The message is clear. Get out while you can. Microsoft's only interest is to empty your pockets and keep your computer hostage. It wants to turn computing into a monopoly content distribution channel and sell you to the highest bidder. Choose freedom and switch to Free/Open-source software.

This article simply confirms my belief that Microsoft is the devil. I love what Wombat told me... "Asta la 'Vista'"... I'm on to ubuntu.

You should read the actual patent application for more and scarier examples. It's only a few pages long anyway. It looks like Microsoft wants users to pay separately for every basic OS functionality that they use through some sort of web shop, much the same way that antiquated mainframes used to be licensed out but with the added pixie-dust of “…through the internet”. It will actively throttle down functionality that it is capable of, but which has not been payed for. Or it will “restrict unauthorized operating system extensions from being installed that may support unauthorized hardware and/or software”. So not only do you have to pay for new hardware, you have to pay again in order to use it to it's full capacity. And you can bet that the hardware makers will have to pay Microsoft as well to be included in their web shop.