A lot of people have spent a lot of money on the software that they use. And while a lot of that software may end up proving to be worth every penny (believe it or not, Windows has actually got a lot of good things going for it), a roughly equal percentage of the time you can get things which are just as good for free. Now, going to Pirate Bay and looking for your “freebies” is both illegal and cruel to the people who made it. After all, would you appreciate it if something that you worked hard to build were simply stolen, over and over again, by the ungrateful types who believe that they deserve to have the world on a silver platter?
Simply put, there are a lot of thieves out there. However, there are also some smart people who believe that you can get great things on the cheap, or even for free. And even better yet, you can get these great things without having to lie, cheat or steal in order to do so. Whether or not ethics have any importance to you, being able to get great things is a little bit too easy to even make cheating all that attractive.
There is a very good time to consider that paying for software may be a bad idea. That time is when the best software for the needs you have is the software that will not cost you anything at all. While it may not be the very best at some particular detail, and it may even be rough around the edges, remember that your ultimate goal is to fulfill your needs with it.