First, rather than spending your time learning about real operating systems that you can get for free you kiddies like to copy MS software (I know, everyone does it, not just kids). You may do it because you think it is the only software out there, or maybe because it costs so much you think it must be better or whatever the reasons, or you do it just because you think you are getting away with something.
Now that you have a copy of the software you use it exclusivly, if nothing more than for playing games (which you may also have pirated). You do this until you get out of school and have to work for a living. It happens to be the only software you have ever used and it's now a little late in the game to try and learn some new tricks. You are already familiar with MS software so that is likely what you will want to use in your workplace. Once you are in a legitamate business you can no longer use illegal software, you must purchase it. So you put up with shelling out the extreme amount of money that businesses have to give Microsoft to use their software.
Had you spent your time learning about alternatives at a young age you could have entered the workplace a little brighter and realized there are many cases where you can use an alternative for much less money and gain more productivity in the process. The full frontal labotomy should not come until you are at least a vice president but you chose to start out with the full frontal.
Pirating MS software has about as much if not more positive effect for MS than all of the advertising they do. It get's people "accustomed" to their software, they will likely buy it at some point. If people are not accustomed to it, and are at least as familiar with alternatives as they are with MS, they may choose the alternative down the road.
Because of the pirating, and because you can only get a PC these days with MS software on it, most people are *only* familiar with MS software. In todays business world it's pushing out other software not because it's better and/or less expensive, but because people are *familiar* with it and they are too lazy to learn something else.
I suppose one of the reasons that Microsoft is all of a sudden now cracking down on home users for pirating is because now they have nearly 100% of the market share so pirating doesn't have the significantly positive effect it once did. So $100B isn't enough for them, they have to screw the little people now too. You should see it when MS comes though a large corporation to *audit*. It's not a pretty sight. Next they will be coming through your home doing audits. Actually the auditing is built in to XP and OfficeXP.
But if people are comfortable with that it's a sad day. I certainly do not put up with it, wish others did not. So that's why I discourage pirating MS software and encourage the use of Linux (or anything other than MS).
[ February 11, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]
