What if piracy stopped tomorrow? @ bit-tech.net

Matt Lincoln Russell (Lincoln) What if copy protection could not be bypassed? We explore the free alternatives to the most popular programs used by many illegally. You might be surprised how much Windows, Office, Photoshop and others total up to and how capable some of their freebie replacements are.

March 29, 2006 11:34 PM ET in News,

What if copy protection could not be bypassed? We explore the free alternatives to the most popular programs used by many illegally. You might be surprised how much Windows, Office, Photoshop and others total up to and how capable some of their freebie replacements are.

Let’s take a fairly typical Windows user who has merrily bypassed all countermeasures to prevent him stealing software – we’ll call him Pete the Pirate. Pete runs Windows XP Professional – why bother with XP Home when you’re not paying for it, even though 99.9% of private users won’t need the extra features? Office 2003 is, of course, the de facto standard – who doesn’t use Word and Excel these days? Again, free from the economical constraints of being legal, Pete installs Professional, just on the off chance he might need Access or Publisher (again, unlikely).

Adobe Photoshop is no longer only used by graphic artists – millions worldwide use it every day to manage their digital camera photo collections and sites like beta.com have brought photo editing for comical purposes to the mainstream. Those with a conscience might opt for the cheaper, cut-down Photoshop Elements which still has more than enough functionality for most people, but Pete runs the full-fat Photoshop CS2, just because he can.

Source: Bit-Tech

8 Comments:

  1. Enverex
    30 Mar '06, 10:41 am

    It seems like a good article but I don't understand why the switch to Mac bit is in there, it's far from free considering.

  2. GHoosdum
    30 Mar '06, 2:27 pm

    I, too, thought the Mac plug at the end really failed to support the point of the article. Other than that, it seemed like a decent article.

  3. Leonardo
    30 Mar '06, 9:43 pm

    The Mac option seemed to be antithetical to the whole point of the article. Why would you wish to replace expensive, proprietary software with expensive, proprietary software?

    Apart from that, I found the article very interesting. After reading it, I promptly went to Openoffice.org, downloaded Open Office 2.2 and could NOT install it. Yay me.

  4. Vicar
    30 Mar '06, 11:00 pm

    Linux is a very good alternative for any one who dosent eant to pay for softwares. Overcome the learning curve and you gain by having a better knowledge of your OS.
    Overrall a good article bar MAC option. Should have concentrated on Linux--- i believe its the way to go.

  5. airbornflght
    30 Mar '06, 11:36 pm

    Thats a nice sentiment, but I don't ever see this happening (nor do I want it too)

  6. Leonardo
    31 Mar '06, 4:17 pm
    promptly went to Openoffice.org, downloaded Open Office 2.2 and could NOT install it. Yay me.

    I finally got it installed. It was a problem with Windows Installer. I had to remove Msiexec from the dllcache. After that installation went perfectly. So far, I've used the word processing program, which seems very good. This weekend I'll be trying out the spread sheet and presentation programs.

  7. primesuspect
    31 Mar '06, 4:35 pm

    Thanks to this article, I have discovered Zimbra, which is absolutely stunning, and which fulfills a need that many of my clients have had for a long, long time.

  8. airbornflght
    31 Mar '06, 10:02 pm
    Quoting Leonardo

    I finally got it installed. It was a problem with Windows Installer. I had to remove Msiexec from the dllcache. After that installation went perfectly. So far, I've used the word processing program, which seems very good. This weekend I'll be trying out the spread sheet and presentation programs.

    At first when I started reading that I though you were openly discussing how to pull the copy protection out of ms office. lol..

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