I heard someone on NPR talking today about how we're likely to have some huge online catastophy where someone really malicious releases a virus that causes huge enough problems that people will be willing to accept some sort of "license to code" (whether regulatory or de facto) before programs that people write can run on a computer. It made me wonder whether Microsoft's abominable security record is part of a plan to scare computer users into accepting "Trusted Computing" or some other such system that lets Microsoft milk the competition that is able to clear the hurdles, and block all the little guys that aren't. When Gates said that security was top priority, did he mean that fixing security problems was top priority, or that using security as a weapon was top priority?

If an online cataclysm does occur, what do you think will be the attack vector? If past experience is any guide, Outlook, IE and Windows are likely to be at the center. Which raises the question, should a Trusted Computing enabled computer be willing to run Microsoft products?