Sure, it wouldn't be a perfect solution, but it would be a way forward in the long run.

"I fear that if MS tried to write an OS from scratch, it would likely be a big step backwards, do less than what we're accustomed to now, and take years of incremental improvements to get back to where we are now. I don't see what you propose as being either viable or possible."

Why is that? Moving from OS9 to OSX was a major leap. I know it was far easier, since they control the hardware platform, but it has been done before.

Yes, I know about research.microsoft.com, but I am looking at what is, not what could be. Unless thy were to make a major announcement about a new path forward I don't take what comes out of research.microsoft.com very seriously.

Virtualization would be a good solution for the transition period.

Microsoft has the capital to develop a new operating system from the ground up. This bolting on of security solutions like UAC isn't going to to cut it anymore. Heck keep the same user interface design for all I care, but change the underlying OS. I am a technology atheist, so I don't get religious about platforms, but what Apple did by porting OSX for Intel in parallel says volumes about their company.

I know it might be hard, but Microsoft needs a little vision and little less greed to do the same thing, but for security reasons.

Unfortunately I am doubtful.

ROFL, so true. I bet Eric wakes up every day thinking to himself, "man moving go Google was the best decision I ever made."

Tyranny has to be implemented incrementally. Nazi Germany changed in the same way. One little individual liberty by one. It's the old Frog in the pot analogy. Because of that I say the U.S. is self righteous regarding its history. Not that we have a clean past. What I mean is that if the same thing were to happen here the people wouldn't be outraged or speak up out of fear. Yes, there are some that are rebelling by opting out of the scanners, but still flying. A real rebelling would be a boycott of flying effecting the bottom line, protests etc., however, I don't see that. The reality is while most people are upset they are really more concerned about celebrity news.

I would be willing to be that if we were to have another major terrorist attack and the government started to round up Arabs/Persians the masses would be silent. Don't believe me? Just ask the Japanese Americans from the 1940's. Yes they weren't gassed etc., but they were denied their liberties for a long period of time. I guess it sucks if you are part of said ethnic classification group.

I know I might be invoking Godwin's law, but the Nazi analogy does apply here. My Grandmother immigrated from Germany to the U.S. in the 1920's. She went back to Germany for a last visit in 1935. She was outspoken against the Nazis among family and friends, however, I am sure it fell upon dead ears as being over-reactionary etc.

I started my career in I.T. with Novell, but I left it behind when I saw the writing on the wall. I had been wishing for a miracle for the company like Google acquiring it, since IMHO a easy intuitive GUI driven directory service is lacking in the Non-Microsoft world. Especially one that plays well with other operating systems. Yes you can use other operating systems in an AD environment, but not as "out of the box" as Novell IMHO. Oh well... I guess we will see.

Microsoft a few months late and over a billion dollars short.

No, you don't offend me. I see where you are coming from due to our "over reactive responses" to 9/11. What I am talking about is taking more proactive measures. Perhaps 9/11 could have been avoided have we had a different foreign policy, didn't arm extremists with the short sight that in the future there could be blow back, and last but not least ignore all the guys taking flying lessons that didn't want to learn how to land the aircraft.

The U.S. is reactive and not proactive. The U.S. always has to wait until after the fact to admit that there was a threat. This is nothing new to me. Just read Unrestricted Warfare. The Chinese have been stating this for years now. Yes everything will be fine until the lights go out.

The simple answer is no. I think people will go to pages were the video is prefaced with a short commercial before paying for Youtube. That's my humble opinion though.