back to the thread, two things first:
1. I work in TCS, but am not here to defend it 2. Starting this thread back only to solve the problems with digital certificates issued by TCS-CA (I once worked on the digital cerficates and related tools support for GNU/Linux here).
We tested the digital certificates with Firefox and OpenSSL on GNU/Linux and they did work. While I have no information about what M$ windows tools and software are being distributed along with the USB token, but as far as I know all those tools also exist for GNU/Linux - atleast inside TCS ;)
We normally associate the lack of awareness of issues like vendor lock-in and the philosophy of FOSS etc., with non-IT people. The sad truth is that even with the IT community, there are lots of people who are not aware of these issues - lots of them in big companies like TCS. The older have an excuse but there are a huge number of youngsters who are not aware too!
Well, in my opinion (a) this is not something done intentionally and knowingly; at best it is ignorance, at worst it is succumbing to a perceived convenience (http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/0,2000061733,39168780,00.htm) and (b) as many people as possible should protest -- the objective is to raise awareness of the issue both in the user and the developer communities, not to blame or malign someone.
will see if we can do anything about it, from inside!
Prasad