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06/05/2004: "Microsoft in league with Internet foes, film at 11"

It says here that Microsoft has "decided" that its upcoming SP2 won't work with "the 20 most pirated product IDs" for Windows XP.

The article quotes Paul Randle, Microsoft's UK manager of all things XP as stating, "The situation at the moment is that we will block those". Mr. Randle goes on to state, "Whether it will change between now and launch I do not know".

Its obvious that Microsoft is floating a "trial ballon". Testing the market to see what the reaction will be. Its also semi-obvious that they could block far more than the 20 "most common" pirated product keys (who would know how many are blocked?)

The situation can be summarized thus: "You didn't pay for our crappy software, so we're not going to fix it for you." Fair enough, until you look at the larger picture, which is that the Internet has gotten to be a very scary place, with hijacked PCs for sale (in bulk) to spammers and those who would like to launch a DDoS attack against a foe, commerical or otherwise. Microsoft, while not entirely to blame for the situation, is at least culpable. Windows (all versions) is best described as a large collection of flawed software, and nobody but Microsoft can fix the problems with Windows.

This leaves a large part of the world looking for a solution. If they pirate Windows, then their computers will be prone to behing hijacked for ill-use, and possible disclosure of information contained thereon. Nor can they afford to pay for Windows, since the situation now is that Windows can cost as much as the hardware for a decent PC.

Linux, however offers no such bargin. Linux, as free software, not only offers itself for the actual costs of distribution (e.g. the cost of making a copy), but further, the source code to linux is available, under the GPL, such that flaws can be fixed by anyone skilled in the art of programming.

Doc belives that "the computer business will ultimately mature into something resembling the construction business"

Think of the situation this way, if you could only call the contractor that built your home in order to fix the plumbing or make an addition, how would that change the way you feel about the building you live in?

Personally, I live in a 116 year-old house, so the architect, and all the tradespeople who worked on it, are dust in the wind by now.

By its actions above, Microsoft has aligned its interested with the parties who are most dangerous to the Internet, those who cause the most havoc. If you run Windows on your computer (I don't, but ther are several Windows XP computers in-use here) then you're part of the problem.