<telford@xenon.triode.bogus.au> wrote in message news:<bdfbr2$paj$1@arachne.labyrinth.net.au>...
<snip>

> Microsoft force every user to register online and insist that the user may
> not perform substantial hardware upgrades. In effect, this guarantees that
> all licenses have a limited lifetime. At some stage the user must upgrade and
> buy a new license, for a newer version.

Not true here, although you will be prompted to reactivate and if you
have a retail home version it may even require you to contact
Microsoft to tell them who you are and that you just upgraded your
machine. You will not have to buy a new license to use XP when you
upgrade your machine.

Beyond that I <snipped> the rest for brevity and basically agree with
your comments on the freedom of choice and implications of Microsoft.

Of course the things you state and many of us argue never come into
play in the boardroom....on another thread and in my own experiences I
have heard often the expression "You never get fired for buying IBM."
being changed to "You never get fired for buying Microsoft."

Marketing may in the end decide the fate of Linux, I for one hope that
Microsoft keeps sleeping at the wheel and ignoring the potential of
Linux long enough to weaken their marketing engine.

Keith.