Hardware security in PCs to accompany new Windows

[Colin McGregor]

--- Henry Spencer <henry-lqW1N6Cllo0sV2N9l4h3zg at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Thu, 19 May 2005, Peter wrote:
> > Oh, [now] I see what you meant by 'not removable'.
> I was suggesting the 
> > possible use of a dallas ibutton or chipcard as
> the identifying device...
> 
> Chairman Bill is likely to write his own specs for
> this rather than
> relying on existing designs.  I think it all too
> likely that the specs
> will demand that the identification hardware be an
> integral part of the
> CPU or motherboard chipset and *not* readily movable
> from machine to
> machine.  He *wants* you to have to buy new software
> licences when you
> replace old/dead hardware. 

Very true, and the other thing Chairman Bill wants is
to crush Open Source OSs (Linux and the BSDs), as
Microsoft's true cash cow is the OS market. Microsoft
will not let go of the OS cash cow without a major
fight, and from what we have seen in the past
Microsoft fights (very) dirty. If the hardware is
set-up in a way that requires some sort of patented
crypto code be passed around before the CPU will run
it, then Microsoft wins on several levels, anti-virus,
anti-open source, and a way to @#$% all other
proprietary application vendors (who will have to bow
down and obtain Microsoft's blessing in order to stay
in business, plus pay some sort of licence fee...).

Now, a move like the above would be very clearly
monopolistic, but given the sort of near non-existant
slaps on the wrist Microsoft has received to date,
well, the Bush Administration is very unlikely to
anything real about Microsoft. Further 3.5 years from
now Microsoft knows they may get another U.S.
Government as unwilling to take serious action as the
current administration.

In other words if I was enough of a S.O.B. to work for
Microsoft, the hardware security thing as a way to
score a few more 10s of billions of $ would be a
no-brainer...

There is a joke that says you should never mud wrestle
a pig as you both get filthy, and the pig enjoys it.
The question for us as fans of open source is how to
avoid mud wrestling Microsoft? A fight is comming were
we can expect Microsoft to use hardware, PR, and the
legal system to crush open source (Microsoft's passing
tens of millions of dollars to SCO should I suspect
just be seen as the first shot of many...). 

Colin McGregor

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