Your opinion on pirating windows

[twalker323]

pirating windows is a common practice. But how do you personally feel about it. Is it like stealing? is it any better then downloading songs or movies off the internet? how many people do you suppose do it? do you know someone who does it? do you think its a crime?

i am not condoning pirating of Windows. I am curious on peoples opinions of it

Response- sept 29

Very interesting opinions and information.

Well I started this thread for this reason.

I want to address many of you that have stated that it is MORE of a crime to download music/games/movies etc then downloading an OS- many of you have stated that although you have download games/music/movies etc, you have not and will not pirate an OS. But let’s look at this situation in depth.

A DVD is about $15 to 20. A CD about $10, and games are about $50 to 60. Now combine all the music/movies/games that you have pirated and actually think of the value in cash that you have taken. It probably far exceeds the $200 to 300 that it costs in U.S to purchase a legit copy of Windows OS.

As Dirty D86 has aptly said, Microsoft can go the next 500 years without making a single profit and would still have more than enough money left over- which is true. If this is true, isn’t downloading music/movies/games MORE of a crime then downloading an OS? After all as big as some (emphasis on some) music/movies/game companies are, they are nowhere as big as Microsoft- hence hurting them more (much more if the company is a budding buisness).

So to those that wag their fingers at the idea of pirating an OS- I ask of you, are your hands any cleaner? If you are okay with the idea of pirating music/games/movies, shouldn’t you be okay with the idea of pirating an OS?

Once again I am not trying to justify pirating an OS or any product for that matter. I just don’t understand the stance many of you take when it comes to pirating.

 

[Vizy]

It's illegal. I've never pirated it. And it's not worth it. You can't do updates and stuff when u need to, its just retarded, just go ahead and buy it. Go ahead and pirate whatever else though (just keep that news to urself).

 

[twalker323]

It's illegal. I've never pirated it. And it's not worth it. You can't do updates and stuff when u need to, its just retarded, just go ahead and buy it. Go ahead and pirate whatever else though (just keep that news to urself).

i am not asking for approvals. i am interested in opinions

 

[brian]

my opinion is this thread will be closing verrrry soon

 

[Vizy]

i am not asking for approvals. i am interested in opinions

And it's not worth it.

I did give my opinion, thank you very much.

 

[cohen]

Look, windows is getting on top of pirating, and i think pirating an OS is worse then pirating software or even music.....

People pirate things like windows, are going to get caught sooner or later!

 

[Vizy]

People pirate things like windows, are going to get caught sooner or later!

Hmmm...that's be really difficult. If people would pirate it, it would be off torrents most likely. And that is extremely hard to track, with some downloads getting over 100000 seeds.

As the software evolves, so will the crackers/coders/hackers.

 

[chibicitiberiu]

I really don't get it. Why would people pirate windows, when there is linux for free and much better than windows?
Why create games and software for windows when linux is simply superior and the number of users for it is growing?
I understand that windows has eye candy that attracts people, but why choose and use an operating system that is so vulnerable to malware and so on??
Why Windows? What does it have that linux doesn't?

Sometimes i don't know why I am using windows and not going to linux. Maybe because there are cool games for windows, but why aren't games for linux too???

With linux getting easier and easier to use and the need of the console becoming smaller, i really don't know why people prefer windows...


And now if people would stop pirating windows, many would switch to linux because not many buy software these days, so many would get linux for free instead of windows that is not free.

 

[DirtyD86]

i will be the first to admit that piracy is like pandoras box for me. and apparently a lot of other people too considering i just saw a statistic saying 1,000,000 copies of spore were bought legitimately, and 400,000 were pirated. the only downside of getting things for free that i can think of is that someone behind the game/song/movie/software sweat blood to ensure you were able to enjoy it as much as you do. as a result this person might not get the compensation they deserve for their efforts, and ultimately might become disgruntled and stop making things for you to download altogether. it is already starting to happen to PC games. the market is slowly dying off and one day new PC games might be a rarity.

human nature isn't going anywhere, so as long as people have the means to do it, it is going to be done. and the means will always be there, because for every brilliant mind that thinks of a new way to make it harder for you to pirate the latest game, there are 40 equally brilliant minds that don't want to pay for said game. some companies like EA and microsoft are so disgustingly massive that i don't think any amount of piracy short of 100% would slow them down at all, but smaller more indie games are definitely hurting.

i've gone way off topic as i usually do. pirating windows is bad, and illegal, but microsoft could go the next 500 years without making a cent and still have enough money to give each high level executive a 20 million a year allowance for hookers and lap dances.

