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>>It isn't the developers that will determine the success of the .NET.
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>I should have specified VS.Net. .Net itself is more than Visual Studio. Already you can buy .Net servers.

What's so special about a '.NET' server?

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>>I haven't met to many folks who think it is a good idea parking their data on Microsoft servers, only to pay a fee to access it, or have it held hostage against increasing fees for pay-per-use or metered access to executables. Some data would never be moved there, like tax or other personal and critical data.
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>The idea of Application Service providers will die. Too many people opposed to it. Don't confuse ASPs with .Net. Oracle and Sun are both touting the ASP idea too.

IMO Application Service Providers by any company is a crazy idea for a very large segment of the market, regardless of the corp pushing it.


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>>Gone would be the need to create CD copies, have a large support staff, or a large development staff. Large layoffs loom at Microsoft.
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>>Also, consider what would happen to the net if Microsoft decided to create and sell a 'WinPC' that was essentially a PC without a BIOS, OS or HD, but had a DLS connection to the internet and an FTP boot program on a chip that would, on powerup, bring down from the MS website the BIOS and OS for the PC. Without access to the Microsoft's BIOS and OS site the box is useless. A discount will be given to those who access the .NET using Bill's WinPC, penalizing those who use conventional general purpose PC. Would coders pony up and pay hourly for the right to write applications for clients? Applications that would be written on the web, tested on the web and run from the web? Want to pay Bill hourly for the right to learn and putz around with new ideas? I would bet that Gates would even volunteer to give the WinPC to every user free of charge. What a deal.
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>You're taking this to the extreme...one that won't happen. If you think the DOJ is after MS now, it would be after them big time if this were to happen. Also, much of the technology that MS is pushing will be open standards. SOAP, XML, C# just to name a few.


Admittedly, but that is why I also posted a URL which showed that even public law is copyrighted ('owned') by corporations for their own economic interests, and not necessarily in the interests of the citizens. This situation constitutes another kind of monoply. The one with the AMA and doctors reporting codes is another. There are many others but the idea is the same: what's good for is good for the country. I, personally, don't equate that what is good for Microsoft is good for our country. The opposite seems to be true, as is the case with all monopolies and their effect on the costs of business and the prices of goods and services.

Besides, the DOJ has shown itself vunerable to political control at the judical level, irrespective of the law. With the testimony Gates gave in court, the manipulation of video tape evidence, etc., the conviction was a slam dunk. What isn't a slam dunk is the appellate court's predilection for ruling in favor of MS in cases of all kinds.

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>>BUT, supposed Microsoft and others (recording industry, for example) got laws passed outlawing the manufacture and/or repair of general purpose PCs, because it was a device that could make 'illegal' copies of software and threaten IP rights.
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>The movie industry already tried that in the "BetaMax" case. The Sumpreme Court ruled against them.

Which means absolutely nothing. The Microsoft EULA has already been proven in court to be a one-way document. MS can sue you for violating it but you can't sue MS for not honoring it. The next big case, payoff, massive poltical swing, national crisis, etc., could reverse those rulings in lesz time than it takes to say 'what?'. Laws NEVER mean what you think they mean, or even what their 'plain text' interpretation implies, and that is to say nothing of the secretly passed and buried loopholes so commonly used these days.

Of course I'm cynical. When ever a fictional body (corporation) acquires even more rights and priviledges than a flesh and blood body then I get more so.
Money talks, and Billions thunder loudly in political ears.

Nebraska Dept of Revenue