Vista's Legal Fine Print Raises Red Flags (All your computer are belong to us.)

The Toronto Star ^ | January 29, 2007 | Michael Geist

[quidnunc]

Vista, the latest version of Microsoft's Windows operating system, makes its long awaited consumer debut tomorrow. The first major upgrade in five years, Vista incorporates a new, sleek look and features a wide array of new functionality, such as better search tools and stronger security.

The early reviews have tended to damn the upgrade with faint praise, however, characterizing it as the best, most secure version of Windows, yet one that contains few, if any, revolutionary features.

While those reviews have focused chiefly on Vista's new functionality, for the past few months the legal and technical communities have dug into Vista's "fine print." Those communities have raised red flags about Vista's legal terms and conditions as well as the technical limitations that have been incorporated into the software at the insistence of the motion picture industry.

The net effect of these concerns may constitute the real Vista revolution as they point to an unprecedented loss of consumer control over their own personal computers. In the name of shielding consumers from computer viruses and protecting copyright owners from potential infringement, Vista seemingly wrestles control of the "user experience" from the user.

Vista's legal fine print includes extensive provisions granting Microsoft the right to regularly check the legitimacy of the software and holds the prospect of deleting certain programs without the user's knowledge. During the installation process, users "activate" Vista by associating it with a particular computer or device and transmitting certain hardware information directly to Microsoft.

Even after installation, the legal agreement grants Microsoft the right to revalidate the software or to require users to reactivate it should they make changes to their computer components. In addition, it sets significant limits on the ability to copy or transfer the software, prohibiting anything more than a single backup copy and setting strict limits on transferring the software to different devices or users.

Vista also incorporates Windows Defender, an anti-virus program that actively scans computers for "spyware, adware, and other potentially unwanted software." The agreement does not define any of these terms, leaving it to Microsoft to determine what constitutes unwanted software.

-snip-

[corlorde]

lol, I'm a huge AMD fan.

[antiRepublicrat]

Microsoft threatens licence dodgers, Changes of tactics as BSA is called in

It might be fun to know your licenses are 100% correct, and ignore Microsoft up until the point the BSA hauls you to court. Just sit back until the judge forces you to put up the licenses, then do so.

One example the article gives for Microsoft discovering illegit software is the CAL issue. This is one place where Microsoft's pricing just plain sucks in comparison to Apple. Windows 2003 Server from Dell OEM with only 25 CAL costs you $3,295 ($3,999 retail). OS X Server with unlimited CAL costs just $999 full retail. So buy a few XServes to run your organization and a lot of worries go out the window, and at a quarter of the price.

Of course, even Apple is proprietary. The only way to eliminate the possibility of audits, and eliminate the man-hours to make sure you're compliant with all of your software, is to use free software.

[George W. Bush]

That it is enforceable is questionable.

Sure enough. May not be enforcable. You wanna take on their legal team? There's a lot of language and clauses there. As the original article on this thread points out, the Vista license is far more onerous than any other in MS history.

Are you guys really so happy that Microsoft reserves the right to inspect every file on your system and delete anything it doesn't like with no recourse for you? BTW, I'll remind you that during the Vista beta, they already deleted files vital for the Norton AV beta to function.

With Apple, I get no activation, no evil license agreement, no deactivations by mistake (which has been documented many times for legit customers), no forced registrations to get Apple's updates like with WinXP's WindowsUpdate, no forced reactivation just because I added a video card or upgraded a processor...the list just goes on and on.

I guess I'm the oddball here but I just don't like unscheduled involuntary proctology exams from my doctor. I don't like my doctor being nosy about everything. That would make me find another doctor. You guys are spread-eagled on the table and apparently loving every minute of it for some reason.

[Echo Talon]

well... ya can't get AMD with apple now can ya? ;)
Well... AMD acquired ATI... so... you could get an ATI video card in a mac but... you still cant get an AMD processor... although the C2D/Quad is the better choice at the moment...

[Echo Talon]

With Apple, I get no activation, no evil license agreement, no deactivations by mistake (which has been documented many times for legit customers), no forced registrations to get Apple's updates like with WinXP's WindowsUpdate, no forced reactivation just because I added a video card or upgraded a processor...the list just goes on and on.

but, in the end... you still have a rotten apple posing as a PC... ;) and thats how it's always going to be.

