Hell freezes over (Parts 1 and 2)

Hot on the heels of the announcement from Dell that they will supply PC’s with Linux preinstalled, to home users http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6506027.stm comes news from a major record company (EMI) and Apple that they will offer downloads without DRM http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6516189.stm. It finally looks like consumers will be trusted to make their own choices, and not treated as potential criminals. For years Mickeysoft has managed to prevent computers being sold without an operating system, on the grounds that a hookey copy of Windoze would be loaded. The fact that users might actually want to install a copy on Linux and not have to pay a premium for an OS they didn’t need, didn’t come into it. EMI finally came to the realisation that they would actually sell more downloaded tunes if people were able to buy the tune once and load it onto their iPod, their Nano, and burn it onto a CD to play in the car. Now, when Gordon Brown gives back the pensions he stole, Hell will really have frozen over.