The Last Refuge

Certainly this is a lot of Microsoft for one week but I couldn't resist, because my previous thoughts are vindicated! And who can resist that.

I've mentioned before that Windows may be very popular in America because it is an American product (see One Eye on the Flag) Now it seems that maybe the British should buy it too, if they want to keep their productivity up. That's the message Roger Whitehead came away with after attending the London launch of Microsoft Vista. I quote:

Samuel Johnson’s dictum—“patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”—came to mind while I sat through this bombardment of dodgy stats and implausible insinuations. I doubt that Gordon Frazer is a scoundrel, or any of his colleagues there that day, but I did think they were desperate.

Yeah, maybe waving the flag to sell software is a bit much. Unfortunately, it seems like this can backfire - couldn't one argue that your patriotic duty is to install the free, open source Linux? Why, that's exactly what other countries are doing.