As the Microsoft outage on Friday affected several stakeholders and users, what kept running the systems and related ecosystems were those using the pirated software popularly available in Nehru Place in the national capital. The locality is a hub of pirated softwares which are available at ease. There are street hawkers selling all types of softwares at throw away prices like Rs 50.
A computer shop operating from Nehru Place, said “ab logo ko pata chal jayega ki pirated versions jyada successful ur secure hote hain (now the people will believe that the pirated softwares are more reliable, successful and secure as compared to the original cloud versions)”.
Another shop owner who didn’t want to be named said, “nobody got affected in the markets while the server got crashed”. He further stressed on the situation by saying that if their shops are raided by the government, they will break free and continue to sell the pirated softwares. Some owners of the shops in the market didn’t even know about the outage because the pirated cloud they use hadn’t been affected by it and was doing fine at their end.
The people using the pirated version who didn’t face the heat also dominated social media with netizens commenting on it. A passerby in the Nehru Place market said, “the people spend so much money on all this which is a waste. “Humara to ek hi usool hai, saste mein bhadia (We work on one principle , cheap is good”.
The people using the pirated version who didn’t face the heat also dominated social media with netizens commenting on it. An X user @roshanonline wrote, “India will be safe because of pirated windows software”. Another user tweeted @XAnalgesic sarcastically wrote, my pc always crashes because I use the pirated version.
Amidst the chaos worldwide, where the offices were free of work some users critics their offices in sarcasm for using pirated softwares. Going by the username @KhamanDhokIa, he wrote “My office uses pirated software then! Kaam karna padd raha hai (I have to work)”. Some users commented by feeling great for using pirated softwares from old times. To the same a user wrote, “We are less integrated and most of our softwares are pirated”.
With inputs from Ahsan Khan, Abhishek Sonkar, Rishabh Malik, Imran Ansari
