ULPC CHESS

Details are starting to emerge about a new plan from Microsoft to keep supporting Windows XP Home as a system for the new market of ultra-low- cost PCs (ULPCs). I feel like saying something about it, and yet I feel a pang of self restraint. A reader recently wrote to say that my “socialistic agenda” was “Orwellian at best,” which seems pretty bad. I always thought I was genuinely less tendentious than some who do what I do. I will admit to a strong dislike for software patents – mainly because they are so unworkable that they just look silly when you view them closely. I have also been known to cast pebbles at the business practices of certain corporations – not just Microsoft, but also Apple, Wal-Mart, and the occasional patent troll – but I never claimed that these business had no reason to exist (well – except maybe the patent troll).