Personally, I’m going to upgrade to Windows XP as soon as its available because pretty much everything I’ve read indicates its the most stable version of Windows yet (granted that’s not saying much…)
Dan Gillmor, writes that, “The Justice Department and states must quickly seek an injunction blocking the release of Windows XP, at least the version Microsoft is planning to ship.”
If I understand it, the Justice Department won’t be able to ask a federal judge to issue such an injunction until the case goes back to the lower court near the end of August, at which point it is extremely unlikely the court would issue such an injunction due to the harm it would likely cause Microsoft.
I think it’s kind of amusing to watch the same people who were horrified at the injunction that shut down Napster suddenly turn around and beg the government to do pretty much the same thing to Microsoft. Plus, Gillmor doesn’t even bother to be internally consistent with what he objects to with Windows XP. Among other things he doesn’t like about it are,
- Microsoft removed the Java environment from XP, thereby breaking thousands of Web sites that use Java. XP customers will face endless downloads to replace the functionality they’d come to expect.
…
- Microsoft is bundling all kinds of services into XP in ways that block competition, from photography software to video/audio playback. If customers want to use other vendors’ products they’ll have to jump through Microsoft-designed hoops.
Hmmm…so bundling Java with XP is fine even though it potentially hampers alternatives but bundling video/audio playback software is bad? I’m not seeing the logic there, Dan. I suppose he’s still peeved that Windows includes a calculator and text editor too.
I also didn’t understand this objection,
- Windows XP contains harsh controls on users to prevent unauthorized copying of the software. If you reinstall the OS after upgrading your hardware in ways that Microsoft considers questionable, you’ll need Microsoft’s permission.
Yeah, Windows XP and several thousand other PC applications. Maybe the Justice Department should have asked for a preliminary injuction against all those Safedisc-protected games I keep running into. Actually Windows XP is better, in that respect, because its authentication method is a lot easier to spoof than is something like Safedisc.