[Echo Talon]

jobs is the evil bastard, he makes you buy his pos hardware if you want to use his plastic/fisher price looking software.

[antiRepublicrat]

Are you guys really so happy that Microsoft reserves the right to inspect every file on your system

OS X 10.4 EULA:

4. Consent to Use of Data. You agree that Apple and its subsidiaries may collect and use technical and related information, including but not limited to technical information about your computer, system and application software, and peripherals, that is gathered periodically to facilitate the provision of software updates, product support and other services to you (if any) related to the Apple Software. Apple may use this information, as long as it is in a form that does not personally identify you, to improve our products or to provide services or technologies to you.

All of the major proprietary EULAs have something I don't like. Apple of course also has the famous "you can only run it on a Mac" clause.

[Still Thinking]

Not everyone is ready for the advanced interaction of Clippy.

I have a sledgehammer and a flamethrower. I think I'm as ready as I'm going to get.

[Danette]

Sheesh!!! Just got back from Best Buy. I got there right when they opened....so did a trillion others. Nice little crowd waiting for the doors to open. They told me last night that they only had 9 computers of the one I wanted (new launch date for the computer also). Walked in and got it right away.

They have free check to see if everything is running okay. You get three free gadgets for your desk top (like a clock and calendar and I don't know what the other is). There's a choice out of 20 gadgets. Anyways, just be aware that it could take up to an hour for your computer to boot the very first time.

I left the computer there while I did other errands. Mine was the second computer for the free check. When I got back an hour later, the area was filled with computers and was up to a 3 hour wait. ALOT of laptaps sold. People were out to buy.....especially with getting tax refunds back for this purpose.

Good luck to those braving the crowds today.

[George W. Bush]

LOL!!! as soon as that retard allows me to install osx on a PC I'll think about buying it... :P

While it violates Apple's license agreement, it's well-known that quite a number of people are using VMWare to run OSX on PC's with roughly matching hardware to Apple's line. Some of them have even gone out and bought OS X retail. No matter, Apple knows this is happening and they're not sending the SPA or the BSA after anyone with a pack of lawyers. Heck, I don't think they even have an audit policy like MS does.

And Steve Jobs is not a retard. He's a neurotic control-freak that most people wouldn't enjoy being around. But he is a brilliant guy. In many ways, he's a greater success than Gates can ever be.

Politically, both are known liberals like all the Silicon Valley guys. Gates has the usual billionaire's preoccupation with funding depopulation (birth control, aborticide) around the world. Gates has teamed up with Warren Buffet on this. Buffet has been into this for over twenty years. So when you buy that Vista, think about how many bricks a portion of that profit will be used by Gates philanthropically to build abortion clinics in the Third World. Over the last century, these billionaires have routinely fallen into the depopulation business, contributing directly to the ongoing Holocaust of the unborn. They're the last bastions of the old eugenics ideology.

Gates is an unimaginative and uninspired monopolist who desires to spread abortion and birth control globally. I like the fact that I no longer support anything Microsoft sells.

[George W. Bush]

lol, I'm a huge AMD fan.

Me too. But Intel will have their season with Core Duo/Xeon. They earned it this time. And AMD/ATI and IBM just announced they have matched Intel's breakthrough in replacing silicon with hafnium alloys, perhaps the most radical improvement in semiconductor fabrication since their invention in the Sixties.

On AMD, watch for their new multicore designs. My Intel Xeons are good but are hobbled by a mediocre memory design from the full potential of all four cores on a single memory bus. In brief, they can read/write simultaneously across a serial bus but they pass their requests to each of the four banks in turn. So memory can rarely be perfectly optimal. It was not a great compromise but even this solution is too expensive. AMD's new chips have an extremely tight interface between their cores on a high-speed inter-CPU bus and each CPU (and its cores) address its own banks of memory at full speed, locking and caching and borrowing memory from one another in a very transparent way. This solves the bus latency problems of the S5000 bus devices on the Core 2 Xeons.

Look for good things from AMD this summer, first in the server market but quickly trickling down to consumer level to restore AMD's position. And this time frame will likely see remarkably powerful fully integrated ATI graphics chips on the die with the CPU's, also tightly coupled and largely removing even the restrictions of the x16 bus interface we use now on slotted video cards.

Don't rush to buy AMD stock. But if you're waiting for the next great Intel-slayer from AMD, maybe by this fall they can get this architecture to market. Interestingly, by avoiding the Xeon serial memory (the worst power hog/heat generator in my machine), they get increased performance with lower power consumption and heat generation.

