[dmm]

Regarding the technical side of the discussion:
Gates is again doing proprietary bundling to "make things easier for the end-user" and, oh yes, incidentally kill off the competition and force upgrades. (I read somewhere recently the following very insightful comment: for MS, forcing upgrades is now equivalent to killing off the competition, since at this point MS's main competion is older Versions of MS software.)

I am equivocal about MS: I hate its tactics, but it seems to be one of the few remaining American exporters.