>>Any company which tries to push an ad onto my machine will have to buy a machine for me, give the OS for free, and pay me to sit by that machine, or I swear I'll buy from anyone else but them, if I can help it.
>
>Your points are well taken, and I largely agree, but I think it's worth pointing out that this is not yet a current or planned "feature" of Windows. The report is (at this time) just about a patent MS has received.
>
>When you think about it this could actually be a no-lose situation for MS:
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>- if they actually implement it they've got a unique revenue stream
>- if there's too much outcry against it, they could simply say "We will never implement this, and we purposely patented it so no-one else can do it either. We're protecting ALL computer users, not just Windows users."
>
>It'll be interesting to see which way MS "spins" this over the next little while.

Very interesting. I'll stay tuned.