I was watching this video on Cranky Geeks and they were talking about Romania and piracy. The story is covered here.
"Software piracy has many negative economic consequences, such as local software industries being crippled by competition with pirated software from abroad, and lost tax revenues and jobs from the lack of a legitimate market," said the BSA report.
"These costs reverberate up and down the supply and distribution chains."
I was not surprised. I find this it was extremely immature and stupid on the part of the government. I am from India and I can relate to this. The government and people here are equally immature and stupid. I believe that we are painting ourselves into a corner. What appalls me is the ease in which we can get pirated software vis-a-vis their open source counterparts. We can get pirated software from friends, or a walk on SP Road or any of the PC assemblers. But to get the latest versions of open source software and its documentation in terms of books is an extremely costly affair. If you don't believe me visit Gangarams or Sapna Book house and look at the price of linux distros there. I do not believe that technical superiority is responsible for the liberal presence of Windows operating system in Indian homes. It is due to its easy availability of pirated software. System assemblers know Windows better than Linux. The people who get it buy computers for browsing, surfing, watching movies and playing games. And not to mention the uncles and aunties fiddling with worthless astrology software that runs only on DOS (yes! you heard me. DOS!!!) and Windows. Probably we must make such astrology software for Linux and make it available on Live CDs for all these maamas and maamis to try it out.
I have some friends who are Indians living in India and yet buy Windows XP Home licenses. Can you believe that? They definitely are the minority. They are statistically insignificant. And some of them do have a Ubuntu installation safely tucked into one of their partitions. They were actually sold on the fact that Microsoft can actually track you down and sue you for using pirated versions of their software. But when that does happen, then the whole country has to be worried. IRCTC's website does not work well with Firefox. I book my tickets most of the time with IRCTC. Indian airlines' website does not work well with firefox. ICICI's website has just started working with Firefox. We are actually glued on to windows. I cannot find a single indian music site which works on flash audio like www.odeo.com or www.pandora.com. My favorite is www.musicindiaonline.com, which hosts an ActiveX control. I am not against Microsoft but I believe that it is not an economically viable alternative for us as a nation. I strongly believe that India is better off with open source software. Wine is not the solution. It will only worsen the situation. What we need is cross platform applications.
Microsoft will not bother about piracy in India as it is generating a huge talent pool and establishing a base of future customers. These customers are already trained on Microsoft software. So the organizations that hire them run Windows. Even the Java schools have a starter program for the computer illiterates and they start of with Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. Why don't they start of with Ubuntu or Linspire? Why dont they teach them the Google life. I am not against Microsoft or Windows. I am against the fact that we think it is smart on our part to pirate software and use it while all we are doing is increasing the liability on our employers and India Inc., as a whole. Open source software can solve most of these problems. With increased broadband penetration and web increasingly becoming a platform, we must get away from IE and ActiveX as far as possible have cross platform technology solutions.
Both Windows and Linux have their advantages and disadvantages depending on the kind of applications that you try to run. I feel Linux is better for me. It has been over 2 years since I switched to Linux as my primary operating system and I have never looked back. I wish others could see this in the same light as I do.
6 comments:
Hi Stupid!
I am from India too at least I don't fall in your category. Its a nation of over a billion people, some smart like me are born in this great nation. Some frustrated people are born too as with days nature has created nights.
Munish Kumar
Well... thats mature. :-)
Vagmi - good article. I had no idea that was the situation in your country. You can do your part and spread Ubuntu. Were you aware of the Indian Ubuntu Team? Might want to check it out here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IndianTeam
If we keep advocating Ubuntu now we can see a difference made before long. Glad you made the switch :)
Saying that piracy is good for MS, is like saying music/video piracy is good for the artist. In both cases there's definitely a win in fame, but loss in revenue. As long as other industries want customers to pay for products and services, isn't it fair for software cos to bill customers for what they buy?
Some cos have a business model of providing stuff free upfront and then charging for integration, consultation, support, et al. Others bill for the product and include some support and other services - and let's not forget the need to have some moolah to invest for the next big thing whatever that might be :)
In the Indian context, import duties also play a role in s/w pricing. Software export and the attendant pricing issues need a global look in so that consumers get the best value for their money.
If you want to help spread Ubuntu, check out the Spread Ubuntu site:
spreadubuntu.co.uk/resources
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