MS not really care about piracy. How many of you know someone who had truly paid for Windows XP pro or even 2000 pro.. It's just not everybody who can pay for it. Besides, it has been a long since I buy a computer which actually comes with Windows on the CD-rom. It comes with a license and a crappy backup ghost disk and with the HD ridiculously partitioned. This simply makes peoples go illegal. The first thing I do when I get a computer (a new one) is to set a boot disk and format it all. I not ever try to boot it because it's always junk inside.
MS puts the price so high so companies can pay. If they can't, then they sue companies. They don't come too much after end users, because they know the money ain't there... And in a way or another, you've already payed for microsoft anyway... when you get a new computer, it comes with windows pre-intalled. When you buy a piece of hardware, it comes with drivers (which you've also paid indirectly for) with windows only drivers, a game, directX and needs windows and so on. I'm studying programming now. The computers we use have them all MS Windows 2000 and Visual Studio .NET. They cost a lot and it's not being free for me either. I'm paying for the course so the school can pay MS. Indirectly, I'm also paying MS.
Linux itself got big and still growing from MS users, who had paid for MS. Linux was born on the Internet and at that time, peoples got to know Linux through Windows. We all pay for MS, directly or indirectly, single user or companies.. we pay, we've paid and we will always be paying MS in a way... They really know how to make business
