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Groups Push FTC to Act on MS XP, Passport
BuckMulligan writes: "EPIC and a coalition of consumer and privacy groups have renewed their calls for FTC action to protect consumers from the privacy risks associated with Windows XP and Passport. In a letter sent to the FTC, the groups criticized the FTC for not upholding its statutory duty to protect consumers in light of the planned release of Windows XP. More information on the groups' previous FTC complaints is stored on the EPIC Microsoft Passport Page." So who here thinks the FTC is going to block Windows XP? Me neither. The other remedies requested (toward the middle of the letter) are interesting, though.
would you please please stop mister bad, evil company (which I support every day by using their products) from producing their product which will only do harm if I use it instead of some other viable alternative?
Oh, and by the way, I'm not going to pay higher taxes for your service, I'm just going to complain while I skim off the top of my income taxes by claiming my dog as a dependent.
Whatever Microsoft does with passport is nothing compared to the fact that they're taking java out of the next version IE. They're using their dominance in the desktop OS/Browser market to promote .NET and crush java. Seriously, how many Joe Blow computer users will actually think to download a java VM from Sun and spend the time doing so? Probably the same number that thought to download Netscape once IE came out. What's next, taking out HTTP and replacing it with MSHTTP? Hello, justice department, Ralph Nader, are you out there?
Not the solution must be this
1. Make MS illegal.
2. Force people to use crappy non-competitive OSS.
3. Isn't the world free now?
Face it, since most of OSS is non-copetitive it sucks. Linux is not user friendly, there are too many linux distributions too, often they aren't even made with the end-users in mind, Mozilla is "just another browser", etc.
GCC is by far the only "awesome" OSS project. It is a very competive product. On the x86 platform it meets or beats many commercial compilers like Watcom, Borland and MSVC, unfortunately 98% of all of MS's evil money comes from "point-and-click cute gui" OS'es not MSVC.
I say it again, if you want to seriously hurt MS start releasing competitive programs the "dumb" user will want to use.
You can't quite expect to make a living targetting the smallest population? Its all about saturation nowadays.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
There IS an implicit right to privacy and this passport scheme smacks of one big violation of that right.
Lets see a system you have to voluntarily sign up for to store your information is violating some unwritten "right" to privacy by storing your private information. Intersting.
Information wants to be free... oh, not stuff about me though... not that information... that's um, super secret information, you know?
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