Data point #1: several of our businesses have had huge, unexplained rises in support calls over the past year. Each business has had some possible causes they've been able to cite, but something doesn't add up. (Granted, finding out what's really going on in a call centre is incredibly difficult for some reason – astrologers know the future better than call centres know their present.)
Data point #2: I can't get Windows XP to work anymore. Even if I install a virgin image on a clean real or virtual machine, after applying all of the updates, it just doesn't work right – Windows Update crashes, or won't work anymore, or tells me to update every day, but can't install anything. I've been seeing and hearing about this on other peoples' machines. Once rock-steady, Windows XP suddenly seems more like Windows Me.
Data point #3: Windows Vista is now on the market.
Theory: Microsoft is deliberately poisoning the well in order to drive updates to Windows Vista. Many had opined that Windows XP is not obsolete, and that demand for Vista would be weak (especially considering its gluttonous hardware requirements). So, because Microsoft has Windows Update as an IV into all of the Windows XP boxes out there, and has been carefully making sure that the feed is turned on, they can mainline Windows XP machines with a hot shot of polonium.
Yes I'm paranoid, but Microsoft is a convicted monopolist. Are they capable of this? Sure. Are they smart enough to do this? Yeah. (Of course, Windows Update could be broken because Microsoft is just incompetent.) Am I looking to be sued for slander? Not so much, though I would greatly enjoy the discovery process in my defense.
This may explain what Sievert means about "virtual lines" – every Windows XP box crying out in terror, and then going silent – and every Windows user lining up to buy a new machine.
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