[oelmekki]

> Bt most interesting would be what would happen to the business landscape if all MS products were free.

I'm under the impression it's already part of their strategy, and it's probably a cause why most people still use windows. They know they can easily download softwares on torrent websites, and MS is pretty much tolerant about it (as far as it's about individuals, not businesses).

[johnchristopher]

You are mistaking Adobe for MS. MS is going down hard on pirates reselling their stuff to individuals or making it available online.

Also you seem to imply MS let every software be torrented intentionnaly. But MS doesn't publish every software in the world and they aren't responsible, nor should they fight, for other software makers's piracy problems.

It's certainly not part of their strategy. More like a pirate post-fact rationalisation line of thinking.

[nivla]

> You are mistaking Adobe for MS. It's certainly not part of their strategy.

Nope, they are following the same brilliant strategy as Adobe.

"Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, people don't pay for the software. Someday they will, though," Gates told an audience at the University of Washington. "And as long as they're going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade." [1]

[1] http://articles.latimes.com/2006/apr/09/business/fi-micropir...

[johnchristopher]

Damn, you are right. I remember reading that quote years ago. To be fair he specifically deals with Chinese and asian markets though. Not sure this applies to the US and european markets.