On Sat, 2009-09-26 at 12:37 +0530, Vikram Vincent wrote:
Why are you equating Microsoft = Americans/American Government ?
It is a well known fact that several USA based companies routinely put in backdoors, other monitoring systems at the behest of the USA govt. M$ is also an example. Another popular example is the DES http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Encryption_Standard "The algorithm was initially controversial with classified design elements, a relatively short key length, and suspicions about a National Security Agency (NSA) backdoor."
I think the analysis is pritty good but the words used are wrong. We can't say "americans ". RMS is An American and so are many free software developers, wellwishers and promoters. So while it is true that some organisations like M$ might be used by the american government for their bennifit against many countries, it is not proper to generalise about this.
Happy hacking. Krishnakant.