And hey, what better way to head into the weekend than with the warm fuzzy feeling only the possibility of a class action suit against Microsoft with potentially "millions of plaintiffs" can provide? Don't get us wrong-- we're as opposed to the proliferation of frivolous litigation as anyone, but it's a proven scientific fact that the amount of litigation in process at any given time is a universal constant, so aiming a few million plaintiffs at Redmond means that the rest of the planet-- Apple included-- can take a little break from getting sued for a change.

Besides, who says this lawsuit is frivolous? Reuters reports that the suit merely attempts to hold Microsoft economically liable for the smoldering crater that used to be civilization before rampaging viruses smacked the technological bejeezus out of it. Microsoft, for its part, takes the view that "this complaint misses the point. The problems caused by viruses are the result of criminal acts by people who write viruses." Well, duh. But speaking of missing the point, guys, that doesn't mean you can't be held responsible for shipping products so full of holes they could double as the plot for the next Charlie's Angels sequel. Especially since the only way you manage to sell a product so ridiculously flawed in the first place is because of that little "monopoly" thing.

And quit it with the innocent looks and the "what monopoly?" face-- it was proven in court and upheld on appeal, remember? Seriously, if there were another operating system on the market that ran on the same hardware and ran the same applications at the same speed but didn't require more patches per day than a carton-a-week smoker going cold turkey, do you honestly think it wouldn't be beating the pants off you at the cash register?

Wait, when did this turn into a tirade with us ranting directly at Microsoft?

Paragraph 2? Wow. Okay, well, we're done with that, then.

Anyway, it's not soup yet, but if and when the suit gets approved as a class action, feel free to climb on board if you qualify as a plaintiff, if for no other reason than to be able to tell your grandkids that you sued Microsoft back in Ought-Three. Hmmmm, does our ownership of an old, dusty copy of Virtual PC with Windows 95 make us eligible, or do we actually have to have been infected with a worm or virus to participate? If it's the latter, that seems woefully unfair; anyone who's ever had to use Windows for more than eight minutes straight should at least be able to score a few hundred grand for pain, suffering, and exposure to toxic waste. Fingers crossed!