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« on: July 04, 2006, 12:21 AM »
Living and working China I notice a couple of things.
1- There is NO way to get local money converted to another currency.
2- If you do get a bit of cash converted it is impossible for individuals to send it out.
3- Most have no credit/debit card. "National" banks only are interconnected by province.
What does that mean? Even if Wang Li wants to buy shareware, it is nearly impossible. Are you going to spend hours/days to buy any program?
4- No matter what you hear, the reality is that most Chinese earn about US$200 monthly.
5- People pay for medical care, pay to send the kid to primary, middle, and high school.
What does that mean? Means most Chinese are not able to pay US$100 for any program.Do they buy a computer? Some do, but Internet Cafés are pervasive. But if there is a computer in a home it is there as an investment in their kid.
Some companies have greatly reduced prices here. Kaspersky AV Pro costs 150 RMB (US$18) and can be purchased in several major cities. Windows is slightly less costly here and they have an option to lease/purchase a new computer and the software. Pretty good idea, but still expensive to the average Chinese.
You can't swing a dead cat without hitting sidewalk vendors with any app you can name. The prices on these are usually 8-20 RMB (US$1-2.5) and they work. Do they update? Usually not. Walk into any business in China and look at My Computer-> Properties. Chances are it is registered to Bill Gates...
So, you can either pay high prices and spend lots of time to get a legal (which is different here anyway) version or simply take what is offered and be done with it. Which do you do?
The current ubuntu (6.06) is nicely done and recognized hardware that XP Pro needs drivers provided for. Open Office is ok (sorry not up to Office 2003 and certainly not 2007). One glaring item missing is MSN Messenger. That and QQ are >THE< IM apps in China, and I think MSN is the undisputed leader elsewhere too. No MSN (and here QQ) means people will want to have Windows and if they do it'll be pirated. Yeah, I hear there are workarounds. I've tried aMSN and it is functional but incomplete by a long shot.
Listening to music is nice now days (I last really tried Linux 2 years ago) as long as you stick to MP3 and flac. Most do so no problem.
However, saying that people should use free software does not really address piracy. Ya can't steal free software.
If you use the only method I've seen that works, local pricing, then you are unfair to those who pay higher prices. And I'm not sure that would be sustainable. MS and others can do this by having the West subsidize the developing countries. But it takes REAL money to run MS and I'm not sure that US$50 is going to allow MS to do the research needed.
The main item in these discussions I have a problem with is "Lost revenue". I'll bet dollars to donuts that a pirated copy of an app is not lost revenue. The app would not be bought.
Many claim that they use pirated software as an evaluation tool. In my experience, there is a cost threshold. If you 'evaluate' an inexpensive tool perhaps you'll buy it. If the cost is substantial (to you) you'll continue to 'evaluate' it.
If I had to pay full price for Office, I'd not use it at home. I do pay for XP because it's not worth the hassle to patch to run a pirated version.
Corporate users? Different ballgame. Last place I worked was about 80% illegal though they were a software house themselves. Why? It was easy enough to do, small chance of getting caught, and the money was better used in expanding the business. I think MS has caught on to the methods and will require a license server for corporate users. I think the license server will have to validate with MS periodically.
If you have an app that needs regular, frequent updates (anti-malware for example) a username/password system is hard to beat pirate-wise. But for something like Exchange Server, once it is installed I really don't need to update often, in fact it is hard to convince me to touch a working server.
Provide percieved value and you'll do fine. Make it easy to be legal (availability and purchase) and most will do the right thing. Raise the "pain" of being a legal customer and I'll find an alternative. That includes dongles, complex licensing, and false positives on piracy detection.
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