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Hi Folks,

You will start hearing more about something called "Vista', a.k.a. Longhorn. This is the next version of Windows coming from Microsoft, slated for release sometime next year- (Okay, go ahead and snicker.) It promises great things, but be forewarned: the primary purpose of this release will be the cementing of the underlying foundation for something far more insidious than a software monopoly. It will herald the beginning of the common era of software-as-a service. This supreme demon, the software-as-a service, spells the end of most of your favorite programs and starts you renting software rather than owning software. You understand correctly: You will start to see programs such as Word and Excel only available for rent over the Internet. Too bad if your Internet connection goes down, especially if they are charging you a per-use fee.
Watch to see as more companies try to assert their positions as Intellectual Property holders to force you to lose your rights as consumers and especially your 'fair use' rights; an example of this is the Motion Picture Association of America's fight against your right (as defined by the Supreme Court of the United States) to view your DVD movies in whatever manner you want. You know those irritating commercials and 'previews' you are forced to watch before getting to the movie? Did you know you have a right to bypass those? The MPAA doesn't think you should be allowed to do that. If you don't believe me, investigate it for yourself.

Software-as-a-service means that you will have to have an active Internet connection and be subject to being tracked and watched in how you use that software, without your consent. "If you don't like it, tough" is the attitude of the companies pushing this horrid concept. Personally, I am not going to pay a subscription fee to use software nor am I going to pay a per-use fee. And don't think for a second that I'm going to use a software product that requires an active Internet connection; my software will reside on my hard drive, thank you very much. Further, absolutely under no circumstance am I going to allow a software company to track how I use the software without my express consent. It just isn't any of their business, period.
Some people will 'remind' you that you don't own software but license it. Tell them this is not true of open-source software. Due to a weird, warped true story worthy of any Emmy-winning drama, you may have a choice to tell Microsoft and the software -as-a-service ice goons to go stuff themselves. Give thanks to a most unlikely band of industry heavy weights, IBM, Sun Microsystems, and Novell have shockingly become modern-day equivalents of Knights on White Horses here to defend your rights as a user. Their unexpected support of open-source software was roughly as big as a surprise to the technology industries (and especially to the open-source community) as was the uncharacteristic announcement by Israel to pull out those Gaza Strip settlements. Their rallying point is the infamous operating system called Linux.

The open-source nature of Linux means that essentially any company or individual can take the heart of Linux called source code and modify it, sell it or give it away as long as they also include the source code of the original and of their changes or additions. Likewise, they also cannot dictate what someone does with the source code. There exist many "distributions" of Linux available, the most touted here in the United States is Red Hat Linux, Novell recently purchased the second must popular 'full' distribution from a German company named SuSE (Sue-Soh). SuSE is what I use here, and I'll happily tell you that for $100 it is a steal. For $10, I'll sell you a copy. Legally. ;-)

Not all has been wine-and-roses in the open-source realm, unfortunately. A few years ago, failed Linux distributor Caldera betrayed the open-source community and violated the license agreements when parent company "the Santa Cruz Operation" (SCO for short) threatened all Linux users, even home users, with stiff lawsuits if they didn't pay huge licensing fees. IBM was the primary target of a particularly nasty lawsuit, as were Sun and Novell. At least two large companies even stopped in mid-step. But in the end, only a few companies paid the extortion fees in lieu of being sued because IBM promised to protect many, of them and a few lobbying groups promised to defend users for free. Disturbingly, evidence points toward Microsoft as being behind nearly successful attack on Linux and suggests Microsoft persuaded an investment company to bankroll the SCO -lawsuits.

What fun it was to watch that investment firm turn around and rue SCO for a return on the investment after their cover was blown. In the mean time, SCO forgot that those very businesses they had threatened weft also current or potential customers. Thus, almost every penny their income has, since dried up and now SCO is skirting bankruptcy. Novell added insult (with emphasis on salt) to injury to SCO when, just last week or so Novell counter-sued SCO with the mother of all lawsuits. As an industry analyst, I predict SCO will succumb to this helluva lawsuit and die off. Don't worry about their employees though, as them is Duly about two dozen total nowadays.

Back to me: I personally have been using Microsoft DOS and Microsoft Windows operating systems now for more than twenty years and have been an expert in them for much of that time. But it stops now. I am not going to adopt or support any version of Windows past Windows XP. I am going to Linux and VMWare from here on out. Like Steve Gibson wrote: "It's MY computer!" And it is going to stay that way.

Handy Hint: Nearly every Linux distributor allows you to download their latest version or their second latest version for free. Go to linux.org/.

From an article in The Bartow Trader, Dated Tuesday-August 9, 2005
By: Robert Reese
Used with permission

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.