Gotta love a company as scrappy as AMD.

[George W. Bush]

Windows 2003 Server from Dell OEM with only 25 CAL costs you $3,295 ($3,999 retail). OS X Server with unlimited CAL costs just $999 full retail. So buy a few XServes to run your organization and a lot of worries go out the window, and at a quarter of the price.

I agree generally. But Windows 2003 Server was the finest Windows they ever made. Nuts to those people who think it's only for servers. It is, after all, the source code for Vista (but minus draconian DRM, evil license terms, mediocrity, Tiger copycatting, vast hardware requirements, etc.).

Tiger Server, though fine for many tasks and performing some rather unique functions, does not stand up to Windows 2003 Server in many enterprise tasks and, like Windows Server, fails to meet the Linux offering for most servers on the Internet.

They all have their places though. I'm less mean-spirited on server OSes than I am on consumer/workstation OSes. Probably some deep ugly populist streak in me.

[George W. Bush]

well... ya can't get AMD with apple now can ya? ;)

No, not yet. I don't expect to. Apple is Intel's new sweetheart. It was no coincidence that when Apple picked Intel and suddenly was headlining the star spots at all their developer conferences and industry shindigs. Dell just happened to immediately introduce their new AMD offerings. Intel had had lust in their corporate hearts for Apple for a long time, more than for any other company. Why, you ask? Because Apple will cut off old interfaces and make complete changes to embrace new technology at the drop of a hat. And they can be a little ruthless about it too. But this is why we no longer fumble about with serial and printer cables and now have USB. Apple ruthlessly forced their users into it. Intel couldn't get the others to do it. With the new Intel Apples, all are running EFI, not BIOS. BIOS is so hopelessly stupid and out-of-date, there's no excuse for it. But only Apple has the user base and the guts to implement it and make it a new standard. Firewire and many other things are from Apple's courage (and fanatically loyal user base). That is what Intel wants, a company that will build the machines and implement all the new technology with the industrial design flair and corporate philosophy that Apple embodies: "IT JUST WORKS". And that is why Intel has such a huge woody for Apple. I don't think we can trust Intel's CEO in a room alone with Jobs. It's kind of embarrassing.

Even more embarrassing is how Adobe has returned to Apple, kissing their hiney and gushing over how many Macs that Adobe is going to help Apple sell, yada yada yada just get a room, you two. I laughed out loud at the offer webpages at Adobe for the Photoshop CS3 beta: "gush gush gush Apple gush gush kiss kiss oh Apple be mine kiss kiss and oh by the way there's a Windows beta here too for you Microsoft idiots." Really, that was the impact. I showed it to a videographer friend who owns the whole CS2 Creative Suite for Windows and he was floored. In twenty-five years of watching PC and software vendors, I've never seen such a let-me-toss-your-salad product announcement for a hardware vendor, not to mention a hardware vendor with 5%-6% of the total market (although a high percentage of the creative professional market).

Well... AMD acquired ATI... so... you could get an ATI video card in a mac but... you still cant get an AMD processor... although the C2D/Quad is the better choice at the moment...

Exactly. Mac Pro offers the middling Nvidia 7300LE or the ATI X1950XT or one of the $1500 Nvidia workstation cards with 3d interface (not worth it except for CAD/3D/scientific workstation users). Instead of getting the $400 addon ATI card (not DirectX 10), I opted to wait until Apple supports one of the new ATI or NVidia DX10 cards. Of course, I hate Vista and don't play lots of games. But it's not an option to discard irrevocably. The market may break down Microsoft's evil intentions or the courts might make them behave well enough for me to allow their nasty Vista on my pretty Mac. So, I'll wait for a bit for a DX10 card. Leopard (OS X.5) is due before summer and I don't need it that much yet. And with the stock 950watt power supply, I don't have to worry about anything being too much for my Mac.

One of the real challenges in owning these quad-core machines is finding something challenging enough to keep them busy very long. Kind of a shock. But Leopard is the crown jewel of the Intel multi-core switch, the place it will come alive and begin to mature. Just when Photoshop CS3 releases for Mac (Photoshop is considered a religion to Mac users) and Premiere returning to the Mac along with the Avid and Final Cut Pro offerings.

