It's about time. The current method of installing software in Windows is obviously very lacking, from a security and convenience standpoint.

I agree that patents in the software industry need some work. Take DVD decoding for example. The standard won't even be around 20 years before it is replaced, so the monopoly essentially lasts forever. However, before you put down patents in general, consider other industries. For example, drug companies spend billions of dollars on research. Imagine what would happen if these companies couldn't get patents on their work. Every competitor could simply start producing cheap generics, and the company that developed the drug would never earn back the money it invested in research. You could basically say goodbye to any advances in medicine. With the current system, there is an incentive to do research, and at the end of the 20 years everyone can produce the drug as cheaply as possible. You seem to think that patents prevent future development, but that is not true. Just because you get a patent on A,B,C doesn't mean I can't get one on A,B,C,D. Also, most companies are more than happy to license their patents, so it isn't like everyone is prevented from using an invention for 20 years. And if you want, you can feel free to infringe all the patents you want. Unless the patent owner is a direct competitor (thanks to a recent supreme court ruling) and can show damages, they have no case against you. And even if they can, you can probably find some prior art to invalidate their patent, unless of course they actually invented something novel, in which case they deserve your royalties.