Piracy and Windows Vista

Vista has launched, and with it it seems Microsoft has launched an all out war on it's crusade against piracy. Unlike win XP, which only shows annoying pup up and annoying message on your computer stating that your computer is not genuine. Vista has taken it to the next level, where non authentic version of windows got striped out of all it's function, and make window's unusable.

There are several versions of vista available, ranging from home basic, all th way to ultimate edition. Also not to mention starter edition created for those with shallow pockets, and got striped of lot's of it's function. With only being able to run 3 programs at most, at the same time.

I'm not a supporter of piracy, and I also think that it's wrong. Is it just me or it's just that Microsoft thinks that poorer people are not entitled on using their products? Being left with windows starter edition, which I don't think is worthy of being used at all, I really do think that Microsoft is being unreasonable. It's rude and discriminating.

Bear with me for a while, and see if my reasoning is correct.

Pirates software usually thrives in third world countries. In fact almost 90 percent of software being used in third world countries are pirated. With that kind of data in hand I don't really blame Microsoft for working hard on fighting piracy, imagine 90% or more computer used are using pirated software, how much money are they loosing?

I life in one of those countries, and looking at Microsoft attempts on cracking on piracy is just sad. I just don't think Microsoft really understand why piracy thrives out here.

The minimum wage out here is $90 a MONTH, compare that to the minimum wage in California, which is $7 an HOUR. With middle class family earning 2-3 times as much as the minimum wage, it's not that we like buying cheap pirated software, we just can't simply afford it. With most people buying computer with a budget of 200-500 dollars, I really doubt buying a software costing 200-400 dollars is even an option. for a $200 PC, even starter edition which cost somewhere around $40, would just simply cost too much.

An economic teacher of mine once said, don't only see the price of the good, always count the man hour needed for purchasing it. Having a $90 a month job, one needs to work 4 MONTHS just to purchase the ultimate version of vista, while most Americans only have to work for 60 hours or 5 DAYS of work. But, we still do live, even people earning minimum wages have to eat. Purchasing an absurdly priced piece of software is simply not an option for most, purchasing a cheap counterfit software is the only option for most.

Are poorer people less entitled to using a high quality software? I don't think so, they need to get their hands on these in order to get into the high tech industry, even an office environments, it's really had for people to learn to use the software that are usually required to work in an office. Sure there are Linux, which we could get for free, but most office still required the knowledge of being able to use Microsoft windows and office. We are in a difficult position here, in order to excel we need to use the program, yet because of the extremely high price tag by our standard, we can't afford it, and have to resort to pirated software even though we know that it's wrong.

I read an article in a PC magazine, stating that the only way to stop piracy is cheap software. And I couldn't agree more. Microsoft should really put them self in the buyer's point of view in these third world counties.