You know, a Mac Pro or other Mac really does make you feel, with some confidence, that there is almost nothing you can't run. The BSD's, Linux (five major versions), BeOS, VMware appliances, X11, Solaris, Windows (every version ever published), the cutting edge realtime OSes, the list is long. I've only ever run four of them at once but it didn't even get me to 30% CPU. I just couldn't click enough stuff. To max it out, people do things like play three 1080p H.264 HD movies at once while recording all of them as a screen grab movie at 30fps. No dropped frames. That's the kind of machine it is. Not really something Grandma needs but something close to software nirvana for the those of us with strange software cravings.

but, in the end... you still have a rotten apple posing as a PC... ;) and thats how it's always going to be.

But of course. My Mac Pro is just a generic Xeon workstation from an Intel reference design. Same thing as all those AMD reference designs you get from AMD's motherboard vendors. There's nothing dirty about it and there's no reason for Apple or AMD's vendors to design their own boards and buses and such. That's so Second Millennium. Let the chip makers solve the EE design problems, not the PC makers.

One of the reasons I bought it is because I knew I would still have a powerful WinXP workstation if I didn't want to go OS X fulltime. But OS X grows on you more than you'd expect. It is user-centric. It's about what you want to do, not shoehorning into some process that Microsoft and their vendor partners think that you should do. It's insubstantial to describe but becomes more apparent the longer you use it.

jobs is the evil bastard, he makes you buy his pos hardware if you want to use his plastic/fisher price looking software.

It's not evil. It's smart industrial design that sweeps the awards year after year. I knew it was good but I was floored by this Mac Pro. It's the little touches. Like no cables at all to connect SATA hard drives (not stacked, but side by side from front to back on sleds with stainless steel thumbscrews). Cableless hard drives, isn't it about time? I think so. And the soft aluminum case is a joy to look at. I looked at one of the new Dell Xeon servers last week at a customer site. It was nice. But there was no comparison. It looked like any other Dell box but made from black/silver metal. One look and you've forgotten it.

Some of these things sound fluffy and insubstantial. But given these machines are very comparable or considerably cheaper than comparable quality machines from other vendors, the Apple makes them look like tired wannabes. And that is part of the adulation that Hollywood creative types and Intel and Silicon Valley and its user base has for Apple. For these folks, yes, it's still about making a buck. But it's about style, design, being forward-looking, using an OS and software base that is about the user, not Microsoft's control or Hollywood's ideas of what you're allowed to do. Why spend your life messing with annoying software and updates and worrying over who really controls your machine? And what about style and user experience? With Apple, this is crucial. With Windows, it's often just irrelevant or an afterthought.

[George W. Bush]

Death to Clippy, the bastard child of Microsoft Bob. Leave it to Gates to marry Melissa, product manager of the worst single piece of crapware he ever tried to foist on the public.

It's perfect, perhaps actually inevitable the two would marry. I'll just avoid the irony of their marriage in counterpoint to MS's general product offerings.

[George W. Bush]

OS X 10.4 EULA:

Your quote is relevant and I agree with your comments. However, Windows XP and Vista force you to prove you're not a crook and they may institute action against you if you refuse to submit to their inspection. They can also cut you off from Vista if you refuse to connect to them for inspection and "updates".

With Apple, automatic software updates are standard. But it's very easy to turn it off. Since I don't let MS look at my hard drive for updates (use Firefox and windowsupdate.62nds.com instead), I don't let Apple do it either. The difference is that Apple is fine with me just downloading my updates manually, generally after they've been in the field for a week, without pretending I'm a crook if I grab any file they offer.

It's a big difference in how they treat you, the customer. If you're okay with buying stuff from a company that treats you like a thief, then Vista is for you. Some of the rest of us object to this. I just don't get why anyone is willing to be treated this way.

If you say that Apple will be forced to do this as well, I don't think so. First off, Apple's advantage is that it is a closed platform. So except for a few hackers, Apple doesn't have to worry about anyone stealing the software because 99% of the people who download it are owners of Macs. And Mac users generally don't go in for being thieves though there is plenty of piracy available if you like that stuff. Apple knows that anyone technically adept enough to run their OS and software on generic PC hardware is also smart enough to realize that the time they spend making it run and keeping it running is far far more than using that same time just doing tech work oddjobs for friends/families/neighbors and simply buying a Mac instead. And once people start using Mac, they tend to want to keep using it. The lure is surprisingly strong.

