User Management Inside

it should be no surprise that Apple's Intel Strategy reportedly includes use-managing DRM BS. There is much to be admired and appreciated about Apple; but its paranoia about What Users Might Do and its coziness with Hollywood both come at a price: your freedom.

The euphemism for user management is "trusted computing". Read more about how it's applied in OS X here.

Of course, this really isn't trusted computing at all. It's distrustful computing. It's one more way that you don't own, or control, your own software. Or even your own computer. In a very real way, Apple hardware sold with Intel Inside will be less yours than the computer you're using now. Your freedom to use your own computer for whatever you please will be deeply compromised, just by the presence of a chip that gives the manufacturer a way to restrict what you can do.

Unfortunately, this won't be an Apple "feature" alone. The chance that it won't be addressed by Microsoft's Vista applications is approximately zero.

Which leaves Linux. Naturally.