I don't blame him, they are turning the Windows platform into an appliance-based system. Basically a Windows machine will become a dumb terminal - it will connect to some Microsoft server somewhere, and the only thing that you will be saving on your hard drive is your personal information. All of the programs are going to be run from a server that you going to have to log into or have some kind a license for, they already do this with office 2010 and office 365 - I have seen some versions of office 2010 that actually ran in some kind of virtualization which was kind of interesting, The actual office programs were not on the computer and any way shape or form but when the little virtualization server would start, it would connect to Microsoft and give you access to the whole suite of office 2010.
I saw those kinds of installations back in 2008, maybe 2009, I think they were just using that as some kind of test. It was office 2010 student versions that were like that.
When I was initially working on the system that had that installed, I accidentally deleted the whole virtualization subsystem and his office wouldn't work anymore so I had to sit there and figure out how to reinstall it, which was a pain but basically it was the package that came with the computer, you start the program and then you buy the license right there, or run the allotted trial that they give you- IF they even give you a trial at all, which they usually don't do.
I don't like it, when I install a program I want it installed on my computer, I don't want to have it so I have to connect to somebody else to run the program! To me that just defeats the purpose of having a home computer, your computer becomes something different then a home PC, it becomes an extension of some kind of corporate thing, wholly dependent upon broadband connection. And broadband was initially made for leisure, now they are kind of plugging our lives into it with our computers. pretty soon there'll be a Jack in our Skulls, which connects our brains into the Internet and the collective unconscious.