Jerry,

>My appologies. I must have had Matt on my mind when responding to you...

No problem!

>Re-read what I said. I didn't say that MS has done it, but preventing hacks of hardware by EULA and technical means has already been done, amd MS has a model for it when they need it.

Has this been tested in court? I seriously doubt that _any_ company can tell what I can and cannot do with my own property...the worst it will do is void the warranty. Do you have an example of a EULA that prevents tampering with ones own bought-and-paid for hardware?

> NOT SELL, Joe, GIVE AWAY! Just like Standard Oil, which gave away lamps in order to sell the oil... Especially 3rd world citizens.

I understand these WinPCs would be free... As for Standard Oil, they didn't exactly take over the world, did they? *smile* So sure, I guess I will worry about MS about as much as I worry about Standard. Heck, GE and Honeywell aren't even able to combine after offering tons of concessiong to the EU anti-trust folks...

>Now you are making predictions.... ;-) OEM's will be cut out of the game.

Never gonna happen. When it comes to hardware you need distribution lines and lots of flexibility. MS can't do all that themselves.

>Because this excellent progress can be stopped dead in its tracks. 10 years ago MS didn't care about Linux. Now, they do. The DOJ won a conviction but when the Appelate court took the teeth out of their tiger its bite is not a concern any more. OF what force is a law with punishment provision unenforced. It will take at least two or more years for the DOJ to get the remedy issue into court again, and that is a life time in the computer industry.

I agree that some time has been lost...but the important thing is that MS is still in the sights of the DOJ snipers (not to mention the flood of civil suits which will likely start soon).


>Fantastic? Perhaps. But I'm old enough to remember when ideas of putting men on the mood were considered too fantastic to happen before 2050.

Putting men on the moon was a Good Thing that most people were pushing for. Fantastic ideas about a monopolistic company controlling every aspect of computing don't have much backing, and so they won't come to pass...

>Sorry, but those are the only choices you really need. They are the choice we have always had, and they boil down to one thing: If you don't like what MS is doing, stop using MS.

>But may not have long... and I stopped using WinXX two years ago.

Exellent! So, unless one of your very important predictions comes true -- the demise of the generic PC -- we will all soon join you in using our own hardware and non-proprietary software (Linux, et al) to get business done! It all sounds good to me!

You have a great Fourth too!

JoeK