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Bill Gates spills the beans

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Here's an interesting one. In this interview with Bill Gates, he admits that they use software piracy to their advantage. Seems that allowing pirate software (China is given as an example) leads to purchases and it forces out lower cost alternatives, like Linux:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article2098235.ece

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by tc

I live and work in Mexico - the mercados are filled with every known software title for prices between 10 and 20 dollars. Every computer sales/repair shop that I have visited here is installing pirate coppies of xp pro, they even have a crack to make it appear legal for the antipirate update blocking - On the other hand, I have been to a colonial that got their first electric line and first telephone line on the same day (this was only about 1 year ago) One week later the first cyber opened, many of the users were using a computer, a lightbulb and a telephone for the first time (all in the space of days). They earn an average of 90 cents per hour, yet computers and electronics cost almost double what i paid in the US - Where am I, in a very rural area? Nope, the 3rd largest city in MX and possibly the most technology advanced. As prices here slowly drop and demand increases, the people buy new computers at places like walmart and sams with legal copies and guess what, they know how to use them. I built some linux based web browsers from old pentium II computers to help a friend who owns a cyber - he rented them for half the price of the windows machines, guess what, everyone knew XP and almost nobody would use the linux machines. Bill did not get rich by being stupid

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