[Import] Vista, office, and user lock-in

I just recommended a trusted computing short film to everyone yesterday. Today I will continue to follow this topic and read an article from informationweek. Article :

How Vista Lets Microsoft lock user in

Microsoft can effectively "open and standardize office file formats" while integrating the so-called DRM/DRM (digital/information rights management) technology into Vista, you can use encryption, digital signatures, and digital authorization to control the opening, printing, modification, storage, and forwarding of files, and penetrate into the entire lifecycle of a document. After a document is issued, you can also make up for it and revoke the authorization! On the surface, this is certainly to improve security. In fact, it is also to suppress reading/editing of MS Office format files outside of Microsoft Office such as Google and OpenOffice.org, they can no longer open MS Office documents without Microsoft's authorization, or at least make the process extremely complex. At the other end of the story, the typical office users will certainly follow Microsoft's official recommendations or the security suggestions recommended by many media on the premise that end users are sensitive to security by 12 points, increase the security level, and even adopt extreme measures such as strict encryption and authorization, because MS Office provides him/her with such convenience. At the end of the day, if you want to encrypt the content, you still have to use MS Office if you only have a key, because in theory, it can prevent other readers from being authenticated.

For example, if my PC is installed with both Windows and Linux, when I use Linux and try to apply for authorization, even though the configuration of my machine remains unchanged, I can still think of it as an untrusted receiver, because the OS will also participate in the Sert authentication computing, and even when I upgrade my own hardware, it may cause previously well-running applications.ProgramOr services suddenly become unavailable. Similarly, in a Windows environment, if you use a non-MS Office editor, the calculated sequence numbers are different and cannot be obtained, thus, the document cannot be opened. In fact, the user's data is tied together with MS Windows and MS Office. We have reason to doubt the motive behind this. Is TC/DRM too wide?

If we edit, exchange, share, or even exchange official documents in our daily work and life, we use the MS format and Ms tool. Once Microsoft successfully implements lock-in, I think it's terrible.

Microsoft is the biggest stakeholder behind TC/DRM. The Penetration Process of Microsoft TC/DRM can be roughly divided into three stages: the first stage is hardware support, at present, a considerable number of mainboards on the market have been integrated with the TCM (trusted computing module) module, but are not well utilized; in the second stage, support for software, service platform, and even the operating system level is achieved, and Remote Authentication is initially implemented. This has achieved practical results in Microsoft's genuine advantage implementation; in the third stage, when everyone updates to the latest Windows and MS Office that supports TC/DRM, microsoft can use the "secret weapon" they have carefully deployed to achieve monopoly.

Recently, I often told my colleagues that the world of MS is closed. To achieve the so-called "Openness", it requires everyone to use MS Windows to enter the closed world, and I always list various high-sounding reasons. If one day, Ms occupies every part of our entire production chain and effectively controls piracy, every time we do one thing, even if we buy an early copy, all of them are paying taxes on MS, because the cost of the entire assembly line provided for us includes the cost of Ms software, because we cannot find a suitable alternative, or finding alternatives is expensive (maybe fud creates such an illusion ). This is the harm of monopoly. This is why I advocate that you learn, learn, and use more open-source operating systems, servers, and application software.

Don't underestimate Microsoft, even in the past two years. net is mixed. The release of Vista has been postponed, and the open source is gaining momentum. Microsoft was once surrounded by many doubts and negative news. It seems that it is gradually losing its aura. Now Vista has been officially released, the new round of battle ambition of Microsoft, the former software empire, is ready to go.

Apart from myself, I cannot prevent anyone from using Windows or MS Office or pirated software. However, I can avoid locking myself in Microsoft's utopia with my own practical actions, I hope you can.

Dawei comments

Source: http://www.blogjava.net/sean/archive/2006/12/08/86450.html