Linux better than pirated Windows

I think that must be repeated more.

Pirated Windows is a second most popular desktop operating system according to Ballmer (and in many regions, the most popular desktop operating system at home and even office).

And it really is a horrible OS. Illegal, immoral, unpatched, full of trojans and malware (often coming with viruses as part of the install), or of third party antivirus and firewall software which slow the system down to total crawl. No support whatsoever. Frequent reinstalls are required. Microsoft's "genuine advantage" gets in the way, and so on and so forth.

But people still pirate windows. Supposedly because they see pirated $250 windows for $0 to have higher value than free Linux for $0

You can argue all day long if genuine Windows is worth $250 or not. Maybe it is, maybe it is not, i guess that depends to what you're doing.
But pirated windows is certainly not worth even $0 .

(that's just my opinion, anyway)