Half of Australians think it's OK to pirate Microsoft software
[Microsoft] has decided to release Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) software down under to cope with what it feels is a rising tide of pirating in Godzone. The OGA, like Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), operates through the Windows updates service.I love the conclusion that the author of the article then puts under all of this:
[Microsoft] said that it wants to convince the 45 per cent of users who said OK to using pirated software on its survey that they are "at risk" by using anything they haven't paid Microsoft for.
Oddly most of the threat will now come from Microsoft switching the software off.Hahaha!
Goodness, when I read this I'm so glad that as a user of a free and open operating system I don't have to deal with any of this madness. No operating system or any vendor should be able to do stuff like this - against my will - with the computer on which I store my data.
Free software is the answer to a world built in code.
Tag(s):
free software
open source
australia
windows
microsoft
pirating
oga
office genuine advantage
the inquirer
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Comment by tr3v, on 5-Feb-2009 10:45 , user id: 17832)
Yes, the same 50% that say its OK to cheat in cricket too :-)
A friend of mine has just discovered that her Office 2003 edition is pirated, due to the recent Windows Update inclusion of the Office validation tool. I pointed her at openoffice.org - like you say, it is all about education because people aren't aware of alternatives. By enforcing licensing on home users, Microsoft is encouraging home users to explore free and non-proprietory alternatives.
Comment by chris, on 5-Feb-2009 10:54 , user id: )
Non-geek people are generally unaware that there is an alternative to MS Office.
Also - they probably use MS Office at work, or school and are reluctant to re-learn something else to do the same job.
Also I have found that some schools/polytechs etc will not allow students to use OpenOffice - they insist the student uses MS Office - I wonder how much of that is Big MS Brother leaning on them?
Comment by draco, on 7-Feb-2009 10:52 , user id: 40882)
Millions of people think it's ok to shoplift too. Possibly the psychology is similar?
http://www.shopliftingprevention.org/WhatNASPOffers/NRC.htm
Comment by foo, on 8-Feb-2009 11:27 , user id: )
There are many people leaving Microsoft Office because of the infamous "Ribbon" interface:
http://www.dexodesign.com/2007/08/24/why-microsofts-ribbon-sucks/
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Comment by freitasm, on 5-Feb-2009 10:02 , user id: 206)
Let's just wonder a bit - most of those users are probably home users. So the need of a more "compatible" format is probably lower.
Really, I have Office here and I can count on one hand the number of times I receive a document via email that need to be opened with Office.
If this is the case why people aren't using free software such as Open Office? Why do they rather get some pirated copy from a torrent, with all the inherent risks?
Are people so dumb?