Ok, so maybe they don't own the world per se, but they own, or at least dominate in a large part of it. Everything from the PC to consoles, to websites, to smart appliances. Even your wrist watch could be touched by Windows, if it isn't already.

And this scares me. To think that one company can have so much influence over such a broad range of products that we need in our day to day lives. Sure you could argue that Linux is making big inroads into the desktop and server market, but come on M$ owns 95% of the desktop market. The United States has a population of over 280 million people. Roughly of those have a personal PC which means Microsoft owns about 133 million of those PC's. And that's just in the US and just personal computers. If you add in desktops at work, or other countries such as Canada and European countries, that number becomes more like a billion PCs in the world. And that number is expected to hit 2 billion by 2008.

And that's just PCs we haven't even touched on things like the Xbox, SMART enabled personal devices like cell phones and watches and PDA's. These are all markets which Microsoft is engaging in and actively pursuing, much to the chagrin of their competition.

And did you hear that within a few years they will have integrated a search engine into your PC? No longer will you have to go to Google or any other of your favorite search engines. Soon you will be able to search right from the comfort of your own home. Not only that, but this search engine will "learn" based on your searching habits. Soon it will be able to predict what you want. Typing a letter to your mom on mothers day? Your computer will be able to actively search, on your behalf, to find the cheapest roses in your area. Given enough permission, your computer can not only search, but also order and ship the roses, without you even knowing about it.

Scary thought.

So while we may find this convenience great, consider the costs to our security and anonymity. You think someone stealing your bank card is bad? Imagine what would happen if they stole your cell phone which has a direct link to your home PC and it stores EVERYTHING about you, including your banking information, your credit information, all your nasty secrets. Everything that is you, now available to the person who snagged your phone.

If there ever was a time to revolt against "the man" now is that time. The man's name is Bill and he runs one of the most powerful companies in the world.