Attacking shops a step close to attacking ships

Summary: Microsoft gives shops in the UK a reason to start reducing their reliance on Windows and other Microsoft products; NCC and Microsoft are still torpedoing small businesses

WHY do many computer shops still preload Windows? It's bad for one's reputation and it can take a whole shop out of business. Here in the UK we have Novatech, which is known for giving the option of buying a computer without an operating system (my main workstation is a Novatech box which works perfectly well with any GNU/Linux distribution I throw at it).

Microsoft's dirty secret which it occasionally lets out is that it loves and relies on counterfeiting. But publicly, Microsoft pretends to be the victim and it daemonises companies that help spread its monopoly:

Microsoft has named and shamed 25 UK resellers caught trading illegal software, following a recent anti-piracy clampdown by the firm.

One report calls it counterfeiting and there are others whose words are quite proper, but look at the gross misuse of the word "piracy" (or "pirates"):

• Microsoft tracks down UK pirates
• Microsoft names and shames pirates
• Microsoft clamps down on software pirates
• Microsoft cracks down on UK software pirates
• Microsoft Probe Catches 25 UK Pirates
• K pirates caught by Microsoft

It is not piracy at all and the above authors/editors should be ashamed for resorting to propaganda, not news. Some are at least sensible enough to attribute the propaganda to Microsoft.

From the list above (in order), here is our list of propagandists masquerading as "news":

• CRN
• TechWatch
• Blorge
• IDG
• Info Security
• IT Pro Portal
• GeekSmack

As OpenBytes put it, Microsoft views it as a time to "collect", especially now that Windows profits suffer.

Lets also consider that here you have vendors “named and shamed”, without trial by Microsoft. I am sure they all volunteered to be named by Microsoft, but I wonder what if they hadn’t? I wonder what sort of “agreement” Microsoft offered them, or indeed what they said they would do, if they didn’t agree. I would like to think that Im not the only one who is a little uncomfortable about a firm handling these matters itself, what would you do if you owned a small business when Microsoft employee’s came knocking? Refuse to co-operate? I think for a small business being eyed up by Microsoft, its not trading standards they would worry about.

Had Microsoft actually suffered from it, the company would sue for damages.

Over in Nigeria Microsoft is also raiding shops this week. We have already explained how Microsoft forces Windows upon the Nigerian population [1, 2]. The Computer and Allied Products Dealers Association of Nigeria (CAPDAN) slammed Microsoft for abuse a couple of months ago (for torpedoing local computer businesses). So anyway, who is really acting like a "pirate" here? ⬆

“No less than Bill Gates himself said in a recent Fortune article that Microsoft competes better against Linux in China when there's piracy than when there isn't.

“So, Microsoft actively looks the other way as people pirate its software. It builds its market share that way, and lets people get used to the idea of having Windows at a certain price.”

--ECT