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If I owned a small business (or even a not so small one, there is no way I would allow any of the PC's in my company to run windows or any MS apps. Why?...because you can no longer "own" any software bought from them. In the business world, you have to rent their OS and apps. When your lease is up, they force you to upgrade.

I have a small LAN at home that runs on wimdows...two desktops and a laptop. When MS starts shoving this down the home users' throats, I'm gone, and they will never get me back.

I tollerated (barely) the product activation with XP on the laptop I bought this year. I was going to buy an upgrade to XP for one of my desktops, but I constantly swap out hardware in that system, and Steve Balmer be damned if he and the rest of MS thinks I'm going to go to them on bended knee to "re-activate" my computer whenever their OS thinks that I've changed my system too much. At first I was going to buy the upgrade and just install the hacked "devilsown" version of XP off of gnutella since it does not have that big-brother activation scheme, or just find a way to strip it out of the shrink-wrapped copy from the store, but according to MS, that would be illegal too. So since I was damned as a theif either way, I just used the hacked version and kept the money I was going to spend on XP. When they get out of the assimilation business, I'll come back onto the reservation. Until then...well, I'm not worried about how Gates and Balmer (the richest and 4th richest men in the world) are going to eat next week.

When your lease is up, they force you to upgrade.

Exacly, people are not going to do that. I run windows 2000. Both servers and desktops. I do not plan to upgrade. I urge my customers not to upgrade too. There are almost no benefits to XP and way too much hassle.

What is needed is a windows clone. You could build it on top of the LINUX or one of the Berkley UNIX kernels. But it needs Drives C D E etc and the same slash for directories. It needs to work just like windows. It needs to use a windows compatable file system too. The KDE user interface is fine if the set up stuff mimiced windows. Setting IP addresses, maping remote directories and drives, and printer set up needs to be very much like windows. The key to acceptancs is a system people can use without aditional training. It needs to handle files just like windows and it needs to be an operating system that can serve or be a desktop. It must coexist and be very similiar to windows in setup and administration. It has to be as close to windows as a Ford is to a Chevie.

How many million copies whould you have to sell for 39 bucks to be rich?

If any Windows IT guy could set it up with zero help or instruction you could eat MS for breakfast and feed Balmer to your pet aligator for lunch.

When your lease is up, they force you to upgrade.

Exacly, people are not going to do that. I run windows 2000. Both servers and desktops. I do not plan to upgrade. I urge my customers not to upgrade too. There are almost no benefits to XP and way too much hassle.

What is needed is a windows clone. You could build it on top of the LINUX or one of the Berkley UNIX kernels. But it needs Drives C D E etc and the same slash for directories. It needs to work just like windows. It needs to use a windows compatable file system too. The KDE user interface is fine if the set up stuff mimiced windows. Setting IP addresses, maping remote directories and drives, and printer set up needs to be very much like windows. The key to acceptancs is a system people can use without aditional training. It needs to handle files just like windows and it needs to be an operating system that can serve or be a desktop. It must coexist and be very similiar to windows in setup and administration. It has to be as close to windows as a Ford is to a Chevie.

How many million copies whould you have to sell for 39 bucks to be rich?

If any Windows IT guy could set it up with zero help or instruction you could eat MS for breakfast and feed Balmer to your pet aligator for lunch.