SEATTLE, April 24 /PRNewswire/ -- How would you like to have your own high-tech chauffeur?

Keith Cary Curtis, author of After the Software Wars, says it could happen right now.

"All we need is a video camera on the roof, plugged into a PC," says Curtis. "We have all the necessary hardware, and have had it for years, but don't yet have robot-driven cars because we don't have the software."

"The key to faster technological progress is the more widespread use of free software," says Curtis.

He says we still live in the dark ages of computing because proprietary software is still the dominant model. And he takes off in a very gutsy way about Microsoft, Google, Apple, and others. He touts open source solutions like Linux and claims they are the future, and are right now reaching critical mass.

Curtis was a programmer at Microsoft for 11 years, working on Windows, Office, and in Microsoft research, when he left the company to write his book.

Curtis, born in Birmingham, Michigan, attended the University of Michigan and studied Computer Science. He was recruited by Microsoft and moved to Seattle, Washington where he lives.

What does he predict for the future? Will Microsoft survive? Will free software prevail? Well, you have to read the book.

After the Software Wars is available at Amazon.com and other online book retailers. The book has also been reviewed by the New York Times and is the topic of discussion on many blogs.

John Markoff of the New York Times:

"Keith Curtis takes a programmer's approach in Software Wars, attempting to systematically build a case that software can help pave the way for a 21st-century renaissance in many fields ranging from artificial intelligence (cars that drive themselves) to the human journey into space (space elevators). For Keith, free software is all about leveraging our collective intelligence."

Lorenz Gude of www.newmediatheory.net:

After the Software Wars is hard to put down because it makes a passionate and compelling case for free software and upsets our industrial age assumptions with new understanding. Curtis' argument is based in experience and like a good lawyer he forces us to consider the merit of his argument.

Book available for purchase at:

http://www.amazon.com/After-Software-Wars-Keith-Curtis/dp/0578011891/

Download the book at

www.lulu.com/content/4964815

SOURCE Keith Curtis