kind of software.

I've spent the last year or two explaining to them:

1. The "Software Police" are looking for pirated software, and yours reports
in every time you connect to the internet.
(This was stuffed up a bit when a certain "chair-throwing CEO" was reported
as saying "we don't mind, we'll catch up with the licence fee later")

2. If you use a cracked copy of their software, you won't get updates
(except you can ... depends how it was "cracked")

3. Free and Open Source Software is worked on constantly, to improve it,
improve security, add features ... and it's all free to use.

I've probably succesfully converted 3 or 4 people to Ubuntu ... amongst 30
or 40 that occasionally-to-frequently ask me for advice on PCs.
Half a dozen simply went out and bought a new PC when it came time to
upgrade (they're so cheap right now), the rest are making do one way or
another.

Sorry, I'm out of time, I have to go fix another Windows PC that is
broken/trojaned/problematic. I've had a week and a half of it.

Oh ... on another note, I think some of the "argy-bargy" that has flowed in
the mailing list is because of the difference between "Free" as in $nil
compared to Free as in Libre.
Perhaps it should be policy for LA ... or at least this mailing list ... to
refer always to FLOSS : Free / Libre & Open Source Software. Just a thought.

-- 
Don Knowles
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