[Tfug] Why licensing matters (was: Re: Alan Cox: "I've had enough"--what else is new?)

[Zack Williams]

> In all reality, the OSx86 community is probably beneficial for Apple. It
> brings eyeballs to the platform that otherwise wouldn't be attracted, and
> those eyeballs are connected to wallets. It's money they would have never
> otherwise made off of a statistically insignificant number of people.

And here is the heart of the matter.  Getting people to use the system
means they'll eventually buy it or get other people to do so, and
money will eventually flow their way.

By making OS X not that hard to hack onto a system, even though it
violates the "don't use on non-apple hardware" part of the EULA, you
get people using it who would otherwise not be.

Microsoft figured this out a long time ago, which is why all their
attempts to combat unlicensed usage are half-hearted.   They would
rather have you use a illegitimate copy of Windows than a legit copy
of anything else, be it Linux/Mac/BSD/Solaris/etc.

See also this graph:

http://www.osnews.com/story/21035/Ballmer_Linux_Bigger_Competitor_than_Apple

This is why keeping people honest with their software matters.  Every
time someone uses an unpurchased copy of Windows, they're giving
Microsoft a little victory over it's competitors, and the MS-centric
software monoculture continues.

The best favor that Microsoft could ever do for the free software
community would be to strictly enforce licensing on their systems.

- Zack