James A. Donald wrote:
According to Microsoft, the end user can turn the palladium hardware off, and the computer will still boot. As long as that is true, it is an end user option and no one can object.
Your point is taken. That said, even if you could turn off TCPA & Palladium and run some outdated version of Windows, whether users would object is not entirely obvious. For instance, suppose that, thanks to TCPA/Palladium, Microsoft could design Office 2005 so that it is impossible for StarOffice and other clones to read files created in Office 2005. Would some users object? I don't know. For many users, being unable to read documents created in a recent version of Office is simply not an option. However, in any case we should consider in advance the possible implications of this technology.