Windows 7 is now apparently ... requiring you to log into Windows Live services [when logging into the OS]. That's the same Windows Live that keeps getting blasted for sucking so much. Only it's no longer an option. At least that's the image given by CNet's video review of the Windows 7 Alpha. I will expound on how this is only a method to stack the usage statistics later on in another blog entry.
The type of activity I'm getting at can also be seen in the world of broadcast television. You know how there are like, twelve ESPN channels, but only one of them shows anything worth a damn, and the second one is what you turn to during commercials just so you don't have to watch commercials? By that logic, nobody actually watches ESPN 7. That's actually true, for the most part. Pretty much the only people who watch ESPN 7 are the folks who care about the World Cup of Shuffleboard, Featherweight Division. And that's not anybody.
So how do the television studios continue to fund these channels that nobody watches? And if nobody watches them, why bother funding them? The answer to the second question is "advertising." But how the studios continue to get paid for advertisement slots is a little more complicated.
Have you ever decided to purchase a TV station, say Showtime, and discovered that you also wound up subscribing to things you didn't want along with it? You bought Showtime, but got Grapefruit TV and the Johnny Mathis Network with it against your will. So because you bought a subscription to a popular station, you also bought a subscription to a station that nobody will ever watch. You have to do this because the networks sell these TV stations to your local cable companies the same way. They really want to be able to offer Showtime to their customers, but they aren't allowed to do so unless they also offer Grapefruit TV and the Johnny Mathis Network to you.
Follow me here... If every customer who buys Showtime also buys Grapefruit TV, then the total number of customers who pay for Grapefruit TV is equal to the total number of customers who pay for Showtime. This way, the networks can say, "Sorry, we don't have that advertisement slot open on Showtime, but we've got the same time slot open on Grapefruit TV, which is in just as many homes and will reach just as wide an audience." Of course, there isn't an ounce of truth in that statement, but the statistics look great on paper. So they can keep selling the advertisements and keep rolling in the money, even when nobody's actually watching the advertisements.
It's unfair, and they're cheating their advertising customer base by stacking the statistics.
Ergo, when Microsoft forces you to create a Microsoft Live account, they're forcing you to sign up for a service you may not have wanted. It probably won't cost you anything, but that makes it seem harmless, and you sign up for it nonetheless. Ordinarily, you probably wouldn't even sign in to check your Windows Live Mail or chat with other people on Windows Live One Chat Center (or whatever ridiculous name they've given it). Ordinarily, you'd just use your computer the way you want to use your computer. But you're also being forced into signing into that account every time you log on to your computer and have an Internet connection.
So if Microsoft Windows 7 is in use on thirty percent of the nation's computers, then Microsoft can safely say that thirty percent of the nation's computer-owning population use their services. They can then sell advertisements or push their own adverts on you. It's unfair to you. You are a helpless user of Microsoft's software. You are paying $200 for a functional operating system, not paying $200 to help Microsoft fund themselves further. The money you pay for the OS then becomes money that Microsoft didn't have to spend on developing a sales strategy for advertisements or for OS licenses to people who might otherwise make a different purchase. You are essentially helping the spread of Microsoft, which is a company that doesn't need help spreading.
Trust me on that.
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