September 17, 2003

The Gates of Hell

Bill Gates is getting a stronger and stronger stranglehold on the world of communication. The features incorporated into Office 2003 are pretty scary.

WorldNetDaily has the scoop. Thanks to Mary for bringing this to my attention.

Posted by david at September 17, 2003 10:12 PM | TrackBack
Comments

A google on the Right Management thingy, and then a talk with our software and hardware sales folks - indicates that it may not be as bad as the Writer on WND seems to imagine - although it *could* get there. The reality is most people at home won't be effected, neither will most people at work: most folks will not have the $18K to buy the management feature nore will they want to. Additionally such a feature can be turned off - not only in a file by file way but also by default over a whole network.

There is, of course, no telling what default modes MS will install, but most techs and net admins (in my experience) sit around and try to figure out how to get around MS security, so my guess is this feature, for now, is nothing more than another MS security hole.

Having said all that, it is a good story - MS figures out a way to force everyone to use it's software and thus makes everyone pay to submit to the beast. The last time I was in the DOJ at least (here in SF) they used Word Perfect, if you can believe that.

Posted by: Huw Raphael at September 18, 2003 06:35 AM