Dave  stooped down to the level of the file cabinet.  He pulled the drawer bearing the name "documents".  Reaching in he grabbed the first file labeled "Word".   He squinted his eyes from the bright blinking light that was the official logo.  Leaning back he opened it.   He sprung back screaming when we saw the skeleton hand reached up for his throat.   Groping for the  activate button on his personal force shield hanging on his belt, he bearly blocked the skeleton hand from crushing his larynx.  Fury Filled him, this was the third time this week a 3dobject virus had attached itself to one of his important 3d presentations.
    Motioning for his task panel, he ran his finger through the task marked "pres2-for the boss."  This immediately stopped the fleshless hand from dragging the open file towards him.   Unfortunately, for some unknown reason it also disintegrated his desk chair.   "Damn it", he mumbled still breathing heavily, "Now I have to reload that chair object."   He knew that meant rebooting several times.  This was annoying since it took ten minutes to load MSVROS each time.  Putting his hands behind him he pushed himself back into a squatting position again.   He hobbled two steps toward the infected file.  The open file revealed the newly designed building.   Dave shook his head.  There was a greenish mold covering the cutaway of the skyscraper.   In the miniature plaza there was the skeleton arm half imbedded in the valet parking.  It was all over, there would be no saving this file.  He looked around the virtual office as if trying to find solace in the very nice looking pre rendered stone 3dmap covering the walls.  It didn't inspire the feelings like he had had earlier that day.  The appearance of the wallpaper seemed to have changed, it no longer looked like a castle, but a prison.
    Dave stood up from the floor and walked toward the file cabinet.  Pointing to the the dilapidated open file in the center of the room, he blurted the command "delete".
    A female of unseen source pronounced, "Please repeat" in a happy sing song voice.
    Dave decided not to fight further with the supposed artificial intelligence.  He had only limited success reciting commands of any consequence.  He motioned for an activity window.  Grabbing a wand from the tool kit, he pointed to the mess and pressed delete.
    The mysterious voice exclaimed "Are you sure? ".
    "Confirmed"  growled Dave, annoyed that the very Operating System that was causing so much trouble was questioning him.
    "Please Repeat"  the OS chimed in.
    "Yes"
    "Do you want to delete this file permanently?", happier then ever.
    "Yes"
    "Are you sure you want to delete thi....."
    "Yes, Yes Yea, Definitely, no doubt, make it so NOW!", now frustrated beyond belief Dave took advantage of his virtual body.   He bent over picked up the file and put it in the trash can.  Grabbing a bottle of program labeled "Torch it" designed by a third party from the table he poured some of the endless supply of fluid in the garbage can.   He pressed a button on the bottle and the contents of the can burst into flames.
    "Please Repeat" unaffected the OS definitely had to be taunting him.
    Dave glared at the tool kit suspended in midair.  He looked  somewhat menacing as he was enveloped in non-carcinogenic virtual smoke.  He stared out the virtual window.  The nice weather outside was supposed to reflect how it was in the real world, assuming it was working.   As Dave reached down to disengage his force field, his thoughts began to wander.  Ever since the big takeover of the network optic construction lines by 'The Company' the services on the big net never seemed to work right.  Well at least the virtual supermarkets worked, 'The Company' probably realized the importance of this and...
    "Mr. Johnson", a voice boomed over the holographic meeting projector.
    Dave thought, I think the boss turns up the volume on purpose.  I wish I could control that.  "Yes President Guy"
    "What's with the torture chamber office?"
    Double damn it, Dave's face was burning up.  The beta version of MS3DConference came with holographic room filtering.  Why can he see my office theme with the full release?  Why are they always rushing things out?  What are they afraid of?
    Dave didn't get a chance to answer.  "I wanted to check up on your progress, how is the project coming along?"
    Oh boy here it comes Dave thought,  "Well I had a slight problem ", Dave  grimaced," It seems like the dedicated optic infected the 3d file I was working on with a nasty virus.  I would turn it off when I work but I've been told disconnecting can crash MSVR."
    "You can recover it right?", Mr. Guy sounded honestly concerned.
    "No I can't.", Dave paused "I might have an uninfected backup from mid project.   The new "Word"  3d macros were rushed out before any of the antivirus companies could prepare.  The viruses are everywhere.  You know I have just about had it with Microsoft and its faulty software.  I  am just about ready to..."
    "Don't say that!", Mr. Guy sounded offended.  "Listen Dave you just can't say that in here, and if you do again your fired."
the boss paused and then whispered, "Look it's the best deal out there, don't waste your time with those rebel OS's."  "I will talk to you again tonight, find a solution by then or else!", The boss disappeared into a cloud of smoke.
    "Great" dave mumbled.
    "Please Repeat", the computer sung.
    Dave just sighed.  It's not like he could use another OS anyway.  After the great war there was only one operating system.  He was only one normal guy.  What could he do?  He walked up to the virtual file cabinet.  After looking at the side of the cabinet he pressed a button.  A display lit up showing some information.  Running his finger along the display scrolled the information about the file system.  After staring at the storage data for a while Dave began wondering.  What most of a terra byte used up?  Where the heck is all the space going.  Let me see not in here. Dave moved his finger to switch directories on the 2d display.  Lets see, hey I don't remember putting this file in here.  Lets see what this .exe  does.
    Dave double tapped on the file with the tip of his finger.   He saw a few words flash through the air and then the room was transformed.  There were two flaming torches lighting the foggy room.   A menu system appeared before him.  Ah this must be one of my little cousins video games.  After examining the choices he choose, "knock'm dead" written in red letters.
    Dave almost lost his lunch just watching the tutorial run.  The main character is a 6'7 gorilla looking guy.  When you play, you play in his body.  The object is to kill as many people with your bare hands as you can in the downtown shopping mall.  Dave could not believe his eyes as this monster ripped everyone apart including small children and pregnant women.  His numb mind thought This was not meant for human consumption in general, much less the eyes of a ten year old.  Oh my god what would his mother do if she found out?  She would rip me apart, just like that gorilla guy, that's what she would do.  But I...I thought I secured his access to these files.  Hell I don't even know how he got into this directory.