 

[jdbennet]

I really don't get it. Why would people pirate windows, when there is linux for free and much better than windows?

Linux isnt better. The vast majority of apps exist for windows. It would not be cost effective to port these to a new platform

I personally think NT is superior to linux.

Why create games and software for windows when linux is simply superior and the number of users for it is growing?

Its not growing as fast as windows is.
Secondly, the engines would need to be ported

I understand that windows has eye candy that attracts people, but why choose and use an operating system that is so vulnerable to malware and so on??

NT is not vulnerable to malware unless you are an idiot (which most windows users are - they run as admin user!). If you have a linux system and use the root account for day to day taks you would be just as vulnerable.

Why Windows? What does it have that linux doesn't?

99% hardware and software support, thats what
and a larger user base

 

[Gebucht]

It's illegal. I've never pirated it. And it's not worth it. You can't do updates and stuff when u need to, its just retarded, just go ahead and buy it. Go ahead and pirate whatever else though (just keep that news to urself).

There is a genuine crack, which a friend has tested and it works. He was downloading updates off a downloaded version of Windows.

However myself, I do hold a license to my copy of Windows

 

[bomberboysk]

Pirating windows.... aint worth it, i bought mine, you should too.

 

[Shane]

The way i see it yes pirating is bad,downloading anything without paying for it is but if Microsoft would reduce their prices they ask then more people would buy a genuine copy.

People will continue to pirate their software until they reduce the price ALOT,Microsoft tried to stop pirating in Vista by adding additional genuine windows stuff i think but it just didnt work and is easily beaten within a few days.

 

[gamerman4]

Pirating Windows is probably less likely to affect MS than, say pirating a game form EA. MS is pretty much guaranteed that any Dell, HP, Toshiba, Sony, etc... computer will have the Windows OS on it. That seriously undermines a lot of the money lost (not actually "lost" but "not gained") from the individuals that pirate. I think pirating games is worse since the people that make games do not have the 3rd-party backing that MS has.

 

[Gebucht]

Pirating windows.... aint worth it, i bought mine, you should too.

That should be made into a slogan

 

[alexyu]

My father had a HDD problem and he took the computer to service. Those guys recovered the files, but put him back a pirated Windows, LastXP 1.6 or something like that...
It looks like XP SP3 mixed w/ Vista, and it has a lot of pirated programs on it (Office 2007 is the best example). They also "forgot" the DVD in.

Conclusion: Even if you cant stand pirating Windows, you have to face it: everybody does it.

 

[Dropkickmurphys]

at the end of the day, i think pirating any software is as bad as another, people have spent hours of their life working on these programs for us to use, they deserve a reward (im not sure if what we pay is fair, maybe too much), but its like saying, "you build this house for me, and I wont pay you, ill just move in" ...

 

[Calibretto]

If you do it right, you can pirate Windows with no problem and still get all the updates. So with that said, I don't see why it's not worth it. Yes it's illegal and wrong but some people don't have $100 lying around to put a stinkin' GUI on their PC. Yes I know, there is Linux but there is a lot of stuff you can't do on Linux like game.

 

[Shane]

people have spent hours of their life working on these programs for us to use, they deserve a reward

why do they diserve a reward? at the end of the day that is what they are paid to do,its not like theyre doing it in their own free time and not getting paid to do it.

Microsoft pay them to make the OS,they pay them to see what people want in a OS and its their job to make sure it works....looks like with Vista they did not do a very good job.

 

[Calibretto]

people have spent hours of their life working on these programs for us to use, they deserve a reward

Agreed with Nevakonaza. Also, for me, developers only deserve a reward from customers when the program or game is very good. Portal and CoD4, for instance, two great games and I bought them because I felt the developers did a great job so I felt that they needed praise by giving them my support.