As we've always said about CD and DVD piracy: give people something they want and they'll pay for it gladly in droves and don't worry about a few losers stealing your software in their mom's basement. And don't let pursuing those few losers make you turn on your entire customer base. Hey, it's not rocket science.

How do you want to be treated after you've spent so much money/time on their products?

[Golden Eagle]

LOL, Macs are great computers, but you seem to be stretching the facts quite a bit.

Vista looks to be the new Windows Millennium

ME was a hybrid 16/32 bit O/S, Vista has seperate 32 and 64 bit versions.

it's annoying and confusing for anyone except expert users, spending most of its time forcing you to click on this or that authorization for something it doesn't explain to you.

Security and convenience are inversely proportional, Macs typically prompt the user including for passwords before making any significant changes as well.

Microsoft locked out the other antivirus companies

Your information is severely out of date.

all the DRM stuff that is designed to degrade your HD videos if you don't have HDMI/HDCP monitors and video cards.

Which is one of the main reasons Apple switched to Intel.

I use it to multi-boot, running Mac OSX, WinXP and Ubuntu Linux all simultaneously

FYI "simultaneously" and "multi-boot" are not the same.

Many of those mass-market machines like the Dell's that people bought last year that were "Certified For Vista" turned out not to be.

The gold version of Vista wasn't even released to the "mass market" till today.

Microsoft will refuse to sell copies of XP to Dell/HP/Gateway or in retail packages.

CDW still sells Windows 2000.

Microsoft is a damned monopoly.

I thought you owned an Apple?

I hope the EU continues to go after them

Like they are going after Apple as well?

How can a company make billions of dollars off such crappy second-rate software?

Because 90% of the people using PC's continue to pay good money for it.

The idea of trusting a company like Microsoft for your security when their own design errors have directly caused the very security problems we face now is just bizarre.

Most users trust Microsoft more than hackers, which is hardly "bizarre".

Vista is a sad sick joke of an OS.

Some people said the same about XP when it was released, yet 75% of the world's PC's now run it.

And if Vista is so great, then why are they already planning the release of Vista Service Pack 1 later this year?

To make it better, haven't you been saying it needs improvement?

It's a lot more than five. I guesstimate it as 12-15 different Vistas.

Bad guess.

Personally, I think Microsoft should give Vista away.

Which easily explains why you're not the richest man in the world.

Ubuntu/Kubuntu (which means "it takes a village to destroy a pumpkin" or some such rot in some African language)?

How exactly do you pronounce that? Nevermind.

One of the most interesting and exciting things on the horizon is the KDE 4 release.

You mean the advanced features like cut and paste might finally work?

And MS is doing a sad little PR blitz to pump up sales

I guess the Apple ads showing two guys holding hands aren't sad, but "funny".

It allows a company with bad and mediocre ideas to dominate the market and crush the real innovators on all platforms.

I thought you said you could run three different operating systems simultaneously?

Microsoft's performance is a joke by comparison, refusing to fix truly dangerous security holes for years on end.

Sounds like a severe stretch, got an example?

I forced a friend to update his XP Pro last night because he'd been neglecting it since September.

Ever heard of "auto updates"?

I used to believe the Apple=overpriced thing. And they were. But there have been real changes there.

I just got a sleek new HP Intel notebook with 15" monitor and DVD burner for $499. I can get an Apple for that?

Vista requires you to buy hardware 2-3 times more powerful to run the trickle-down versions of major console games

Which would still be better than no trickle down at all wouldn't it?

Gates has the usual billionaire's preoccupation with funding depopulation

Most of his money has gone to save or extend lives.

Gotta love a company as scrappy as AMD.

So where's the love from Apple? Couldn't be because DRM isn't integrated could it?

Because Apple will cut off old interfaces and make complete changes to embrace new technology at the drop of a hat.

No kidding, I used to be an Apple salesman, till they left me and my customers with an abandoned platform. They still haven't recovered and that was 20 years ago.

Leave it to Gates to marry Melissa, product manager of the worst single piece of crapware he ever tried to foist on the public.

What did Melissa say to Bill on their honeymoon night? "I see why you called it Microsoft".

[Golden Eagle]

Of course, even Apple is proprietary. The only way to eliminate the possibility of audits, and eliminate the man-hours to make sure you're compliant with all of your software, is to use free software.

