Is Microsoft driving freeloaders to Linux?

I am 100% in favor of M$ cracking down on piracy of Windows. I think Windows users should pay...and pay...and pay. Free competition from a monopoly OS is unfair to Linux.

haha, mdl, that's great. Poor ole windows users do pay and pay and pay, whether they purchase their copy of windows or not.

It's actually had quite an effect in some areas. We're already seing a decrease in the number of CS student enrollments... and many are now frustrated with their home computers.

HOWEVER, in a strange sense, M$ actually likes this... this pushes more into the subscription based services (think thin client M$ style) which allows Microsoft to get predictable revenue... something they'll need as more and more people refuse to upgrade to the latest version of Office(etc.).

This will also be the end of things like PhotoShop and the high end Adobe products... people just can't afford those things without resorting to piracy.

Most people I know cringe at the idea of spending $2000 for a computer system (I of course, prefer to always spend about $3000).... shoot, that won't even pay for the software if they're using Windows!!

Eventually it will be managed subscription based computing on computing appliances (Mac/Windows) vs. free software (e.g. Linux).

Microsoft services will be like MSN on steroids (shudder). Probably 100 times worse than Comcast (insert favorite comm provider here).

I put it to people this way: I can get the crappiest baseline laptop with a 1024x768 screen, DVD-reader/CD-writer and 2 hours of battery life (amongst other limitations) with XP Pro and Office XP or I can get one half as fast again, with more than double the battery life, double the disk storage, double the memory, a dual-layer DVD writer and a high-contrast 1280x1040 screen with Linux and OpenOffice for the same price.

Or, if I pay retail instead of OEM, I could buy one crappy laptop with XP-Pro+OfficeXP or two crappy laptops (think of it as double the battery life or double the storage) with Linux and OpenOffice -- and walk away with considerable change.