OT: Is Bill Gates the Anti-Christ?

[Mathias_Ice]

Okay, Revelation prophesy aside, I was wondering what you IT types thought about this article . I have never been a big fan of Microsoft, but I do respect their products for the productivity they have enabled over the Last few decades. This article seems like MS has really gone over the top. What do you think?

[Thermodyne]

What a load of crap. Technology woven into religious dogma, and this guy prolly makes 6 figures. First off, everyone loves MS when they can get it for free, or use it for free. And MS is in the business of selling software. Why not make hard for third parties to interact with it, while also making it more secure.

[Fyron]

Expect all free open source office equivalent programs to include methods to bypass that stuff... it is impossible to make the documents 100% MS Office-only...

Also, this will probably generate a lot more business (well, Users... there is no business as it is free) for http://www.openoffice.org/

[ September 20, 2003, 18:00: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[PvK]

At least for the first stage, this is only for companies who want to protect their documents with built-in encryption, and set up an MS server for that purpose.

However, that's a typical tactic for introducing new power grabs to see how outraged people are. With .NET and XP, MS has been trying to maneuver the masses into a position where they have to pay regular subrscription fees for everything MS (Windows, Office, etc.).

Which brings us to Thermodyne's "everyone loves MS when they can get it for free, or use it for free", which I know is definitely not the case for let's see... actually almost everyone I know who uses it. They put up with it and use it because it is often free (or hidden-cost) for them, and a standard most people have, and is useful, if imperfect.

It'll be interesting to see how many people choose to use a backward-and-sideways-incompatible Office .NET which they have to Subscribe, register, and pay continuously for. Personally, I expect I'll continue to use Office 97 at home, and only use such annoying new products if someone is paying me to do so (and paying for my "right" to use it).

There are several reasons not to do what MS is doing, but I guess it seems like a good idea to some greedy corporate bozos.

As for Biblical analogies, well, the Bible has some good points about the immorality and danger of some things. There are no doubt clever parallels in Orwell, too.

PvK

[geoschmo]

I seriously doubt this part is going to stand up to any court challanges, "Even worse, to use the features in Office 2003, you'll need to be running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition." As I understand it this is exactly the sort of garbage that got them into trouble before. For that matter I would expect some smart as a whip lawyer types to bring up the question of whether or not MS has the right to do any of this at all. Given that the data in all these documents is the property of the Users, not MS. It would effectively be like International Paper charging a fee and requiring a special copy machine to copy any thing typed on a sheet of their paper products.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

wether or not he's the anti-christ, this kind of business tactics is scary.