All accounts of the evil of Vista DRM are careful to
remind us that no users ever asked for DRM. Microsoft have sold out to the MPAA, they wail. And almost noone stops to consider if this is really true or not.
They're all making the same mistake promulgated by Microsoft and the MPAA's PR. They assume that the primary users of Windows are the people who run it on their private PCs at home to "consume" media. The same people who soon won't even get to choose what version of Windows they run, as big integrators like Dell stop selling XP.
But the real mass-users of Windows, the ones with power to influence Microsoft, are big corporations and governments.
And corporations want DRM very, very much.
Corps (and governments, military facilities, etc.) can use DRM to protect their internal documents and other data from over-the-net attacks. Can enforce clearances and need-to-know authorizations on the data itself, not just a way of getting that data. Can prevent whistle-blowers from leaking memos. Can prevent those pesky courts from getting copies of old emails. Can prevent employees from running unauthorized software or configurations, from connecting unauthorized hardware from laptops to disks-on-key, from taking their work home to unsecured environments. Can be omnipresent throughout the network and omniscient, too, every time anyone views their documents, anywhere.
Microsoft's current offering only works for MS Office programs and files, and even then it's imperfect. But what couldn't they do once all their hardware runs the next generation of Vista and uses TPMs? It's a control-corp's wet dream.
I have no personal knowledge of whether Microsoft is marketing Vista like that. It certainly isn't a prominent part of the litany-against-vista in places like BadVista, BoingBoing, or the original Analysis of Microsoft's Suicide Note. But FWIW I'm giving you this warning. Home consumers and their private PCs are the most insignificant factor in the adoption of any desktop OS. If Microsoft continues to succeed in blinding big businesses to their own long-term best interests, a huge stampede towards more and more DRM could occur and be perhaps impossible to stop.
The real opportunity for lock-in isn't hardware or software. Not even when you use TPMs. It's control over people's minds.
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