White and Wild by wilshire|oneThe 'Ow' starts now
“Largely unnoticed due to the discussion around the OpenXML attack on ODF, Microsoft also introduced a new markup language in Vista, called “XAML.” This language seems designed to attack the existing Open Standard HTML and is ground-up dependent on Windows.
If companies started using this language in their intranet, they would no longer be able to run heterogenous environments and will be locked into Windows much more effectively than before — at a high price in finances and freedom to make the necessary business decisions. This will be bad for those companies, but others should be able to take their place.
But if the internet providers were to start using this markup language for their pages, it will no longer be possible to access those pages with anything but Microsoft Windows. Governments using XAML will force their entire population and economy into dependence on the Windows monopoly, and if it spreads far enough, it could mean the end of the multi-platform heterogenous environment that is the internet.
People who do not use Microsoft Windows might find themselves unable to communicate with their governments, to fill out tax declarations, to access news sites and do shopping online. The whole internet will truly have become a “Microsoft Network” — similar to the one shipped with previous versions of Windows that was abandoned for internet support because it did not raise sufficient interest.
In essence, XAML is Microsofts attempt to deliver on the statement made by Steve Ballmer towards the German Manager Magazin in 2005:
“We needed the first years to conquer the PC and those following to be ahead in the server business. In the upcoming years we’ll conquer the Internet.”Seeing the internet replaced by a single-vendor controlled proprietary network would indeed be painful — and that ‘Ow’ starts with Vista. But you can also choose this moment to end your pain. As the FSFE pointed out in its press release today, there is another Vista message:
Upgrade to GNU/Linux now!
Such a migration will be no more expensive than migrating to Vista. It will also provide vendor independence, control over your own infrastructure, true support of Open Standards, which will ensure your ability to read your own files in the future and with the application of your choosing, and much, much more.”
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