[ghshephard]

The first paragraph is just silly:

"After years of trying to cut off Linux growth as a desktop platform on x86 and x64 PCs, Microsoft may have actually figured out a way to stop Linux deployments on client PCs dead in their tracks."

I'm quite certain Microsoft has (A) not put any significant effort into cutting off growth as a desktop platform, and (B) If they had, they were almost completely successful, and characterizing it as "trying" implies that they had limited success.

[mattgreenrocks]

Shhh, not so loud! Such thoughts would destabilize Slashdot if they got out!

Seriously, this seems especially short-sighted, as the perception is that MS is getting thrashed by Apple in the consumer market. I think its more about preventing malware from getting ahold of the boot process, side effects be damned.

[Hyena]

I don't see this. Apple sells hardware; incidentally, it comes with its own OS. I haven't met many people who bought a Mac for MacOS since Windows XP.

[ukaszg]

As much as I don't like Apple/OS X, most of my friends do. Everyone got Mac _because_ of OS X. One got it because of low latency, and because he was "sure it won't hang up for a moment because of some background job". He uses it to make music. Others got it for its (OS X's) usability.

[Hyena]

This is different from what I get from people I know, who comment on how great they look.

[runn1ng]

I beg to differ, Mac OS X is the only reason why people buy Macs. Take away the OS and they are just overpriced notebooks.

[th0ma5]

That's a chilling thing IMHO when we rely on a single corporation to protect us. As far as the /. like rhetoric, you're using the parent's opinion that MS hasn't been trying, and is indeed seeing a steady increasing competition in desktop screen space (which I've seen in two different Fortune 500 companies first hand within the last 6 years), so if that isn't true, then the rhetoric isn't just rhetoric.