Hardware to supercede software?

There are two basic elements to computing. They are hardware, and software. Software can be known as the great variable. The cost of hardware can almost always be definite, but after the bundled software with the machine (if any), that’s when software becomes such a variable that some people worry about doubling, tripling, and in some cases even quadrupling or more, the cost of their system. There can be antivirus software, such as Norton Antivirus, there can be an office suite, such as Microsoft Office, there can be image editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop, and many, many more. Less than a decade ago, people had worries about multiplying the cost of their system, but nowadays, since being able to write and understand software code has become so much more commonly known, two things have happened that are now slowly killing the industry. The first one is piracy. In the old days, there weren’t security systems that required product keys and registration in paid software, but that is no longer the case, as people are now getting this software cheaper, or even free, because the common knowledge of code can be used to bypass, or hack these security systems, whether it’s by means of removing the registration script in the coding, or cloning the product keys. This is somewhat preventable, in ways such as encrypting the data on the software disk, making it harder to duplicate product keys, or even going as far as to plant a script in the software that tracks every unregistered version of the product down, and making harsher legal punishments for those caught with illegally copied software. Every security measure possible could be taken, but nothing is able to stop my next reason, and that is Freeware. Almost every piece of software I’ve paid for in the past has been paralleled by some kind of freeware, such as Openoffice.org by Sun Microsystems, which has fully replaced, and to some extent, superseded and outperformed Microsoft Office. Don’t be surprised if you see people stop paying for Microsoft Office, and just go and download Openoffice.org from the internet. Two hundred megabyte download, takes less than 2 minutes, and then BOOM! You’ve saved yourself over $200.00. Norton Antivirus? There’s AVG Antivirus, and of course, download.com’s third most downloaded piece of software, AdAware SE Personal, which does a better job of removing Adware and Spyware than Norton antivirus (which is why it has so many downloads). I could go on and on with this list of freeware, making you feel foolish for paying for your software, but I think you get the picture already. Some of you may be thinking that operating systems such as Windows XP or Windows Vista you cannot parallel. That is a false statement. An open-source operating system known as Linux is slowly taking over the operating system sector of software. It’s only a matter of time before every computer in the world has Linux, is protected by AVG Antivirus and AdAware SE Personal, is word processed by Openoffice.org, is image-edited by GIMP, and is completely fueled by freeware, making the next big software evolution coming from some guy sitting in his basement writing code 18 hours a day, distributing it for free, instead of in labs at megacorp companies such Microsoft, where they make almost the exact same software, yet expect hundreds of dollars per copy for it. Where does this leave them? Done, finished, dead, ka-put! You might think that this puts the computer business out of business altogether, but it doesn’t! Remember what the other element of computing is? That’s hardware. There's no such thing as "open source" hardware, or "pirated" hardware, because you can only do that with code. When it comes to physical components, such as in hardware, you have to buy a circuit board, capacitors, LEDs, ports, solder, resistors, everything that goes into it, as well as labour. Those things have to be bought. You can't download that new 400 ohm resistor from download.com, or torrent 6 or 7 capacitors. Unless you steal these from a manufacturing plant, the hardware industry looks pretty safe now doesn't it? Would like some comments on this please, because right now it looks like I'm one of the only people who thinks this way about this!