How do people make those illegal versions of XP and Office?

Question

Everyone seems to have them... I have never heard of anyone ever BUYING something made by Microsoft... Maybe it's the fact that I had to pay nearly £400 just for Office 2007 the other day... I guess that puts lots of people off of it... so how do they expect to make money?

Answer 1

Schools, companys large and small, anything monitored by the goverment/council have to have legitimate copys naturally. These large scale contracts since every PC/Server needing a seperate license bring in the money.

Answer 2

£400 isn't so much money to a business whose survival depends on using up-to-date software. Those businesses are also easier to keep in check than random individuals swapping discs, so they make up their money from them to some extent.

As for everyone else: there are stripped-down "Home" versions of XP and Vista that are much cheaper than the full-featured editions; students and teachers can get a special version of Office for quite a lot less than retail price; some lucky university students can get software for free through the MSDNAA (www.msdnaa.com) if their university is part of the scheme; or there is always the option of using a free substitute such as Linux or OpenOffice.

To properly (er, literally) answer your question, illegal versions of XP and Office are made through someone buying the software normally, then copying the data from the discs and distributing them, either through the internet or on their own discs.

Answer 3

Yep, compaines buy the legit licenses. Then the computer guys working ther copy the corporate software that requires no install license and sell it illegaly

You should always check if your firm has a Home Use Program agreement with Microsoft. With ours we pay only $25 for Office Professional to install at home.

Answer 4

I would tell you, but then I would have to kill you. Really, you could be a narc.