    Dave  yelled, "escape."  Much to his amazement, it worked this time.  He was about to yell it again when he noticed a title tucked away in the corner of the boundless room.  If that was obvious, then what is he hiding, Dave wondered.   The title read "Angie."   Dave's heart sunk to the pit of his stomach.  He knew what he would find, but he had to look anyway.
    Dave double tapped on the title, and before he could pull his  hand away from the title it was in a scantily clad woman's crotch.
    She whispered in his ear "Hi big boy, Timmy send you?   I can give you anything you want."
    "Get off of me you child molester."  Dave yelled as he swung around and decked her in the head.  Reality flickered as the processors tried to determine what the Artificial Intelligence would do next.  Obviously she hadn't been hit before.  That was no solace for Dave.  He yelled "escape."
    "Oh my god", Dave murmured, slouched on the floor in the virtual office.  What has Timmy learned from these evil programs.  I let him wander around without supervision.  I thought he couldn't run programs like this.  I thought it was safe.  Just then the office door opened.  A cyborg walked into the stone clad room.
    Dave only managed to get off a quick "You don't belong here..", before the cyborg threw him up against the wall.  Hey wait a minute Dave thought, that hurt.  But the safeguards should be on.  Dave remembered the incident, a few weeks ago when he  had suspended a virtual file cabinet above him and the MSAntigravity algorithm failed.   When that thing fell on his head VR went blurry and that was in the VR semi sleep state.  Pain has been completely shut off since.  The cyborg must have cracked his human 3Dobject.   The cyborg came after his slumped body when another figure came to the door.
    "You're not ready for me" the figure yelled from the door.   It was Superman.  The cyborg ran over to intercept superman.  Taking the opportunity, Dave turned on the force field.  Superman threw the cyborg into the desk.  The cyborg immediately jumped strait out the window.
    "You saved me, thank you", Dave said.
    Superman turned to Dave and said, "Screw you dork I'd kill you, if I didn't have an obligation to kill 'J@Nze'"  Leaving Dave Shocked and angry, Superman flew out the window.  Dave was more angry at himself for not realizing they were two crackers dukeing it out in a cyberspace macho contest.  The  'J@Nze' cyborg must have broken into his computer to hide from the other cracker.
    Dave was just kind of staring into the virtual lava lamp on his desk in disbelief.  What am I going to do about Timmy.  He wondered.   I can't give up 3d, I need it for my job.  I can't shutdown the connection to the outside world, without the patch and upgrade feed my OS won't work.  I don't want him to end up like those cyberspace junkies you here about on the holobroadcasts.  Is it to late?  Dave looked at the clock, Almost 3 hours had passed since this crazy day began.  Nothing was done.
    Dave started over toward the virtual file cabinet.  He began looking for the backup.  He searched through every related directory.  Nothing.  He began to go over the files again when he felt a hand on his shoulder.  This time Dave was in luck.  His force field was still on.  He spun around.
    "Hello", said a man of middle height, middle age, with middle looks and glasses.
    "Who are you?", Dave sounded exasperated.
    "someone you need to trust.", said the average man.
    "How do you figure?,  Don't you knock? "
    "No time to knock.  A few hours ago you had a conversation with your boss.  I need to see you about that conversation."
    "O.K.", Dave trailing off and cynical.
    "You have one chance at saving your mind, and maybe your life"
    "O.K.", again.
    "Shut down now and meet me in the park in town"
    "And if I don't?"
    "I will leave and you will be visited by one of the Windows people."
    "Your people?"
    "No their people.  Meet you by the statue in hour."
    "What do you look like", Dave asked.
    "I look as I look here.  Real hackers do not need to hide behind costumes.", the mysterious man stated proudly.  "How about you?"
    "No surprises here."
    "One hour.", the man restated.  He turned and walked out.
     "Screw my boss, if he is to stupid to see the evil of Microsoft... I am going to the park.", Dave unwittingly said aloud.
     "Please Repeat", the woman's voice chirped.
       Dave  went to the took kit still floating in the air.  He closed its doors.  The second it disappeared the color scheme of the room was thrown off.   Uh oh Dave thought, if this system crashes with me emearsed in VR, my mind, I could be out cold for a week.  Dave  rushed through the door into the hallway.  He dove through the exit arch in the hallway just in time.
    Dave's projection glasses stopped the second he dove through the door.  It's a good thing too because MSVROS crashed right at that instant. He could tell by the messed up monitor screen.  Looking through the glasses he looked at his glove clad hands.  He thought about the time he had to pay thousands of dollars to replace the gloves when the physics inside MSVR were thrown off and he unwittingly smacked a glove into the wall, hard.  Well at least the software was cheap.
    Dave took off the nuro-net, the gloves, and the projection glasses.  After sitting for a minute to get his bearings he got up and walked downstairs.  Reality was so quiet.  The best part was Microsoft still hasn't managed to make it, so just anyone can walk in your house.
    When Dave met the man he asked, "So how did you know about the conversation with my boss?"
    The man answered, "We utilize 'The Companies' security breaches.  We tap into the tap they told you didn't exist, on every conversation we can, and get there first.  We're not proud but it's the only way to let people know about the alternative.  We try to get our messages out to everone, but they are made obsolete by their 'upgrades'."
    "What VROS do you use?", Dave asked?
    "I can't say... the park may be bugged.  The name of  it may draw unwanted attention.  I can tell you it does what it claims to be able to do."
    "What do you mean?"
    "It is an open design.  Standards remain standards.  This gives us more time to improve the code and less time is used rewriting for new standards.   We don't have to wait for the church of Microsoft to engineer things their way.   They don't see that available code is easily improved code.  They don't want to see that.  We have passed their technologies in many ways because there are no obstacles for innovation."
    "Where can I find this OS?", Dave inquired.
    "Come with me, I will show you."
 
