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« Last post by JeffK on April 18, 2007, 01:11 AM »
A very intersting discussion.
When I first started using personal computers > 20 years ago, it was accepted practice among my peers to use pirated software, we shared several shoeboxes full.
Say 8-10 years ago I probably had half a dozen cracked pieces of software on my machine.
Now I can't bring to mind any.
I ask myself what changed. One thing is I can afford it. In the last year I have paid for several pieces of software, some of which I now admit I didn't really need.
The next thing is - I feel guilty about not paying. I recently saw that I had a copy of Real Draw Pro on my computer. Knowing that I had not put it there I asked my daughter, who has recently left home, whether she had. She said she got it from a friend "a fair while ago". It must have been cracked. Rather than simply delete it, my guilty conscience took over and I bought a licence.
Having said that I can't remember buying anything over $US100 and for that I have some really neat software including Novamind and ConceptDraw mindmapping, Ultrarecall, Directory Opus and Xara Xtreme. (Sorry I forgot MS Office Professional 2007 which I got as a $27 upgrade after buying MS Office Professional 2003 for $AU228 which is the lowest legitimate price I have ever seen it.)
As for Photoshop I guess I don't need it. And I admit that I wouldn't pay the asking price for it. I also as a matter of principle don't buy magazines with trial versions of it and tutorials for it because I know I won't be buying the full product.
So I think software is an expensive personal interest and am very appreciative of all the sources of cheap/free software.
Jeff