Re: Yahoo! News Story - Gates Shrugs Off Criticism of XP

Gates Shrugs Off Criticism of XP
Gates asserts his company's products have driven the technology revolution - not handicapped it as some critics assert. 

- Driven the technology revolution! You just have to say it, the right number of times on TV, and people will soon be repeating it everywhere.

(...)

He says that's part of why Microsoft has refused to curtail its aggressive efforts to keep adding more features to Windows despite the legal threat from the federal government and attorneys general from 18 states and the District of Columbia who sued Microsoft for antitrust violations.

(...)

In fact, Microsoft has only expanded its reach. A new feature in XP called Passport seeks to become the standard online authentication system, storing Web site passwords, credit card numbers and other personal information required to complete Internet transactions. 
Critics say that by requiring Passport sign-up to use such features as Windows Messenger, Microsoft is coercing people into giving the company personal information. Groups such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center have complained to the Federal Trade Commission. 
Gates calls Passport a savior, not a threat, to Internet commerce. 

- The problem is not that people give personal information to Microsoft, - not the problem in the near future, - the problem is that soon, all Internet commerce will be based on Passport authentication.

``We're trying to make the Internet more effective and allow not just large companies to get to critical mass with these user names and passwords, but let any company who wants to participate in Passport just do it,'' he said. 

- Of course, preferably ALL companies in the world...

Still, Microsoft stands to gain most from Passport. The company is building a set of paid Internet-based services, called .NET My Services, that will depend on Passport authentication. 
Again, critics say Microsoft has incorporated Passport into Windows so it can grow a customer base for .NET. They worry about the security risk if Microsoft holds personal information on millions of Internet users. 
Gates dismisses those concerns, though Microsoft has suffered serious security breaches in which hackers gained access to the company's internal network - and may have even obtained valuable source code. 

- If the quality of Microsoft's security systems is as high as its products, I imagine such breaches shouldn't be hard to find. That's our only hope. With compilers that occasionally forget emitting a few machine instructions, they really can't assert the quality of their systems. All the criticism over the years, of Microsoft's products, may now be our blessing. That their empire is built on barely working junk. Those hackers really shouldn't be seen as a concern by the public, but rather, as Salvation.

``There is no new security challenge created by Passport,'' he said. 
Microsoft also is fighting a competitive battle for Passport users against AOL, whose dominant instant messenger system encourages people to stay within AOL's environment for shopping and other online activities. 
Gates accuses AOL of excluding others on the Internet; AOL accuses Microsoft of doing the same on the computer desktop. 

- They can probably convince a judge that AOL excludes others from the Internet, perhaps based on market share statistics, and leading the judge to believe that the US can be considered the market. The accusation is obviously ridiculous. Outside the US no one even knows about AOL, and everyone has the same kind of access and services. It is really Microsoft, that has already a dominant position in the worldwide platform market. Up to now, it has only been unable to exclude others from this market. XP is its ultimate punch to achieve this goal.
- Once again the problem, is that it is no longer possible, that judges be computer iliterate. It is not possible to form a decision, being a foreigner to the world of icons, browsers, etc, etc. And even that is not enough. But that alone would be sufficient, to find the accusation above, ridiculous.

Miguel Ramos