[sdtPikachu]

I hate to be pessimistic Cyrax, but here's my take on the whole shebang.

Originally posted by Cyrax9
1. Micro$haft's monopoly is geting rediculous, a few "good" lawyers can shut this down easily if it gets out of control, in 2004 the US will have anoter presidential eection, George W. Bush might have cancer, if you live in the uS and Vote for him, you'd essentialy be re-electing a problem, tu in 2004 the pwoer will likely shift to the democrast aain, the reason is because of the nations current status, if Bush dies, Vice President Dick Cheney becomes the president of the USA, Dick Cheney is prone to heart-attacks, strees increases heart attacks, guess what the most stressful job in the USA and the world is? We'd essentialy be electing a dead-man.

If the democrats get back into office in 2004, the first thing they wat to do is dissolve Macro$oft because of there "illegal monopoly", this means that the bill that President Bush Vetoed to dissolve Micro$mack will be tried again and the new president will sign it, republicans are for "big buisness", Bush is a republican, and all he had to do to stop M$ was to sign hisx name, he chose not too, remember that in 2k4 if you live in the USA and are over 18 on election day.

The President is essentially a cipher, and holds little power himself. It's the men behind the scenes who make the big changes. I imagine he was advised not to sign the petition, because it would be "bad for American business".

I sincerely doubt that even a change in political parties as extreme as the ones you suggest would tempt an government from the prospect of letting the entire world run their and only their products. It would make the US billions, as well as giving you control of foreign countries.

Trade embargos can be a thing of the past when you have a Palladium embargo on all information...

I sincerely hope you're right, but I don't think it's a good idea to rest on your laurels and say "this will never happen". Steps need to be taken to ensure it never happens, and the first is telling people what this cr@p would mean to them.

2. Aside from this being an illegal practice, do you think eveyone will go out and by a Palladium Machine? The short answer is no, people will revolt against using Computers, they'll use ther Macs, Linux systems, and Pentieums until they fall apart peice by peice, a few idiots will buy the new Micro$oft software and it'l be worthles in a few months, the Palladium that M$ is trying to succeed with wil be it's own downfall. People would rather not use a PC than use a PC that dosen't work.

If the public were properly educated, no sane person in the world would buy a Palladium machine. Now tell me: who is the master of marketing spin? Microsoft could sell people their own sh1t if they tried hard enough. They are one of the worlds best marketers (and let's face it, with products as bad as so many of theirs are, they'd need to be).

They're not packaging this up as a DRM OS. They're packaging it as a "secure OS" which is supposedly immune to viruses and hacker attacks (although funnily enough they don't mention that it was their crappy softwrae that caused most of this in the first place - it's like me selling guns to the Taliban, and then selling guns to the US army to fight them off). If they can convince people that this is true, Palladium OS and computers will fly off the shelves.

3. The money isn't tere for the acverage consumer, freeware is legal in the uSA under the first Amendment to the Consitution, the fist ten amendments ca NOT be changed, they are the bill of rights and the first amendment is the "Right to free speech", this means that if someone wants to distribute something, such as a freeware program and M$ won't allow it, they have just broken another law, Bill gates beter have some new court dates ready, he's gonna neeed them!

How do you mean the moeny isn't there? Microsoft are perfectly capable of giving the whole thing away for free if they need to - as I've said before, the first hit of crack is always the cheapest.

This is one of the major reasons I've always hated the Xbox - it's a computer in a box that you have no control over. The Palladium OS/PC will most likely be avaliable in the form of an Xbox clone (and if you've read the plans about Xbox 2, you'll know what I'm on about) - a cheap integrated user-friendly PC clone with locked down hardware, popular for it's ease of use. There's no hardware to install, no weird drivers, nothing.

As for freeware and this is Microsofts real stroke of genius - yeah, the software will still be free to distribute. You just won't be able to run it on a Palladium system until someone coughs up for the certification fee. They haven't broken any laws at all, they ahve just completely circumvented them. Brilliant.

4. Since this deals with countries other than the US, including Great Briittain, Japan, China, Canada, the Neatherlandfs and the rest f the world, if the US goverment dosen't stop ilergal practices by Micrsoft, the United Naions will, and Bill Gates will wind up in a fedeal prison with POWs.

Unfortunately, Microsoft knows that at the moment it has the world over a barrel. Microsoft can just threaten to not provide Windows (as they have done and are doing during the antitrust trial); they know that there aren't any viable alternatives that can be quickly emplaced, and so the world would be at th ealmost total mercy of Microsoft.

I would hope that most countries other than the US are intelligent enough to realsie that placing your data in the hands of a company based in another country is a bad idea - but since Palladium is essentially viral, if it picks up enough momentum in the developed world (esp. America, which has more internet servers per capita than any country other than data havens), then Palladium will spread when people are told they need it in order to access their favourite websites, or whatever.

In short, Pallaidium will fall flat on it's ass the minute it starts, I hope you enjoy this, becauxse I'm now off to bitch to som people in congress ad send this thread to anyone I know who can make a differance against this. Remember, if I on't like what new PC's wll have on them, I won't buy one, if I can't get online in a year or two, than I'l sop using the net, Microsoft is not going to win this, and as for security in Palladium, don't make me laugh. If Viruses are easy at the Software level, all someone needs to do is to creat a "virus" that "overclocks" your Palladium chip and turns it into a nice crispy Piece of Crap, the M$ Certifcation will be cracked within minutes, and the Palladium chips will make Windows XP look like High-Quality Software. Also, you know that bad surge protector that keeps shorting out? Wathc the Palladium chips short out and kill your PC's. Either way M$ loses, even if they get there chips out, people will avoid them or destroy them, M$ has gotten into a catch 22, and they aren't going to get out easily if at all. The day the Paladium chips are released, turn all of your PC's off, watch as the few iditos who buy these POS's try and use them when there HP printers stop working, there copy of AOHel dosen't work, and there HDD fries. Then turn the news on the next day and watc the angry mobs at electroncis stores shoot the owners who sold the craap M$ put out, keep that in mind when you think aboutyour next PC as well.

I hope you're right, and I'm very glad to see you doing something about it. It's all very well to say 2oh it's all bollocks, it'll never happen", but if we all think this way and become complacent, then it most definitely will.

What's the Niemoller parphrase? Ah yes.

First they came for the space-shifters,
and I did not speak,
because I don't own a Diamond Rio.
Then they came for the DeCSS sites,
and I did not speak,
because I don't watch DVDs on a Linux box.
Then they came for Sean Fanning,
and I did not speak,
because I figured I'd just use Gnutella.
Then they came for my VCR.
Sorry, MPAA.
I'm writing my Congressman -- and I'm not alone yet.

P.S. - if Palladium does become the de facto standard, don't throw your old PC's away - a non Palladium machine will be worth thousands to the right buyer...