Not true, since free software typically includes *no warranty* and passes the liability to the user, you can still be liable for end use.

[Golden Eagle]

Apple of course also has the famous "you can only run it on a Mac" clause.

No more famous than your endless defenses of the Russian hackers who cracked OSX to run on Dells though, including trotting out the "180 day rule for criminal prosecution" on their behalf. LOL, just thinking about that always cracks me up.

[George W. Bush]

LOL, Macs are great computers, but you seem to be stretching the facts quite a bit.

Am not. Hey, long time, no see.

FYI "simultaneously" and "multi-boot" are not the same.

Yeah, it's just common lingo. We don't have a good word for it.

CDW still sells Windows 2000.

Yes, if they have retail stock you can buy it. Other places too. It has nothing to do with how Microsoft deals with Dell and HP and other large vendors. Many, if not most, Dells are sold now with Vista only. Dunno if you can call and request XP.

Like they are going after Apple as well?

Like I said before, it's all good. MS's DRM is far worse but that doesn't mean Apple gets the "good" DRM award. DRM is just bad.

Because 90% of the people using PC's continue to pay good money for it.

More accurately, they have no choice but to buy it with a new machine. While you can order plain Dells with no OS, you pay more and they do things like take away or downgrade your monitor. They need a fat lawsuit.

Most users trust Microsoft more than hackers, which is hardly "bizarre".

Microsoft is who made the hackers so dangerous by refusing to fix so many long-time flaws. But in SP2, Microsoft did cripple your TCP/IP stack's number of half-open connections so your infected machine couldn't spam or attack quite as fast. Anything to avoid actually fixing their own known security flaws, I guess. Another "security through crippling the machine" feature.

I guess the Apple ads showing two guys holding hands aren't sad, but "funny".

Holding hands? I thought I had seem them all. Is this up at Apple's site with the rest?

I thought you said you could run three different operating systems simultaneously?

I do. Under Vista, only the high-priced versions allow you to use your full CPU power. Now, under WinXP Pro, I'm allowed to use two CPUs. But XP is so old, they never thought to limit it to 'number of cores'. So even though I have two CPU sockets, I have four processor cores and get the full power of all four. Clearly, Microsoft won't stand for any more of this. Also, Vista forbids and disallows virtualization except on the high-end versions. No proper VMware for you if you don't pay them to let you use your own Intel hardware. In fairness, Apple forbids you to virtualize their OS currently but it's widely expected they'll relax this to allow OS X to be virtual on OS X. (Which is pretty puny, I know)

Ever heard of "auto updates"?

Ever heard of "I don't trust them to have read access to my drives?" I also don't submit to warrantless searches. I'm so boring I don't have anything to hide. But I don't see any reason to constantly allow this creeping intrusion and datamining of my personal property.

I just got a sleek new HP Intel notebook with 15" monitor and DVD burner for $499. I can get an Apple for that?

I'm not interested in the bargain basement machines. You do get what you pay for in design, support, etc. And Apple's resale value often offsets their initial prices. I have been surprised how much old Apple machines bring on eBay.

Some people said the same about XP when it was released, yet 75% of the world's PC's now run it.

Actually, I think it's far more than that.

Most of his money has gone to save or extend lives.

That's why he's greeted in places like India by people dressed as human condoms? Oh.

So where's the love from Apple? Couldn't be because DRM isn't integrated could it?

Apple had to choose. The two processor roadmaps were clear: Intel was a clear winner for Apple and its users. AMD isn't a good option at present, no matter how much I have liked AMD in the past or admire their forthcoming designs.

No kidding, I used to be an Apple salesman, till they left me and my customers with an abandoned platform. They still haven't recovered and that was 20 years ago.

Have you heard of this thing they call OS X? What, you didn't think we still ran System 6 off floppies or something? Look, until OS X.2, you couldn't have paid me to take an Apple machine. I had a buddy with a number of them and I refused the offer. OS X was a major draw for me.

What did Melissa say to Bill on their honeymoon night? "I see why you called it Microsoft".

His marketing guys promptly FUDded her.

[George W. Bush]

endless defenses of the Russian hackers who cracked OSX to run on Dells

Russians? Really. Never heard that before. The Parallels crew is nearly all Russian. But they're legit with Apple and won the recent MacWorld product of the year award, the first time in years any vendor stole the crowd's heart away from Apple. And Apple had had a very innovative year.