It ain't all peg legs and parrots

Microsoft steps up anti-piracy efforts
- CBC

So Gates is gone to pursue other options. In all honesty, I think the various tête-à-têtes he's had with Bono over the years made him realize it's actually more fun to spend money than to make (and lose) it at the helm of Microsoft. Now he's touring the world with fellow super heroes like Bill Clinton declaring that the spread of AIDS must be stopped with all the gravity and conviction he once reserved for Windows Vista deadline promises.

That leaves Microsoft in some pretty shaky hands. Those shaky hands belong to the ever-agitated Steve Ballmer. This guy has about as much finesse as a neutron bomb in a China shop. He used to be the Yin to Gates' Yang balancing the latter's cool-guy 'wtf-cares-I'm-rich-biaaatch' attitude with just the right amount of murderous, chair-throwing rage. Now that the Yang is gone, we're left with the Yin making rash decisions in a crucial time where Microsoft could, for once, conceivably topple from their number 1 position.

I'm wondering what the hell Ballmer is thinking with these newest Vista anti-piracy announcements. Not only will users running what Microsoft (often incorrectly) determines to be a pirated version of Vista lack access to some key features from the get-go, they will apparently lose access to even non-Microsoft programs after 30 days. According to the article, after one month of unverified operation, Vista will further restrict users to just the web browser for an hour at a time leaving them unable to open any file or program on their own hard drive. As if frequent blue-screen-of-death system crashes weren't enough, now those few fleeting minutes between them will be restricted to checking webmail and surfing internet porn. What a wonderful way to further drain productivity.

There is no doubt in my mind that Microsoft is hastily driving the first of many nails into their own coffin through continued anti-piracy efforts in the form of WGA. On the other hand, Google, their number 1 competitor, is moving towards a freely-accessible online OS already evidenced with the seamless integration between Google Calendar, Homepage, Picasa and Blogger. For the most part, all of these services actually work too, and with a minimum of integrated advertising. I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop, but for now Google seems to be playing the good-guy role. We'll see how the recent acquisition of YouTube will factor into that in the coming months.