That would work well, however, its still just one more thing to break

Wow, im surprised they actually considered the idea instead of just sticking to what the textbook companies tell them is most important. A pleasant surprise, along with the possibility of linux.

I think it is impressive that it is even possible. The price will probably work its way down eventually, but this shows that it can be done.

but wait, isnt his name whatever he wants it to be? He could always give himself another name.

As much as I agree with this, I don't think the government should be intervening in the OS market. Also, the "monoculture" you speak of is inevitable; the computer illiterate will always stick with whatever their computer comes with out of the box, which is usually Windows.

better, but how do you suppose we hunt down viruses? Or are you suggesting that we punish windows users?

The difference between this and anti-virus software is that not owning anti-virus software hurts other people, being fat and unhealthy does not (or at least not as directly). I would not want the government to sponsor diet pills for this reason; it only helps fat people who are taking the pill. However, anti-virus software helps everyone.

Many ISP's also provide cable. They could easily advertise free anti-virus in order to provide benefits to their own users. Actually, many already do this. A number of ISP's provide free anti-virus upon signing up