.Net / Hailstorm Initiative

[Neeraj Sharma <neeraj_du@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

recently, one of those business channels was talking
about Office Xp. One of the things that were
constantly underlined was that in a bid to prevent
piracy, from Xp onwards, users would have to register
(online) before they can start using the s/w. "One
registration, One user. End of piracy", claimed one MS
employee, adding "...Big step forward...".

End of piracy, all right, but they also announced with
pride that in future, upgrades (and patches) will be
available online only, the rationale being integration
of a variety of services like instant messaging,
mails, money central, search etc, by logging in just
once.

Well, to me, this **logging in just once** is the
catch! I suppose that this logging in would require
the user to go through 'passport' authentication
server, meaning whatever you do, you are moving
through a particular company's servers. No apparent
problems on that either, but what would stop the
company from charging on a monthly rental model, when
a substantial user base is achieved, when the right
dependence is created? Imagine paying for every search
you made!

Nothing against MS, but surely a lot against
dominance/monopoly. MS isn't in a position to really
expand its desktop market. (they already captured
majority of it). So how do they make $$? Simple, start
dominating the net. The net, which has been known for
its open-ness and 'free' nature, might just be the
entry point for 'yet another struggle for dominance'.
And this is fairly visible in the ongoing MSN vs AOL
battle. Hotmail already has some 100 M users. Addition
to this base through MSN and .Net / Hailstorm
initiative might just prove be the telling blow, God
forbid.

Can we, the alternate OS users / non proprietary
people, make sure that monopoly practices don't kill
the fun out of the www, can it be made sure that the
net, does not end up being just .Net?

Neeraj

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/