Posted on Wednesday 7th of November 2007 at 16:52 in Software

Does open source (and free) software reduce your pirating? 61% say yes

Over 12 months go I asked my readers whether open source software reduces your pirating and the result was very half-and-half. Well, this year I've asked the same question again and the results have shifted.

The original question was asked because of my article from September 2006 stating that open source software is kissing goodbye to piracy. This was made popular on Digg and therefore I received a lot of feedback from users - many agreeing but equally many disagreeing. Therefore I created the poll on the site in an attempt to obtain a statistic as to what users felt.

The 2006 Results
In 2006 the results showed 51.8% of users felt open source software did reduce their need to pirate, with the other 48.2% disagreeing. This was just shy of a 50/50 split on the situation, which seemed fair.

Why I asked again in 2007
2007 has been a big year for open source software; OpenOffice has grown from strength to strength and let's not forget the rise-and-rise of Ubuntu. This year Ubuntu Linux was offered as an alternative operating system to the mainstream market from vendors such as Dell; the first time this has really happened. This shows how far open source (and free) applications have come, so I felt it worthwhile asking my readers once again how they felt.

The 2007 results
For the benefit of skim-readers who just want to see the graph; here are the results:

61% yes, 39% no

As you can see, 61% of users reported back that open source (and free) software does indeed reduce their need to pirate applications. I asked a couple of regular users specifically why they felt this was true (using their comment nicknames):

Harpo: "I feel that with things like Paint.net, GIMP, OpenOffice and all the stuff Google is doing there really isn't a big gap for you to pirate stuff. I guess stuff like CS3 is still a prime target but MS Office is no longer a concern of mine"

James: "To be honest with you, I've not managed it yet but I've been toying with moving away from XP to Ubuntu so that's a good enough reason, right?"

Daniel: "I do still need a lot of commercial stuff to do my job, but when you take things like Aptana, Quanta Plus, Eclipse etc into the equation, you really can get by quite happily without anything commercial. So yeah, it does reduce my need, but not eliminate it altogether"

So that's a 9.2% shift towards "yes" in a year
Last year we saw 51.8% say yes, this year we have 61%. I make that a 9.2% shift towards a world less plagued by software piracy - which would be good. This positive shift is certainly due to the good work that a lot of people are doing. As I've said already, the big projects are really getting noticed now and when massive vendors like Google are offering excellent free online services (such as Google Docs), it suddenly becomes really hard to justify pirating Microsoft Office.

I don't have much more to say on the topic, the results speak for themselves. If you're interested in free applications check out my 70 coolest free applications around article or Andrew Sellick's 100 great free tools for web developers to get you started. Check back in November 2008 to see how the updated results!

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Comments

Showing most recent 13 of 13 comments

It will only get better. The best open source applications are not on windows yet. More contact with open source less asking for expense stuff.

by oiaohm on Friday 9th of November 2007 at 20:26

I live and work in Asia, specifically in both Thailand and Asia. reducing piracy will produce terrible job dislocation for hard-working folks who need the paid job time to work on their gaming skills so that, in a brave new world, they can become professional gamers. Ok, that was a joke, but seriously, the only way to end piracy in Asia is to educate people about open source.
Microsoft has deliberately allowed piracy here to create an MS only environment. Now they are providing cheap but crippled versions of their main products while trying to force people to buy them (through government intervention against the pirates). Its a dirty business, but until Asian people understand that Linux is for them too, that it is no longer just a geek project, then MS will continue to strangle them for money.
I was updating my fedora using the local Chinese mirror, there is just one in all of china, and DL speeds were around 1700kbs. And this was within the last week when Fedora 8 came out. There is a problem here, and the cause is the monopolist policies of MS, the cause is their attempt to dominate globally a market that can only be better through competition.
Answer to the poll: two years ago i owned tens of thousands of dollars worth of pirated software and that is ALL i used. Now i use NO pirated software and run a strict Linux/FOSS set of three machines, two at home and one at work. Has it changed my computer: obviously yes.

by nobodie on Friday 9th of November 2007 at 17:40

1) that’s a loaded question -- I’ve never "pirated" software, how can I reduce pirating software.

2) you should probably define "piracy", as the definition is subject to some considerable play and debate.

If someone transfers an OEM version of Windows to their kid’s computer (even after removing that copy from their own machine) is considered "piracy" by Microsoft/BSA. So is giving the entire OEM machine, complete with original OS -- even to charity, even if MS won’t supply a replacement that runs on that box. Actually, just not being able to prove to MS’s satisfaction that your copy/use is legit, by the unique (and idiosyncratic, eg. purchase reciept not accepted) standard of proof required by MS, is "piracy".

Yadda, yadda, yadda...

by Bernard on Friday 9th of November 2007 at 14:31

I would imagine the percentage of software that is concidered pirated is much higher if all EULA’s were strictly followed for example putting the software on more than one home computer even if the software is purchased after the first install all futher installs are concidered pirated. I had two teenagers in the house and never really knew what was going to be on the computer next. After switching to OSS both of these situations became a mute point. The software of other friends no longer worked and I could freely install OSS on all the computers in the house. There are many other advantages of OSS and the software is getting better all the time. Been using OSS for five years.

by RP on Friday 9th of November 2007 at 14:30

using FOSS and nothing else at home for almost 2 years !

I have uninstalled most of windows apps in my dual boot system to free up hard disk space !

by Kubuntu user on Friday 9th of November 2007 at 12:15

The question is a little like "Have you stopped beating your wife?", unless you also have an "No, I don’t use pirated software" alternative.

by ue on Friday 9th of November 2007 at 08:20

Seems like my comment got cut in the middle. Anyway, my conclusion is I almost said ’No’ to the question since there was no reduction to zero piracy. Hope no one else had that misunderstanding.

by Marli on Thursday 8th of November 2007 at 22:46

For more than 10 years I have never pirated a software (really!), since my main platform was linux, and all the windows software I had were games and educational stuff that weren’t that expensive to buy (

by Marli on Thursday 8th of November 2007 at 22:44

I pirated XP like so many other people did, but the more I look at things like Ubuntu, the more I think the situation is going to change.

by James on Thursday 8th of November 2007 at 06:29

100 per cent FOSS, 0 per cent pirated for over a year!

by blackbelt_jones on Wednesday 7th of November 2007 at 19:53

"there’s no substitute for things like CS3, XP, Vista or Office." by KUlr

did i miss understand stand that? i can understand saying google docs cant replace office (although IMO it can for at least some home users) but how can u say open office isn’t?

in the past i’ve seen and used a lot of pirated software but since moving starting the use OSS i have been able to find whatever i need, and its been even easier under linux since i moved to gentoo

granted im only studying for an MSC and not in industry but so far i’ve been able to find everything i need (although i will conseed on advanced software like CS3 and Sage but only a small % of computer users actually have need for them)

by ~CW on Wednesday 7th of November 2007 at 18:48

I would have to disagree, there’s no substitute for things like CS3, XP, Vista or Office. What about things like ACT? SAGE?

O/S doesn’t have all the answers.

by KUlr on Wednesday 7th of November 2007 at 17:11

Cool, you quoted me. I stand by what I said though, it does actually stop me wanting to pirate things (not that I would, you understand).

by Harpo on Wednesday 7th of November 2007 at 17:06