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EPIC Makes Privacy Case Against Windows XP To FTC
jeffy124 writes: "EPIC has posted their complaint submitted to the FTC regarding Windows XP. Do note that it is a pdf file and will require a pdf reader of some kind." Hotmail, Passport (adult and child versions), Hailstorm, email harvesting, and deceptive privacy policies in general all play a role here; there's plenty in here that ought to spark questions about Microsoft business practices even among die-hard free-marketeers.
This is disgusting. I'm an advocate of laissez faire capitalism. This move by Microsoft and Windows XP is downright criminal because it abuses those users who know the least. A knowledgeable user won't fall for this. A newby, on the other hand...
Can we offer alternatives? I think so. For the last couple of years I'd advised people to go either of two routes (including my customers):
Buy a Macintosh
If you're a newbie there still isn't a computer as easy to use as the Mac. It's more attractive than a PC, it doesn't break as often (i.e. DLL or hardware conflicts), and it requires overall less attention than Windows systems do. All the common applications are available in it, and it delivers better performance for a smaller configuration (i.e. a Mac running MS Office requires half the RAM as a PC for accomplishing the same task).
Use Linux Systems While it's common to hear "my application X only runs under Windows!" I found that either a filter/converter exists for the application or that they can use StarOffice and carry on. There have been very few instances in which a given piece of software was Windows-specific (i.e. QuickBooks Pro); in those instances we suggest deploying a single Windows system used for that activity and sharing all resources from the Samba network.
I have two anecdotes related to this.
The CEO of a company we rolled out refuses to move off Windows/Outlook/Office. Every mayor virus and worm out there has hit him alone since we converted the rest of the network (30+ people). Yes, we installed VirusScan and Norton Utilities and everything else. On Monday he called to ask for a quote for converting his system to Linux. He's seen that we can fix everyone else's system without even having to physically go to their office, they have almost no downtime, and they can do their business with Linux/Solaris applications.
The other anecdote is about my 66 year old Mother. She's as computer illiterate as they come, having retired a few years ago and having had admin assistants all her professional life to take care of things for her. She wanted a computer so I gave her one of my old Compaq Presarios. The catch? We installed Linux + KDE + Netscape. She's happy web surfing, exchanging e-mail, visiting newsgroups, etc. We set an idiot-proof configuration for her, and if she wants a new program we install it remotely (i.e. we recently installed StarOffice and Mozilla 0.9.2 in her system). She knows about Windows, but she uses Oscar for Instant Messaging off the AOL web site, and everything else she needs as an Internet surfer is readily available to her. Flash, Java, etc. etc. are all readily available to her.
(I was ready to buy her an iBook if this little mental experiment didn't work. It never came to that. The only problem we had with this was that, at first, she kept forgetting to shut the system down so we had a long fsck on every startup.)
Based on our experiences, we can safely say that the best way to escape the Windows XP tar pit is by educating the users. Don't rant against Windows. Take the time to explain to others why there are better options out there. Show them what the alternatives look like. Give people credit and assume they're smarter than you thought. You'll be surprised at how well they understand what you told them.
Cheers!
Ehttp://eugeneciurana.com | http://ciurana.eu
A recent AT&T CEO (not the current one) once lamented, "Every year, billions of dollars of sales are made over our 800 numbers. Why can't we somehow get some cut of that business?" I think the idea was to arrange lower rates in exchange for a percentage.
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When several projects I've been on asked Oracle for a price quote, we were asked for our business plan. Oracle wanted to charge one (large) ISP for every dialup customer account! (Another project chose Sybase for a similar reason.)
Bill Gates, MSFT's chief strategist, must have recently asked himself, "Billions of dollars are spent online every year, from computers running our operating system. Why can't
The scary thing is, MSFT is providing some value to the online vendors. They've got lots of allies for shoving this down our throats.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Stupid job ads, weird spam, occasional insight at
Nobody in Canada will do anything about unfair or deceptive trade practices or anything else related to Microsoft. They can't afford to apply commercial law to Microsoft because Microsoft is a major sponsor of the Federal Government's "Connecting Canadians" initiative. They're afraid to do anything bad to MS because MS might retaliate by dropping their sponsorship of the myriad of government programs which MS sponsors. Too bad we don't have activist organizations here that have the courage to stand up to this kind of treatment.
What's disgusting is that it ever came to this point. Most businesses play a game of trying to play "nice guy" while being as fiercely competative (including nasty underhanded tricks) as possible. In most cases, I think this results in a pretty good balance as far as bringing the consumer a good product while making successful companies gobs of cash.
I don't blame it on the government, or even on Microsoft. I blame it on us, the consumers. That we shrug our shoulders and say, "Eh, what are you gonna do" and keep straight down this path. Do we think that, someday, magically, they are going to stop doing this stuff? Of course not. As long as we keep voting with our dollars, they'll keep this sort of nonsense up.