I just noticed this being linked on Slashdot. Basically an article saying that seeding a market with free stuff can help promotion. Of course it can.

 

What I was surprised not to see though was an appreciation of how Microsoft's success in the office can largely be attributed to the widespread piracy of its products.

 

I should explain.

 

A few years ago, my then two year old daughter found my Microsoft Office disc, and kindly drew all over it, scratching it to oblivion. Not a problem, as I had Office installed already. I thought no more about it until the inevitable disc crash caused me to have to reinstall everything onto a new drive.

 

Not having the appropriate disc (which never seemed to ask me for any kind of installation code) but having paid for the software, I felt justified in borrowing the discs (and install code) from a friend's copy of Office, and installing onto my PC.

 

Fast forward a year and suddenly Windows XP is telling me that I should register for Windows Genuine Advantage, to ensure that all my MS software is legit. It is...I think. So I do, and no problem. Just a niggling feeling that someone, somewhere in Redmond might be thinking I have a dodgy copy of Office 2000.

 

Fast forward another year (getting a bit like Click, now) and it's time for my annual disc crash. More of a total PC failure (hint, don't buy Toshiba laptops) . This time, when it's time to install again, I decide to check out OpenOffice instead. It's free, and to all intents and purposes exactly the same as Microsoft Office. I really don't need any more features than Office 97 offered, so if OpenOffice is a little behind, who cares?

 

So, for the last year, I've used OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office. Never caused me any problems, other than minor internal embarassment when I did a presentation at Microsoft (nobody noticed I was using OpenOffice, which is more than can be said for the time I attended their Xbox conference with a PlayStation bag) .

 

OK, so far, so dull. If you've read this blog before you might know I'm a recent convert to Ubuntu, and now use it as my main operating system at home and at work. But I got to Ubuntu by the following thought process:

 

1. I can't install MS Office as my disc is broken. I could use a 'borrowed' copy, but I really don't like pirate software so...

2. I'll install OpenOffice.

3. Wow...OpenOffice is really good! Maybe if I don't need MS Office, I don't need their operating system either. I don't really want to shell out for Vista, so...

4. I'll install Ubuntu.

5. Outlook was always a bit of a nightmare so I'll also use Gmail, Google Calendar and, in the future I imagine, Google Docs and Spreadsheets too.

6. Good heavens. I'm not using any Microsoft software any more.

 

Had I been comfortable using a pirate copy of MS Office, I'd probably still be using Windows. And that's the point. People use Microsoft software because everyone else has it. If everyone else didn't have it, they wouldn't use it. BUT a lot of the people only have it because they've pirated it. And, BTW, 'pirated' includes pretty much every company out there that has put it on one or two more machines than they're strictly supposed to.

 

So, I'm not using Windows, or Office. What hasn't changed is my working environment (Google Apps lets me access all my mail, calendar and an increasing amount of my documents from any computer with a browser). I don't care what operating system I'm running any more.

 

If Microsoft somehow made it impossible to pirate their software (eg Windows Genuine Advantage) then those seeking free software would be forced down the OpenOffice or Google/Yahoo Apps routes. Ignoring the fact that OpenOffice is 99.9% compatible with MS Office anyway, this means that Microsoft's ubiquity would be diminished. And without that ubiquity, maybe someone might not buy MS Office after all.

 

I've alluded before to The Death Of Intellectual Property (TM). One day soon I'll write an article on that but, for now, remember that "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM". In the eighties. Tell that to Michael Dell.

 

It's all up for grabs. Fun times!

 

 

 

Over the weekend, rather than being a good dad I pretty much became obsessed with Linux.

 

I never really developed the whole 'I hate Microsoft Operating systems' mindset beloved of the more lonely techie. I rather like Microsoft software, it usually works OK and most people have it. It's not that expensive and it's nicer these days than it used to be (although I think we all miss typing 'win' every now and then). And anyway, Mitchell is much funnier than Webb. Although Super Hans beats them all...and I was about to insert a funny 'he represents this other operating system' gag there but I stopped myself, mainly because I couldn't think of one.

 

Anyway, I have an old PC at home, which I have plugged into a lovely big TV. It acts as a music server, and also allows me to play the occasional downloaded video via the telly without having to lug a laptop into the sitting room. I have been tinkering with it for the last couple of years.....it's become my own personal mid-life crisis. Rather than buying a classic car that doesn't work or joining the Territorial Army, I have elected to annoy my wife my tinkering with a defunct PC that's not quite up to the job of being a home media server.

 

I installed Ubuntu, a distribution of Linux which claims to make installation easy. Guess what? It did.

 

I just booted up the PC from a CD-ROM (which I made from a downloaded image) and it worked. And worked well. Much better than Windows. I tried to play some movies, Ubuntu went away and found the right codecs. I wanted to install some more software, Ubuntu gave me a list to chose from and installed it all for me.

 

I now have a fully-functioning music streaming, video playing, TV recording home media server, running on a nine year old PC, completely free.

 

This is just the first step on my road to Damascus. The thing is, if I'm now thinking Linux is better, easier (and freer) than Windows, it's probably only so long before an awful lot of other people do too.

 

I'm going to write about Microsoft again soon but, before I do, I want to install Ubuntu on my laptop too.

 

My wife will be gutted.

 

 

Wow...the big retail announcement out yesterday was that Game Group PLC, the UK's biggest specialist games retailer is to acquire Gamestation, the UK's only other significant games retailer, from Blockbuster for £74 million.

 

For those involved in the games business, this may not be great news.  Game is already a major force, taking something like 35% of the UK games market, and notorious for its aggressive trading terms - demanding 40% margins and sale or return on most products.  Could such terms, and a refusal to change them, be behind the recent spat between Game and Ubi Soft, which will see the former refusing to stock the latter's Oblivion game for PlayStation 3 - despite the game having been a huge seller on Xbox 360? 

 

Clearly, an even more powerful Game, with perhaps 50% or more of the UK games market will become increasingly able to demand whatever trading terms it requires - unless and until the games publishers all have the balls to do something about it en masse (not that we're suggesting an ELSPA cartel would be appropriate, or indeed legal).  Whispers are already going around the games industry about a possible monopolies and mergers/OFT investigation of this proposed acquisition, although this is more likely to be wishful thinking than based upon any real likelihood of a challenge.

 

Scary times for publishers - Game and Gamestation will continue to push preowned software in preference to new, such titles often 'churning' through five or more users, lining the retailer's pockets each time with nothing for those that made the game.  Whatever you might say about the supermarkets, HMV, Virgin, Dixons et al, they don't try to push second hand stock onto consumers.  Less money to the games publishers and developers and more for the retailer means less money spent developing new games...which can only be bad for gamers and the industry alike. 

 

In the longer term, of course, digital distribution will see high street retailers wither away as Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo control game distribution via a broadband link.  That's a long way off, though, and we'll see more IP-owning casualties before retail is finally taken out of the equation.