Windows is Free
De total y absoluta casualidad, me he encontrado hoy con este artículo de opinión publicado en la web del Tokyo Linux Users Group. El artículo explora el hecho de que, el “pirateo” de los sistemas operativos Windows (así como de otras conocidas aplicaciones), sea tan elevado, y tan aceptado por la sociedad, supone un grave problema, así como un importante freno para la adopción de soluciones de software libre.
Tengo que reconocer que en general estoy muy de acuerdo con la opinión expresada por el autor de dicho artículo, y os invito a echarle un vistazo, por que me ha parecido una lectura muy interesante, llena de grandes verdades sobre la percepción que la sociedad actual tiene acerca del software.
Os pego aquí algunas de las citas que me han parecido más relevantes 
.
“The fact is that there’s a distortion in the idea that Linux can’t be given away. There’s something wrong in the idea the price difference between Windows and Linux is representative of the actual quality difference. There’s an elephant in the room that no one is talking about.
Windows is free.
I’m not talking about the fact that Windows comes pre-installed in most computers, with its price hidden in the cost of the hardware. That contributes to the idea of Windows being free, but that’s not the elephant in the room.
The elephant in the room that no one is talking about is cracked software.”
“Imagine for a second that Hyundai had made their cars available for free. There would not have been one Hyundai left in the show rooms. Just about everyone would have one. I would have got one. Wouldn’t you? I mean, a Hyundai was at the time definitely not the same quality as similar Toyota and Honda models, but would that have mattered? I mean, come on. A free car is a free car.
My contention is that if a product can gain entry into a marketplace by lowering its price to increase its appeal, then a free product that is close enough in quality to its priced competitors should spread like wildfire.
And yet, that has not happened with Windows and Linux. 200 US dollars is enough money to give most, if not all, consumers pause as to whether or not they can or should fit it into their budget. I can definitely appreciate having an extra 200 US dollars in my wallet.
Remember the concept of close enough for free. What if those free Hyundai cars came without radios, and didn’t even have any dashboard space to install one? I’d still get one. Wouldn’t you? Free. And close enough.”
“It became obvious to me when I would recommend Linux to people. As that ‘computer guy’ who friends call up for technical advice, the opportunity to suggest using Linux instead of Windows comes up often enough. Since most of my friends do very basic things like surf the web, check email, and word processing that any operating system would handle just fine, Linux would be a reasonable choice. I would talk about how they could do everything they were already doing, but for free.
But the look in their eyes at the mention of the word free was clear. They already had a free operating system, so they weren’t impressed by switching to something else that was free. How do I know that’s what the look in their eyes meant? Because it wasn’t the look in their eyes that would have been there if I had offered them a free MP3 player or some other consumer good that can’t be simply copied and shared.”
“In fact, a free copy of Windows might even be freer than free. What I mean by that is, unlike most tangible consumer goods, pirated software is often easier to obtain and set up than making a legitimate purchase.”
“The other woman was interested in doing a little web design of her own. After hearing a couple of key phrases, I abandoned my effort to be polite and not eavesdrop, and went into full listening mode.
The woman who was clearly the most computer literate of the three casually offered to give the other a copy of Dreamweaver. Just give it to her. The receiving woman didn’t balk at being given a piece of proprietary software worth 400 US dollars. No, she merely said thanks and wondered if it wasn’t too much trouble.
… … …
Consider how different the whole interaction would be if the woman receiving the pirated software was offered a 400 dollar stolen iPod.”
Fuente: LXer
