[Dominic Harr]

It's their intellectual property.

Absolutely.

And you do agree that your customers have no way of knowing what, if any, really bad things are hidden in the software?

A company could build in all sorts of nasty things, either on purpose or on accident, agreed?

So I repeat -- software you can't review the source-code for is like a sausage that they refuse to tell you what meat is in it.

[Bush2000]

Tell us, Harr: What is so special about software that makes it unlike, say, pharmaceuticals? Drug manufacturers don't release the contents of the blueprints of their drugs to customers. Nobody disputes that their products can do great harm; nor do they dispute that they do great good.

[PatrioticAmerican]

"software you can't review the source-code for is like a sausage that they refuse to tell you what meat is in it. "

And you have the time to review the 44,000,000+ lines of code in Windows XP? You argument makes no practical sense. Second, are you expert enough to understand the complexity of the operating system and all of its subsystems? Ya, know, it is not written in Java. ;>

You don't know the metal in the frame of your care or engine, the metal of the aircraft you last flew in, or the pesticides used in that last green bean you ate, so why try to hammer Microsoft for not sharing their internal secrets?

Face it, you HATE Microsoft, and your efforts show your bias. You have stated in many ways that you want them out of business.