Developers become advertisers with Microsoft | The Register

Microsoft, under pressure from Yahoo and Google has come up with what some see as a half-baked plan for the future of their software. While the holes in Microsoft’s strategy may cause this latest effort to fail, the company’s tentacles stretch into every facet of our digital lives. (server, desktop, audio, video, gaming…) Now, they also want to make fixing flaws in their software a subscription service. However, the situation is more complex and potentially sinister. Microsoft is paying a security team to develop fixes for security flaws anyway. If MS charges a subscription fee, corporate customers will pay it just to ensure they are secure. Those who can’t pay will be left with systems open to exploitation. The exploited systems will be used by malicious individuals to attack other systems driving a continuing need for security services.