[Russ Smith]

unxmully: I guess point of view changes everything. Apple's arrogance has soured me on any advantages they might have. I could run OSX, but I'd either have to buy Apple-approved hardware or spend time hacking each new version to run (and quite possibly not having all the hardware work because the drivers aren't there), then I have to load in VMWare to run those applications that only run under Windows. Or I could run Windows and be done with it. There are countless other examples.

One problem is everyone of us sees very clearly what Microsoft, Apple, Sony, etc should be doing, yet most of us don't agree on what that is. Take the close button, for example. I've suggested using tap to minimize and tap and hold to close myself, but if Microsoft put in a "really close" button, you'd suddenly have a bunch of people compaining that they can't switch between applications as easily as they used to.

On the whole, I like Microsoft's more open approach, but that's just from my point of view.

jlc61: I guess Sarbanes-Oxley just goes to show how laws can mess up things they're trying to fix. It seems to me that the law is the problem, not the free updates. Unfortunately, not giving away free updates is easier than trying to fix the law.