An interesting answer to piracy

[bad rider]

If you are in education or have recently been you have probably heard of, at least several students using non legitamate programs in order to do their work. Which sorta makes sense when you look at the price tag, however microsoft seem in a way to have addressed this with http://www.software4students.co.uk/ which offers microsoft programs dirt cheap. Personally I think that it's a smart idea as it means the area which has a high rate of pirated products don't really have an excuse to not buy them.

However do you see this as caving to piracy, or just a buisness trying to follow consumer trends?

 

[reg42]

It looks like an interesting idea, but is there anything to stop other people from just buying the cheap version, rather than the one in stores?

 

[TheComedown]

This kind of thing has been around for quite a long time, same deal with Adobe CS, prove your a student get it cheaper, tho the amount of piracy it cuts is minimal I think as it can still be a fair bit of money (at least for the Adobe software) and it is simpler and easier to pirate it.

 

[Kaymish]

well Microsoft is giving away a whole bunch of software to students at my university development kits and access and the like i think i haven't checked it out yet orientation was only today and i am too sleepy to do more than babble incoherently on forums

i do know they wont be giving word excel or PowerPoint away but i use open office anyway so not too big a deal

 

[df458]

I've always wondered about this. There's almost always a free and legal alternative, so why not use them instead? Most of these programs are in fact compatible with their better known equivalents. Personally, though, I think Microsoft is doing the right thing here.

 

[The Hairminator]

Use Gimp instead of photoshop. Use Open Office instead of M$ Office.

There! Better, and free!

 

[fenixkane]

Why can't people just use the free open source alternatives. They work great, seriously. Just because they're free doesn't mean they're crap. It just means that when a person wants or needs a new feature they add it themselves and everyone benefits. It's a waste of money to buy commercial software when there are excellent free alternatives.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

Use Gimp instead of photoshop. Use Open Office instead of M$ Office.

There! Better, and free!

Open Office isn't quite as good, it missed some mistakes and isn't as pretty looking.

Get's the job done though. I'm happy because Word was supposed to be on my laptop, but I only get 25 uses of it. I hoard them, got about 15 left.

GIMP is good, but I've never used Photoshop.

 

[Kagim]

I don't know how much it really has to do with CI.

I mean, where I live if your can prove your a student clothes, supplies, and computer software are made non taxable for the first few months of school. Even

I don't think anyone was trying to download a pair of jeans.

I think it's more about creating goodwill towards the student consumer over trying to stop downloaders.

 

[Silver Patriot]

I've always wondered about this. There's almost always a free and legal alternative, so why not use them instead? Most of these programs are in fact compatible with their better known equivalents. Personally, though, I think Microsoft is doing the right thing here.

Windows 7 Professional for $30. I'm not complaining.