Pirates kicking MS butt...

OK, so according to sources, a couple new builds of Office 2010 Mondo are about to leak. I don't understand, if MS is so many builds ahead of the TP that is on Connect, why they don't update the build for beta testers.

I understand that there may be bugs, but I know a few people that are running Mondo builds that have experienced no bugs at all.

Come on MS...make Connect actually worth something.

Edit: Oops...meant to put this in the Chillout Room. Mods, can you move it please?

Maybe Microsoft is using them as a form of free labor?
To market there product and hook people, kinda smart you know.

Yeah, I can see that. Honestly, I would download one of the Mondo builds, but I have this thing where I like to have my software activated. Think I'm going to stick with the TP until MS updates Connect or puts something on Technet.

logicearth said:

Maybe Microsoft is using them as a form of free labor?
To market there product and hook people, kinda smart you know.

One of the Microsoft bigwigs have pretty much stated this, they would rather people use a pirated version of their software than that of the opposition, reasoning that a) it increases 'market share', and b) it gives them an opportunity to wean them off of a pirated version and on to a paid version.

Bare Foot Kid said:

Sounds like the way so many got hooked on 7.

Speaking from first-hand experience...... yes!
Tom

MrMephitis said:

logicearth said:

Maybe Microsoft is using them as a form of free labor?
To market there product and hook people, kinda smart you know.

One of the Microsoft bigwigs have pretty much stated this, they would rather people use a pirated version of their software than that of the opposition, reasoning that a) it increases 'market share', and b) it gives them an opportunity to wean them off of a pirated version and on to a paid version.

Don't forget also

c) gives MS a chance to fix security holes for the next release / service pack

d) greatly expands the FREE testing user base. Individuals can stress test a product much much better than a few selected "officy" type bods just barely using the most elementary features of the software.

Some of these "unofficial" users will use the product in ways that MS or the original developers never even THOUGHT of. Particularly in things like collabaration / sharing. Most offices are PARANOID about most forms of sharing

For example IBM uses that really HIDEOUS product LOTUS NOTES which must be the worst abomination since the Internet was invented, whilst other corporations tend to use really cludgy get arounds such as shared disks , badly put together intranet sites and "help desk" type software.

A lot of the collaboration stuff in newer versions of office arose directly out of individuals who are used to File sharing, P2P connections, real time messaging etc etc.

Some firms are just beginning to start using this stuff but still oh so slowly.

MS hasn't really made any big time prosecutions to individuals using pirate copies and torrent sites are still operating in spite of some biased movie studio paid Swedish judge.

(Please note I'm NOT advocating Piracy here but like most things it's not 100% EVIL or 100% GOOD either).

Mr Steve Jobs of Apple might like to consider how HE got started. I'm sure loads of copies of MSDOS and IBM DOS left the work place as well as early versions of Windows -- I still have the source code of WIN/386 which was never officially released but was the pre-cursor to the first passable working version of Windows - 3.0 ---much improved in 3.11 (Windows for Workgroups).


Here's one for "Conspiracy Theorists".

How do we know that Microsoft itself doesn't have a Torrent site itself for doing exactly this type of research. If it did it's hardly likely to publicize it is it.

Just think of the FREE info it could get if it was interested, and would be pay back time if ever the EU decided to have another go at MS with those silly browser or other requests.

Cheers
jimbo

You make some really good points there Jimbo. Another thing that points to the idea that MS unofficially endorses this is the fact that the keys for the Tech Preview of Office 2010 on Connect actually activate this new leaked copy. Seems like that wouldn't be the case if they wanted to keep it strictly internal.