"Install genuine Windows. It costs only 10% of the hardware cost" There goes in an Ad asking people to buy genuine windows. But people here in this part of the world ask a more basic question. Why would I pay that 10% when I am getting it completely free?! Hmmm.. makes sense. And people are not deterred by the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) (Yes it is a genuine advantage for Microsoft!). They simply install SP2 for the XP and disable all auto updates. No home user that I have seen owns a genuine version of windows. There are exceptions who have bought laptops with XP bundled with it.
There will be some interesting developments here when Microsoft takes stricter anti piracy measures. I am very much sure that people here are not going to buy any future version of windows but wait for the pirated, hacked, cracked version of windows to get released. But, If windows becomes 100% hack free,
then it will lead to flourishing of other alternatives like linux.
Linux has already caught up with the people in here because computer usage is mostly by youngsters. These people are willing to learn, experiment and play around with these alternatives. So, that means, stricter anti piracy measures implies growth of OSs like linux.
This was one reason why Microsoft allowed piracy in countries like India and China (For Windows 95,98 2000...). Microsoft feared the emergence of Linux in these countries and allowed people to use Windows illegally. That means, he made the Americans, Europeans and others pay for the Chinese and Indian Windows users (If this were not to be the case, then MS would have gone into losses)!
But the question remains if MS is going to continue on this same strategy of doing charity in India and China!
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