I was sitting having my lunch in the canteen at work the other day, when one
of my very pro-Microsoft colleagues proclaimed that I should stop trying to
get the company to use Linux because Linux only has a couple of more years
before it is banned. Here is the theory why;

Bill Gates is currently spending large amounts of money on charity so that
he gets a good image in the eyes of the American voter. The reason that he
is leaving Microsoft in two years is that he is going to run for president
when George W. Bush's term comes to an end. He will get in, because $30B
for 'pork barrelling' plus the support of the right-wing media will pretty
well guarantee it.

Within the first term of Bill Gates's presidenticy, there will be some
computer security crisis. The response to the crisis will be to enact a law
that requires that all computers have some service that is only offered by
Microsoft.

This is where I brought up the article that I had read in IEEE Spectrum,
where the TCP/IP stack will be modified so that web pages can only be read
after being given the OK by a server at Microsoft. I guess that the system
will have to be extended so that servers will only serve pages to validated
clients. It is quite possible that this technology will be licensed to
Apple and Sun, but no open-source OS will be permitted the use of this
technology.

The theory then is that any country that does not accept the use of this
technology is pandering to terrorists. This leaves the country open to
attack. Such countries will need to be taken over by the 'right minded'
countries of the world to protect themselves from themselves. After that,
the Internet will only show what is officially sanctioned by the government
of the USA.

The theory does sound a little bit 'out there', but it is none the less
interesting. More interesting is that this was from someone that is very
pro-Microsoft and this person didn't see anything wrong with justice and
freedom being so obviously perverted.

Ian