WHAT THE TECH

Microsoft has announced that Vista, its new version of the Windows operating system, will be available in mid-2006, in six reliably flawed and overpriced versions.

The announcement went on to say that, in keeping with the company’s policy of extracting as much money as possible from its customers, only one out of every ten purchasers will be able to install the software on one computer at no additional charge. 

All other purchasers will be required to pay for the software twice to be able to install it once.

The spurious charge has been linked to Microsoft’s hugely successful completion of its plan to make software that competes with its Office products just incompatible enough in the Windows environment to frustrate users and convince them to turn themselves over to Microsoft software.  As the result, the only remaining source of income growth is the users themselves.

In an effort to make the new upcharge sound as harmlessly acceptable as possible, Microsoft has named an initial purchase upgrade.

Reaction to the new charge has been swift and uniformly negative.

One irate user called the appellation Microsoft has chosen for it “a euphemistically maladroit insult.”

There is a recent rumor that Microsoft may reconsider its decision and allow, not one, but two out of every ten purchasers to download the software without incurring an initial upgrade charge.

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