If Bill Gates succeeds in his latest mission, to convince Brazil's President (right) that Windows is better than Linux, he should be ready for a mid-career job change.

To the State Department.

Brazil isn't going to open source because they hate Windows, or Gates. They're going toward open source for rational, even reasonable reasons. With open source, Brazilians control their own code base. With Windows, Gates does.

Can Gates convince a sovereign government that giving him control of its code base will be better than letting Brazilians have that control?

It would be like convincing Brazil to give up its army and surrender foreign policy to the United States.

And if Gates can do that, Iraq's factions are a piece of cake.