Thursday, February 8, 2007

Russian schools ditch Windows for Linux

Digg is linking to a report saying that Russian schools have decided to switch to open source software to avoid the fate of one of their colleagues who is facing jail-time in the Siberian Gulag for apparently unwittingly pirating Windows.

Notwithstanding the merits of this particular case, it is an interesting demonstration of anti-piracy measures failing spectacularly.

At the end of the day it comes down to a simple value proposition. People are quite happy to pay a premium for stuff they perceive to be worth the money. Steve Jobs gets it, the RIAA, Microsoft and this bozo definitely don't get it. It's no wonder his rants are generally greeted with blank stares.

It seems to me that HTRegz, being a good zealous little Windows fanboy, and a security researcher to boot, is upset that computer users are pointing out that the emperor's got no clothes.

There's no two ways about it, an increasingly large number of people don't see the value in Vista. They resent being forced to eventually migrate, and they certainly resent the cost associated with the "upgrade". Mac OS X is an attractive, cost effective and viable alternative. So no, I won't be switching to Windows or Ubuntu or something anytime soon. And if Steve's got so DRM free music for me to buy, I'll be first in line.

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