News and views from a software developer's perspective
Wednesday, April 17, 2002Another Big MS Browser Hole Found. Don't click that back button if you're using Internet Explorer on a PC running Windows: You're opening yourself up to a potential malicious hack. By Michelle Delio. [Wired News]
The thought just occurred to me. What if, because we Linux users are such a small minority, that the bullying big companies will just leave us alone. Think of the mass of normal users as sheep. :-) They will be hearded around by the big companies, while those who are technologically more savvy will make their own way. In the future, the sheep will have Windows Media and copy protection. Those of us who are die hard Linux fans will have MP3, because Windows Media won't be available for Linux.
On a related note, more Microsoft control over technologies like audio and video won't necessarily mean death to Linux on the desktop. The prices that media companies plan to charge, if current offerings are any indication, will be beyond the means of the less-wealthy PC users, especially those in underdeveloped countries. Those are the same users who will adopt Linux.
Microsoft looks to extend digital media reach (news.com) Microsoft's strategems with media formats are particularly insidious. What better way to impose a "tax" on the Internet than to own the media formats. If Microsoft succeeds in controlling the media files formats, they accomplish to goals: First, they lock in their operating system dominance. They even extend their operating system dominance by push WinCE for non-PC devices. Second, they collect a tax on the Internet. The tax won't be paid directly by consumers; it will be paid by companies that have any kind of stake in the Internet media space.