Any VROS must be safe and stable.    A level of security and stablility that has only been necessary on networks in the past will be needed in most if not all homes.  Currently, Microsoft has only partially intergrated or completely omited the following things into their OS's.  VROS's should have the these things.

      Individual File Permissions
      Individual  Permissions for directories and volumes
      Usage tracking
      True Multitasking
      File Archives
      Home directory centric user accounts
      Stable kernel releases!
      Network Security
      Protection from Monpolies
      Multiple levels of control from the kernel to a Command Line to a 2d Graphical User Interface to a 3d imersive GUI and beyond....
 
 
    I do not want you to think I hate Bill Gates, nor do I think he is inherently evil.  The singular, closed form, commercial operating system model is the problem.  Any OS following this model would eventually head down the path Microsoft is.  As long as most consumers are using, and software companies are following this model we will suffer.  Commercial software in general is not to blame.  Commercial software companies are following the business. I believe that free commercial software and closed form commercial can coexist and even both flourish.  We need, as the computing community to support open source OS development.
    Until we support open development technological growth will stagnate to the rate of Microsoft's innovation.  Microsoft as a share holding company has one interest, profit.  This leads them to create all kinds of illogical standards, that make duplication or emulation of their OS very difficult. This does not breed invention or even seamless components.  Only chaos.
    About a year ago I read a joke comparing Microsoft to a faulty car.  It was amusing but inaccurate.  Right now Microsoft is the road, and so is any other operating system.  Would we let some company take over all the highways?  I don't know about you but I'm sick of paying tolls, for narrow, unsafe, unguarded, poorly lit and undocumented roads.  These roads have no shoulders and guardrails supposedly to protect us.  These guardrails can keep us where MS can control us and the things we see and do.
 
 

nneewwhhaallll@mindspring.com

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