HI, Judging from about 90 percent of what I've been reading, including
from such reputable sources as the Wall Street Journal and some computer
trade publications, this is not just about renting software.  If you go to
pay $99 or whatever they charge, for a copy of Windows XP, you will need
to buy a complete separate copy for each computer on which you intend to
run it.  The installation will take inventory of everything in your PC and
everything connected to it.  You will be allowed an as yet undetermined
number of alterations to that PC before most of the functionality will be
locked out and you will need to log on to a MicroSoft site and/or call a
number to get reauthorized to use the software and get a new authorization
code to unlock it.  Once they get the entire system in place, you will
have to pay an as yet undetermined fee at an as yet undetermined time
interval to get reauthorized to use the software.  Note, this is the
operating system that runs everything in the PC, not just your word
processor, or your web browsing software.

Part of that inventory will include such things as informing MicroSoft
which versions of which software you use, whether you have payed for it or
registered it, and which software you use most often, whether it is from
MicroSoft or from a competitor.  You will, in effect, be turning total
control of your computer and what is on it to MicroSoft and to whatever
other company adopts this subscription model of software usage.  You will
see the same thing from AOL/Times-Warner, for internet access, cable
television, website access, and anything else that huge conglomerate
controls.  As the information content and the means for distributing and
providing that content come under the control of a very few huge worldwide
oligolopolistic supercompanies, the subscription model is being seen as a
guaranteed means of assuring a steay income stream free from the
up-and-down vagaries of a free competitive marketplace.

You will also see this when you get all excited about such "satellite
radio" offerings as the soon-coming XM Radio and Sirium Radio, where you
will pay aproximately $300 for the receiver, and at least to start with,
$10 a month for a subscription to a basic service. Don't look for any
thought to have been given to any kind of independent accessibility to
these radio services and their point-anc-click menus for blind people.

Do you still like the idea of renting software and think it will offer
cheaper alternatives to the stupid upgrade treadmill some of you have been
riding for the last few years?  Good luck!  Come back in three years and
tell us how wonderful it is to rent your operating system from MicroSoft
even after buying a $100-plus copy for each and every machine you use it
on.


Brent Reynolds
Random Access Internet Shell account
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