Operating Systems

Short post today as I’m working on my paper, but when I first saw I was assigned to write about operating systems I thought it was going to be an easy task.  Then as I began my research I found out how much I have forgotten over the years.  My incident with install the memory in my desktop has extended from hardware, now into the software side of things as well.  I’m starting to feel like an old foggy when I tell people to take their PCs to the "Kids over at the Geek Squad” so I can’t have to fix them.  I didn’t realize how far removed I was from the current technology until lately.

Perhaps it is my geeky side not thinking about it, but asking about legal issues really feels like a stick in the spokes of my bicycle.  I get that blank look on my face and I’m pretty sure if you look into my eyes you’d see nothing but the vastness of space.  I don’t know why it should be such a hard concept to me, but it is.  Maybe it’s because I don’t deal with the legality of operating systems on a daily basis, heck I never deal with that issue.  But I think there is something more to it.  It could be because my understanding of legal issues in the digital medium is something of an afterthought.  I download music that I paid for along with stuff I didn’t.  Is my concept of legal skewed or am I just less worried when I can hide behind closed doors?  Did Microsoft feel the same way when they integrated Internet Explorer into Windows?  Did they know the legal ramifications or figured that this digital medium required new laws to cover the product/service they were creating?