This post was written by our first guest blogger,
Nancy Simmons, who writes on the topic of
online science degree . A graduate of
Indiana Bloomington with a degree in English literature, Nancy is pursuing a career in online journalism. She welcomes your comments at her email address:
nancy.simmons09@gmail.com.
If there is one area where there’s rampant piracy, it is in software licensing. People want the software, but they’re not ready to pay the exorbitant sum of money that the manufacturer has set as its price. And so they take the easy way out and use pirated software – they’re getting what they want, and they didn’t have to shell out money for the same. But there are reasons beyond those that are ethical why piracy must be stopped – pirated software could carry malicious objects that wreck your software and hardware, and when they’re not automatically updated as the authentic versions are, you leave your system vulnerable to the threats that are rampant on the Internet.
If you’re a student, you’re probably broke or close to it. So the question of being able to afford authentic software does not arise at all. But instead of choosing to go down the piracy route, you could look for and buy the originals at discounted prices, if you’re savvy enough. Alternatively, you could use opensource software that’s free and does not come with a license that you have to buy. But if you’re looking for
discounted packages, here are a
few tips to help you along:
•
Run a search on the Internet: You will be rewarded with a few hundreds of sites, so you must know how to sift through them to identify those that are the real deal and eliminate the fraudulent ones. Check the trustworthiness of each site and ensure that they use a secure connection through which they process your payment. And finally, before following herd mentality and buying from the same store because you’ve already shopped there, look for lower prices from other trusted stores.
•
Go through your school/college: Most software manufacturers offer their products to educational institutions at discounted rates in bulk packages. So check with your school or college to see if you’re eligible to buy the software that you want at a discounted rate.
•
Take the trial route: If software is being offered on a trial basis, grab the offer. You may get lucky at the end of the trial period and the company may offer you a discounted rate if you agree to buy the product from them.
•
Keep your eyes and ears peeled: Very often, manufacturers offer new software on an experimental basis in its early stages. You could sign up to test the beta version and hope to be rewarded with a discounted version of the software when it premiers to the rest of the world.
•
Choose the package you really need: If there are many versions of the same software, choose the least expensive one if you’re not going to be using all the features in the higher end application.
We welcome your thoughts and opinions on this article, please comment below.
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The OnTheHub Team
Gustavo
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