My response to Kearns: Hey David! How much did uncle Billy pay you to write this crap? I hope to some day have a position of PR(under the table of course) for a tyrannical software firm's attempts to control, outright, all computer traffic and software in the world. Helping demons push their agenda and being able to pass myself off as a journalist would be quite an accomplishment; you've succeeded admirably. So tell me, is there a class i might be able to take at the local community college which informs me of how best to throw around buzz words and insults with no backing facts (not to mention content) whatsoever and still remain respectable enough to fool publishers into printing my garbage? Or do you have a PR person for that? Shared source as more "American" than a system like the GPL (which, by the way, lends itself much more easily to the traditions of co-authored innovation that has driven this country) is ridiculous. The claims that Microsoft has made and that you are backing are akin to exploiting the elderly with scare tactics. Your elderly are misinformed and impressionable execs who have little or no practical knowledge and in turn believe whatever they are told by big business reps. Who is fault is questionable too because those execs should be listening to the people who need to do the work for them and not those that are selling... Microsoft's unemphatic kowtowing to corporate heads and their attempts to woo the infantry of the computer industry by invoking "shared" and "source" is deplorable and ineffectual. Microsoft's idea of "American" is control. They wish to control what I see and hear, how i see and hear it, and how I am able to create. They succeed, and can only succeed, by force. In the Microsoft state, Microsoft decides what I need, want, find useful, etc rather than I being able to help shape those things. In the Microsoft state you are helping shape there is no room for innovation because conquest is the goal. There is no reason to improve your products when you own the market; you don't need to attract or even work to keep customers. In the Microsoft state, there is no room for elegance. In the Microsoft state, control is American and individuals pass on rights in favor of what the board decides it important...yes, you're right, it does smack of the fascist/communist bent you're unimagnitively and baselessly alluding to. You know, I am happy with the label "communist". If you can see past the history of the governmental style in the countries who have failed, it is a wonderful idea. The good of the people. I'd even make the arguement that socialist is a better word. You've labeled the GPL'd software movement as un-American. And I think agree with that too. It goes against the traditional, capatalist view of business and work and art in the United States. What I think you may have meant by un-American is non-capitalistic. American to me, be my eyes veiled in rose or not, is democracy. Democracy which is a far cry from the tyrany of oligarchy the Microsoft state would have us subject too. I think I like being a communist. PS If nwfusion is looking for writers, I am willing and, it appears, much more able. ____________________________ Mike Neuharth ADCS Technology Specialist http://www.umn.edu/adcs E-Mail : mjn at umn.edu Page Mail : 6126486512 at page.metrocall.com http://supermonkeycollider.dyndns.org/ ____________________________