In a desperate attempt to saving their sinking ship, Microsoft has hatched a new scheme. The pay as you go computer. The concept will work on the same principal as the pay as you go cell phone. You pay for a block of minutes, and your computer works. When you run out of minutes, your computer is useless or severely restricted on what it can do. The key requirement here is that you don’t own your computer or you are renting it. It is unclear which is the case just yet.

In recent months Microsoft has fallen from it’s perch at the top of the mountain of the tech industry. It is still higher up the hill than anyone else but Mac OS X and Linux are steadily and demonstrably eating away at Microsoft’s long standing base.

OS X is already a viable alternative, the only thing holding it back is Apple’s insistence on being a hardware company and restricting it’s use to Apple hardware. Linux is gaining in leaps and bounds and is arguably already a viable alternative. I myself will be switching to Linux within the next 6 month’s. I forsee any remaining obstacles to Linux’s rise on the desktop being fixed once and for all in the next 1-2 years, but it is fully serviceable now.

So what then? Well Microsoft is no longer the giant it once was. It still commands considerable respect in the tech industry but it no longer has carte blanche to dictate terms to anyone and everyone. the current buzz word in the tech industry is “Cloud Computing”. Lets define that shall we? Cloud computing is the code name that companies use to confuse you and lull into a sense of well being. What it really means is that they, the companies will now control your data and your applications. All of which will reside on their computers and their servers. Don’t have the money or don’t wanna pay the fee this month? You don’t get access to your data or applications. It’s a way for them to hold you hostage and extort money from you.

This latest plan by Microsoft is just another way for Redmond to gain a slice of that pie. Don’t have any money this month? Can’t pay this months fee? No problem, you just don’t get to use your computer.

Cloud computing as a concept isn’t new. It was the model used when the PC revolution first began. Only then it was called the mainframe. All of the data remained on the mainframe and you accessed it via remote “dumb” terminals. A similar arrangement is still in use in companies. It’s called the server – client. All of the corporations data resides on the servers, and you access it through a simple computer at your desk.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I do not and will not trust a company with all of my data, my applications and my access to them.

I expect this idea to go down in flames like their idea for software subscriptions did. It simply won’t work because no one wants it. Except for Microsoft and other “web” companies of course, they want your subscription fee’s, they want your wallet, the want your credit card.

Tell them no. Tell them you reject their reality. You are in control of your data, your applications, and your destiny. Tell Microsoft that they don’t matter anymore. Tell them you are free.

For more information, see the following links.

Tom’s Hardware Original Article
Channel Web Article
Computerworld Article
Cloud Computing

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 at 23:51 and is filed under General, Personal, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.