Turns out that the troubles I had on Wednesday (chronicled here) were not mine alone; it seems that the Pentagon had to sever a number of their computers from the internets due to some very wily cyber-attackers. The only likely suspects with that much leet-ness to do something that destructive are likely residing in the Central Kingdom. If you can't see how this relates to open source, then you haven't been paying attention.
Take a look here, for example. Or here. Or here. If you want to continue to use the internets in a safe and secure way, then you may need to change some of your habits.
And don't even get me started on the newest, greatest OS; or the primary browser for the web, and be sure to take a look at the date on that last link--friggin' ten days ago! Unless you are more than happy to be another node in an increasing army of bots. Yeah, it's a hassle to learn something new. But these are not your father's cyber-attacks.
You probably are not old enough to remember when IBM was the big scary bully of the computer world, and Microsoft was little more than an annoyance; You may not know that neither Apple nor Microsoft came up with the idea for a graphical interface and a mouse to travel through it, though they have both greatly profited from it.
While Apple has adapted, and become more open source to fit the changing times--soon to move to a fully Unix 03/Posix compliant architecture as the base of Leopard, Microsoft remains in the land that time forgot.
Microsoft, the telco monopoly, and the media giants (represented by the RIAA and the MPAA) are trying to legislate the future for all American internet users and general content consumers; they want to lock you into their version of what you can see and do with your software, hardware, what sites you can visit, where and what you can download, all in an ever-intrusive fashion.
They are doing this because they refuse to innovate; they want to maintain their increasingly fragile grip on their monopolies at the expense of the US economy, US citizens, American technological, educational, research, and innovation culture (and the ugly future that portends).
IBM managed to re-invent itself and adopt open source software as a profitable way of doing business; as I mentioned before, Apple is doing the same (before they get dragged down to a similar fate), and now both companies enjoy very healthy bottom lines.
All of the major commercial open source vendors (sadly, sans Novell) have now openly come out and said that they will not be held hostage to the specious claims of patent infringement that Microsoft has been bandying about with increasing desperation of late, and will not sign 'patent protection' agreements with this company. Mandriva was the last holdout, but they have now joined in. Update: And now news has come that the final version of the General Public License, version three (GPLv3) will not punish Novell for the deal (fantastic news!).
The MPAA and the RIAA are also refusing to change their business models to meet the needs and demands of today's consumers; instead, they push draconian standards, openly stating that copyright infringement is worse than bank robbery, theft, rape, and muggings, and use the US government to push for a scheme of worldwide intellectual property rights protection so that they never need to adjust.
The big trillion ton bear in the living room in this scenario is the Central Kingdom. As the internet has made the world a smaller place, and anything that can be digitized will be, and soon thereafter shared on the internet--much to the consternation of the RIAA and the MPAA (and their proxy, the US Congress), any attempts to control this will become increasingly futile.
And the government of the Central Kingdom aren't even pretending anymore; they openly flaunt that they want nothing to do with this worldwide intellectual property rights protection scheme. You may be familiar with this; if you are, then you know that nothing, absolutely nothing remains open on their internet servers unless it meets that compliance.
So when their version of Google has direct links to all of the 'pirated' content, you can bet that it is not a simple oversight, but done through intentional design. Ditto with literally dozens and dozens of other sites spread throughout their digital realm. They won't be adopting the DMCA any time soon, you can bet on that.
If there are even trade negotiations between the US and the Central Kingdom that broach the subject of intellectual property rights, and the US suggests that the MPAA and the RIAA participate, one can only wonder if their response will be similar to one that played out in history not so long ago. Except in this case, it will be cyber-divisions. Best to go open source and lock down your boxes. Just in case. Cyber-wars can get messy. Make the move.