Most important to me.... WHY would you want to? Why would you buy a fancy vehicle and then dismantle half of it and try to drive it around like that? Use all the alternate browsers and media players you want. I do, alongside all the MS products. Meanwhile my computer software can write home often as it wants, and MS can keep all their products up to date, without me having to do a thing.
Just like my virus checker does, automatically.
Just like my Mozilla browser does... automatically.
It's just not scary at all... come out into the sun :~D
Here's my problem with it. While I agree that the data MS is currently collecting is not "dangerous" per se, while the data it collects may, in fact, help it write better software, while the purpose and reasoning behind it is benign--what or who will stop MS if they ever decide to start collecting data that is considered to actually be private? How will you stop them if they decide that they now have full access rights to your computer to decide if a document that you wrote is pirated, and shut down your computer? That a song you wrote and recorded is pirated? That you shouldn't be running any non-MS software?
While these situations are, currently, far-fetched, they are not out of the realm of possibility. Why start down that slippery slope now when we can avoid it altogether?
I’ve lost pages of work on a patent application. The new improved MicroSuck Office 2007 not only sent them to never-never land, it won’t even admit that it ever worked on them. They are not to be found even in the recent documents list.
Oh, and MegaSuck Office Basic 2007 doesn't include PowerPoint. They did keep the malware LOOKOUT!, I mean, Outlook, though.