The post below from ZDNet-UK succinctly tells it how it is in the UK.
Until recently we had Govt sites that were easy to access. No more :-(
Jake
<quote>
Ahhhh, poor Microsoft! They've gone to such trouble, designing an
Operating System into which all the required components (firewall etc)
to support a locked-down, proprietary subnet have been built, and now
they find that the UK customer base, who they were hoping to wring dry
by forcing them into a subscription based, always-on connection, haven't
actually got cable modem capability?? It's terrible.
Reality - I'm lucky, I'm in a good job, but I wouldn't even consider
paying out XP entry-level hardware costs, plus
- the additional costs of the OS, and
- the monthly subscription costs for any additional Microsoft apps, and
- the costs of cable subscription, and
- the costs for an ISP, and
- the forced software upgrades in the background, and
- all my personal data stored on notoriously insecure Microsoft servers
- all my personal data commercialised and sold by Microsoft to whoever will
pay for it, and
- "smart-tags", a new feature that enables Microsoft applications to
dynamically edit non-Microsoft approved web sites while you're trying
to view them, in an effort to shepherd me to Microsoft approved sites ...
It goes on, and on. But to stay on topic - isn't this the same Microsoft
that built the Labour party's web-site, which you can only register through
if you are a Windows/Internet Explorer user? That's right, Apple Mac users,
Linux users, any non-Windows users are locked out of the official government
site by the American software company who delivered the software. And
they're now expecting us to sit up and listen?
*******************, Microsoft.
</quote>
