The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 3 (of 5)

Fee to use Windows

I was reading Cringely again -
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20031120.html
and I started to wonder if he may be onto something here. I don't know if I buy MS is intentionally crippling TechNet, but it may be that keeping healthy isn't high on their to-do list either.

The DRM point makes me wonder though. What if instead of this expensive competition,they just said to run under DRM on MS OS, you need to buy a DRM certificate. This means that for each copy of CityDesk, FogBugz, or FogCreek X, Joel needs to purchase a DRM key. This allows him to protect his software. It also provides a continuous source of revenue to MS for every piece of software on the market.

Here he refers to MS, but really would not any DRM vendor be in a similar position, except that MS owns the desktop?

MSHack
Thursday, November 20, 2003

Hmmm.... maybe it's time to buy some Micrsoft stock.

Entrepreneur
Thursday, November 20, 2003