"Windows es gratis"

Artículo que explica (ampliamente y con anécdotas) por qué los Windows pirateados perjudican la adopción del software libre.

El elefante en la habitación, del que nadie habla (oficialmente), es que "todo el mundo" usa Windows crackeado - no pagan por él, así que no encuentran ninguna ventaja en Linux / Free software.

Windows Is Free (A TLUG Article)

The Elephant in the Room
The fact is that there's a distortion in the idea that Linux can't be given away. There's something wrong in the idea the price difference between Windows and Linux is representative of the actual quality difference. There's an elephant in the room that no one is talking about.

Windows is free.

I'm not talking about the fact that Windows comes pre-installed in most computers, with its price hidden in the cost of the hardware. That contributes to the idea of Windows being free, but that's not the elephant in the room.
"The elephant in the room that no one is talking about is cracked software."

The elephant in the room that no one is talking about is cracked software.

People treat Windows as being free not because they didn't have to buy the copy that came with their computer. People think of Windows as free because when they need a copy, they can get it from a guy they know. Someone has a copy they can just burn to a CD for you. Or you can get it on the peer-to-peer networks.