Free Microsoft: A License to steal.

My RSS Reader showed me this...

Then I read ...

Windows Is Free

The impact of pirated software on free software

by Dave Gutteridge on August 15, 2007

... I wanted know how Dave Gutteridge had managed to read my tiny little mind. I also wanted to quote the entire post because it is so good but that would be a form of er, uh, well, stealing.

Here are some things that I have learned through the years...

1. People started out "borrowing" Windows in the early years... with Microsoft's tacit approval.
2. People do not realize that they are buying an separate OS when they buy a computer.
3. People do not discriminate between the OS and the computer (Reference my posts on "Microsofting")
4. "I already have Microsoft Windows on my computer. Why should I change?"
   
5. "Just what do you mean, 'You don't own the software.' I bought it didn't I?
   
6. "It's not like Microsoft really cares about little old me and just one more copy of Office."
   ... and last but not least...
   
7. If the retail cost of an item exceeds the perceived value of the item then it is "OK" to steal it.

Seems this is a meme who's time has come...

Best read of the year - so far

-wolfgang.lonien.de

who points to...

Windows piracy

(Bonus link: Why 'Windows Is Free' doesn't cut it for me )

(Disclaimer: I am not advocating stealing anything. Lets review the title... "Free Microsoft" This is a directive and not a declaration. Liberate Microsoft from all the encumbrances of being a commercial entity. "A License to steal." Is a social commentary on today proclivity to "borrow" a legal commercial instrument, a license, for personal use. It does not suggest permission to commit a felony.)