Bringing down the heroes (un-edited version)

I’ve always had a little soft spot for Bill Gates, what with him and his wife doing all that philanthropic work. Although Microsoft as a company has been criticized and derided for their "monopolistic" practises, lack of security and stability of software, with innumerable lawsuits, Mr. Gates has made many valuable contributions to the software industry and humanity.

Even so, I’m not surprised at fresh criticism of Microsoft’s latest ‘Vista’. The New Statesman, in its article ‘Hasta La Vista, Baby’ brings out the alleged ‘secret side’ of Windows Vista. It claims that Vista represents the height of content control, and has digital rights management (DRM) code that defines how we can use our own CD’s and DVD’s. It also discourages one from connecting screens or audio equipment that do no have content protection measures in place.

The reason I find this very odd is that yes - Microsoft is probably trying to protect corporations and the music industry so that intellectual property rights are not violated through the use of Vista - they will make a lot of money here - but why should the average computer user feel threatened? The writer says ‘DRM is fine if you don't do anything too naughty, like try to copy your CD collection on to your PC too many times.’ Is this what we should be angry about? Not being able to use illegal content freely? She also advocates the use of Linux, which is on the other hand has a low graphical user interface but is an open source operating software which is free. A black and green interface above my coloured one is not reeason enough for me to switch. Maybe the New Statesman thinks it is.

Oddly enough, in a list compiled by the New Statesman in May 2006, Bill Gates was voted eighth in the list of "Heroes of our time".