I’m not sure how accurate StatCounter is, given that most Linux users use adblockers. However, according to it, Linux has almost a 14% desktop share in India.

  • NateNate60@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    That’s because even a grey market Windows key costs US$20 nowadays and that’s over ₹1,600. For comparison purposes, the largest Indian banknote is ₹500.

      • NateNate60@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        …but not legal. Being poor doesn’t necessarily mean you’re inclined to break the law. Besides, Linux is useful if you perhaps want to later get a job in the tech field.

        • reinar@distress.digital
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          9 months ago

          resold oem key is not legal as well.

          only legal options are: get windows with your device or purchase retail for a hunnit $.

          just accept it and pirate.

        • stepanzak@iusearchlinux.fyi
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          9 months ago

          I absolutely agree that Linux is great and I genuinely hate Windows for number of reasons. The problem is that some people just have to use Windows. This might include me in a few days, because I’m in high school and we have to install Solidworks. I think that for these people, Windows Activation Scripts are a good option that is safe (like it’s not a virus), is free (because I don’t want to pay for OS that I’m forced to use for some reason) and is safe in the meaning that there is no way of legal consequences if you are an individual, AFAIK. Also the licenses from 3rd party websites are often stolen licenses and buying them is IMO worse than activating Windows using the scripts, since you are supporting scammers.

          • NateNate60@lemmy.ml
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            9 months ago

            You really need to learn to read properly. What I’m saying is that being poor on its own does not incline people to commit crime. You read it as “People commit piracy if and only if they are poor”, which is the only statement under which your reply and its implications would be logically sound.

            Is being poor correlated with piracy? Yes. But I argue the much bigger factors are the lack of availability of legitimate methods of acquiring software in India as well as the difficulty of acquiring such legitimate copies, even when they are available. There are also cultural differences that make piracy more acceptable in India than in other places, such as Europe or North America.

            Think of it like this: a hypothetical 13-year-old child in the United States who wants a video game and sees it on Steam for 60 USD may consider piracy, but is much more likely to save up for it and buy it legitimately when they get a Steam gift card for their birthday or ask their parents for it for Christmas. Their parents can easily go to Walmart or Amazon and buy a copy. Meanwhile, a child in India who sees the same game for sale for the equivalent of 5,000 INR will know that is firstly a ludicrous amount to save for, and secondly, may not be available in their region, and thirdly, lacks the ability to simply ask for it for their birthday or something. Gift cards don’t seem to be too common in India. A person living in India is also less likely to have access to banking infrastructure that allows for easy electronic payment. Even things bought on Amazon have “cash upon delivery” available as a payment method. That is how undeveloped India’s payment infrastructure is. Meanwhile in the USA, every teenager has their own bank account and debit card. As a result, the Indian teenager is more likely to pirate. But it is not solely because they are poorer.

            • loki@lemmy.ml
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              9 months ago

              It’s not that deep.

              • Kid wants a video game thats paid

              • Kid searches the game piracy website and finds it.

              • Kid downloads and plays the pirated game

              Every kid does this and you know it. People don’t consider downloading things off of internet as some sort of a moral test or a criminal action. And software piracy is just in paper in some countries.

              • NateNate60@lemmy.ml
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                9 months ago

                It’s not that shallow. You are trying to use an anecdote, and not even a concrete anecdote, to argue a matter of statistics. The anecdote isn’t even illustrative of any point. It is utterly disconnected from any statistical argument. It is not logically sound and you should know that. We’re talking about how many people pirate things, not whether any given person pirates something. What you have argued in your comment is, “there exists a set of circumstances where a person could reasonably be driven to commit piracy”. That is neither persuasive to your thesis nor particularly enlightening.

                I really wish rhetoric was taught as a standard subject in grade school. It must not be where you’re from.

        • d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz
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          9 months ago

          You’re not breaking the law, you’re breaking a software license agreement. That does not automatically make it a crime, at least, that would depend on your exact local laws, and the lawyer’s interpretation of it - in many cases the actual wording around this is ambiguous and could be argued both ways. A better term for it would be a “legal grey area”, which means if you’re a company then don’t f*** around with it, and if you’re just a random user then no one gives a f***.

          In any case, if those scripts were truly illegal, then the Microsoft-owned Github wouldn’t host them in the first place. Clearly Microsoft themselves don’t have an issue with it, so why should anyone else care about it?

    • the_lone_wolf@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      No largest note was ₹2000 but just recently it got banned maybe government likely going to launch new notes?

      • NateNate60@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        Was, but no longer is. It is officially discontinued, making the ₹500 note the largest for now. I would expect the Government to quickly launch a new large-denomination note. India is still a largely cash society and the largest note being worth 6 USD is surely going to be inconvenient for everyday citizens.

      • nous@programming.dev
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        9 months ago

        While it is free to download it, the license still costs. Though they seem to let you use it unlicensed for an unlimited amount of time with some restrictions (like not being able to change the background image and an ever present watermark). At least this was true for windows 10. No telling if/when they will drop that feature though, especially if loads of people start using it unlicensed like that (though I doubt that has any effect on people using it that way or not).

        • 7bicycles [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          9 months ago

          Microsoft never gave a shit about private piracy barring some noteable examples from countries with very strict anti-piracy laws like germany. The tactic has always been to get everyonem on windows and then make the big bucks seeling the OS to enterprises, because everybody wants to use windows, since they’re at least halfway competent at that

          Now, it’s my opinion that people, en masse, can’t use computers to save their fucking lives anyways and whether they’re too stupid to utilize windows or too stupid to utilize Linux doesn’t make much of a difference, but boy do the people get angry when anyone suggests switching off windows

    • ⚡⚡⚡@feddit.de
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      9 months ago

      How is that passible? Don’t they have an extra word for “100.000” because they deal with such high numbers because of their currency? How can the largest banknote be 500 there?

      • NateNate60@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        The Government demonetised ₹1000 and ₹2000 banknotes a few years back as part of a campaign against “black money”. The Government’s thinking was that criminal organisations hoarded large amounts of cash in these large-denomination notes, and by forcing everyone to deposit the notes immediately into the bank, it would bring light to the flow of money.

        It was not particularly successful and mostly all it did was lead to a week of chaos and long queues outside banks.