Re:Elite.. microsoft and govt (Score 1)

Actually, that is exactly how fire insurance used to work. They would give you a plaque to put on your house and if it was on fire, then the local fire company would put it out for you. No plaque, no help.

This is a new strategy on the part of Microsoft to defeat open source software. First they establish a premium/nonpremium distinction. Next they make Windows basic version free. Then once everyone has Windows installed, they charge for updates and security features and rigorously pursue their intellectual property forcing the police to raid the homes of anyone caught installing third party updates.