Posted on Saturday 23rd of September 2006 at 15:12 in The Internet

Open Source Software Kisses Goodbye to Piracy?

Has the increasingly common application and development of open source software helped kiss goodbye to a portion of software piracy?

Quite obviously, internet piracy is unlikely to drop off entirely - even if open source applications fulfill your wildest dreams some users will either feel this continued urge to pirate. However, open source software does seem a sensible and viable alternative these days.

My thinking for this is based around the excellent packages on offer. OpenOffice is a complete office package - practically able to rival Microsoft Office. Paint.net is an OK photoshop alternative without really excelling. Linux, ah where to begin with that one. There's something to be said for Linux - the angel atop the open source christmas tree. Microsoft Vista is going to hurt bank balances everywhere when it launches - even with the "generous" XP upgrade charge, it remains an expensive operating system. While I cannot question the pricing, it seems ironic that around the time Vista is ready to go, Linux distros are becoming more GUI based, easier to use, easier to handle, easier to... live with?

The Angel Atop the Open Source Tree
While OpenOffice is an excellent package, Linux has to sit atop the pile - offering the full experience, and, dare I say, epically better support than MS. Because Linux is so driven by it's userbase (and actually cares about it's users), the community offers fantastic levels of understanding and support (without looking very hard at all). Contrast this with MS turning off the servers for XP's error reporting.

Without "harping" on about Linux too much, as some may say, I feel Open Source is helping to reduce software piracy. I see no reason to download Norton when AVG is on offer (AVG is not Open Source but you see the metaphor in use). Mozilla - another great example (which ties in conveniently to Seopher.com's Firefox heavy browser statistics), Firefox's market share is forever increasing - another example of prosperous open source-ness.

Ok, but there's more piracy than software, right?
Absolutely, and open source software is doing nothing to combat that, nor is it able to. That will be part of a much larger battle of providing legal download services for users that offer *some* level of financial sense. The download services on offer allow you to spend MORE on downloading a DVD, on the same day the DVD is released... Which I don't see as having the same level of impact as maybe it did at project inception.

So, back on topic, open source software is becoming more and more popular - so surely it is able to steal a market share from the commercial application market? If so, piracy will surely decrease because an increased percentage of the market are using free software.

These may well be pipe dreams but it is a viable future for software. Linux has been leading the way for some time and is now claiming large numbers of users (Munich, for example), how long is it before other open source applications follow suite? Maybe OpenOffice will become more popular - saving people either large sums of money on software licensing, or saving people 5 years in prison and an unlimited fine.

 

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