This weekend Eric Lai of Computerworld attempted to describe the possible relationship between Vista's DRM and Microsoft's licensing restrictions against virtualization. The view that Microsoft's prohibition stems from fears that users will circumvent DRM isn't new, but the article comes at an opportune time: Microsoft came within an inch of reversing their position last week, but then backed off. The time is ripe for more speculation as to just why Microsoft says "no" to the virtualization of those two OSes, yet allows virtualization of other editions of Vista. I think Lai's contribution to the discussion is interesting, but I'm not convinced that DRM has much to do with the issue. In fact, I'm fairly certain there's a bigger concern at Redmond, and it has nothing to do with DRM, and everything to do with the long-term fate of Windows. More on that in a minute.
|