Microsoft Plans New 'Google Switch' For Vista
There was some anguish on the internets yesterday over new information concerning Microsoft's anti-piracy plans for its coming operating system Vista. If a product registration key isn't supplied to the software within a designated amount of time after installation the OS will enter a "reduced functionality mode" in which only the web browser will operate. Unfortunately, one man's "reduced functionality mode" is another's "kill switch" and woe, apparently, be to he who introduces a kill switch into Windows.
-"A Vista kill switch would be good for Linux" says George Ou at ZDNet.
-"This is truly a momentous decision that presages the downfall of Windows supremacy" says a random anonymous commenter dude at the P-I's Microsoft blog.
-"IE 7 phishing sheild rocks!" says an on top of things CNet Microsoft blog.
-"WinDoze suxors N E way" says everyone who could be expected to say something like that, probably via a cracked copy of XP Pro.
All the commotion surrounding the Vista kill switch is really just a vocabulary issue, though. No, "reduced functionality mode" isn't the right phrase. Giving users nothing but a web browser is going a bit futher than "reducing functionality." "Kill switch" is wrong as well. What's killed here? The correct term for Microsoft's plan to disable an entire operating system including Outlook, Office, etc and leaving a user access to only a browser window is "Google switch." Microsoft's rival du jour is perfectly positioned to finally take over the world with their online operating system - You got your Gmail, calendar, search, spreadsheets, word processor, maps, chat...what else do you need? Google switch.
