I can't understand the disconnect between the treatment of Microsoft for this and how Apple gets away with it's 'walled garden'. Could someone please explain why legally one is OK while the other is not.

He has only ever written short stories. The entire collection is called "Stories of Your Life and Others". Do yourself a favour and read them. http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang/dp/1931520720/ref=la_B001HCZ6OA_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344484966&sr=1-1

Maybe the Universe, as we observe it from Earth, is a illusion produced by a vast computing machine, a Truman Show if you will, and when Voyager passes into interstellar space the computing power required to generate the extended illusion will exceed available capacity and Kansas will go bye-bye. Those Mayans were a clever bunch come to think of it.

Don't listen to the hippies in here. They'll abuse Microsoft while at the same time sporting a boner for Apple. The irony is lost on them. Go with C# & .net. Microsoft gives the Visual Studio Express editions for free and it is the *best* IDE bar none. C# is a beautiful modern language with an easy learning curve. With Windows 8 on the horizon and the ability to write once and publish to a vast common ecology of Windows phones, tablets, desktops, laptops, servers is going to be a gold rush.

Apple today is truly the epitome of unmitigated greed. Greed unencumbered by any ethics or social morality. New Rule: The Wikipedia entry for Irony(Meaning of) must link to the youtube video of the "1984" Apple advert.

And yet his legacy for unmitigated greed, combined with large-scale patent trolling, lives on. I think the man deserves a Borg make-over even if it is posthumously

I think this just proves that MS is no longer worthy and it's high time we honour Steve Jobs with the "Borg" /. thumbnail Apple seems to have taken over the Evil Empire franchise with great gusto.

I worry about Windows 8 with the tight integration with all your personal email, data everything sitting on the Microsoft Live cloud. Your Live email, Skydrive, Photos, Windows 8 IE history, bookmarks, apps, the desktop settings everything is on the MS Cloud and transiting through their network. What is there to stop them from giving the same treatment to the your entire computing.