Brajeshwar notes that vendors in Gujarat are protesting against Microsoft’s anti-piracy drive. Their protest, in form of a one day strike, has evoked good response. As frivolous as it may sound, pirated copies of Microsoft products is a reason for its popularity. The OS and basic tools are assumed to be provided with the computer, without additional cost. Licensed versions, of Windows and Office, would raise the price of a computer so much that it would probably not be bought at all.
However, I think piracy should still be tackled, but impact on the end user should be considered. As the resellers said, Microsoft should educate the users about licensed versions. But, I have a better solution - start using Linux. It is a solution that strikes at the roots - no licenses and no costs and freedom to use it anyway you want. The modern distributions are very good desktop operating systems that can handle the home and office user demands. Of course, there are still some combinations that might not work, but there are a lot of alternatives in the Linux world. The learning curve is getting flatter and is totally worth the freedom you want.
I am sure these problems will resurface in most of the developing countries. And I do not see a better solution than embracing the FOSS world.
