2004: The Tipping Point for Piracy and Open Source as Development Issues · 134 words posted 01/01/2004 05:00 AM
Well duh, you say. Isn’t everyone predicting the rise of open source?
But I’m not talking about open source for Western consumers: your mom and dad aren’t ready for Debian. Linux isn’t going to overtake Windows on the desktop in the US market for several years, if at all.
Rather, I predict that 2004 is the year that Western (i.e., Western European and North American) software companies finally understand that they either adopt strategies to make their products more affordable in developing countries, or irrevocably lose the fight against software piracy.
In the coming weeks, I’ll post a series of articles showing just how hard it is to purchase software legally in developing countries, and explore the cost to US developers as we subsidize our industry’s unimaginative moves toward product activation and the like.
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