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Windependence Day
An unknown reader points us to the Windependence Day contest sponsored by DesktopLinux. Cute idea, and I'm sure some people have exciting stories of battling the talking paperclip...
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To help celebrate wIndependence Day (or, perhaps more accurately, WinDependence Day), do we have just not be Windows users, or do we have to use Linux? If it's just about not using Linux, then somebody has already started promoting a similar idea.
Maybe Apple would team up with the Linux community on this one if the event was a little more inclusive. On the other hand, I think OS X and Linux are serious competitors, at least in the PPC world. I know my interest in Linux on PPC died when I saw the terminal in OS X and XDarwin...
Focusing all this energy on creating replacements for the apps that keep us tied to Windows?
For me to run Linux on my main PC at work, I need specific things: A Groupwise client, a Novell client, a pcAnywhere type thing to check on remote systems which cannot be replaced by Linux because of the apps that must run on them... ? These things would go a lot further than a doorprize, though free stuff is always good.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
If Indenpendence Day is ID4....
Does that make Windependence Day WD-40?
If Lindows was an infringement upon the Windows name, then Lycoris has to be basically identical to WinXP (based on the screenshots). Look:
here
here
and here
Perhaps MS can sue them for 'theft of look and feel.'
Lets see, we could have done this on:
July 14th (France)
May 1st (Russia)
October 1st (China)
July 1st (Hong Kong)
June 12th (Phillippines)
March 1st (South Korea)
April 30th (Vietnam)
Why is 4th July so special?
If my call is important, why am I talking to a recording?
Microsoft is quartering their troops in peoples' homes and taxing without representation? Wait, how'd I miss that?
So Microsoft's Corporate licencing isn't a tax without representation?
If my call is important, why am I talking to a recording?
The pharmaceutical industry would like fewer regulations so it could lower its costs, but the regulations set quality requirements for your safety. You can walk into any drug store and the generic drugs are just as high quality as the name brands. Without the regulations, you'd be betting your health on the abilities of a corporation's marketing team.
The airline industry would like fewer regulations so it could lower the cost of maintaining and flying planes, but the regulations require certain maintenance procedures for your safety. The pilots and mechanics of the airline may not want to cut corners, but executives are forever pushing for that extra dollar of profit. Without the regulations, planes would be falling out of the sky because some exec who knows nothing about aviation pushed too far.
Peter Pan may get away without regulations in Never Land, but in the real world regulations serve a purpose.
Bottom line: If you're going to criticize regulations that serve specific interests (as opposed to the whole of society), fine, but don't trivialize regulations.
Take the opportunity to start working for real change: less government intrusion, less taxes, fewer regulations, more freedom.
That's what this event is trying to do. Microsoft may not be an actual government but they have de facto control over most of the world's computer users in much the same way. Their manipulation of protocols and file formats and their burdensome pricing and licensing practices are in practice just the same as intrusion, taxes and regulations for those people who have to use Windows to get their work done.
I think it's a shame that most of the prizes are partly or completely non-free software.
It brings to mind what I believe is a translated polish proverb:
A change of leaders is the joy of fools.
To exchange one set of proprietary terms & conditions for another, even if the new ones are a lot less aggravating, when one could instead have grasped Freedom in perpetuity, is a wasted opportunity in my opinion.
Debian: GNU/Linux done the Linux way
Except that a cop is a duly-sworn officer of the law, and a BSA auditor is not. (No matter what your opinions on cops are, you have to at least admit that!) Besides, If you get pulled over, and you admit to the cop that you were speeding (which is much more like what the Poster said his company did), the cop just writes you a ticket and sends you on your way; he doesn't arrest you for the robbery that just took place down the road!
Of course, none of this would even be necessary if the BSA would leave the "investigations" and "law enforcement" to the people who actually have the legal authority to do so.
What gets me with Windows is that when you have something that you know works but that you have to keep reinstalling the software or to keep thing simple save your stuff on another system and reinstall. You do not know what is being installed and you have to take great care to insure that the system is running well. If you ever had a test system where you constantly install...test...deinstall you would have a hard time keeping this system running properly without problems for a year.
Now on linux you have the dependencies. It may require a couple of minutes more to install but in the end you never have to reinstall the OS to keep the stability. This also applies to FreeBSD and such.
DRM? No thanks, I'll just get it somewhere else...
To help celebrate wIndependence Day (or, perhaps more accurately, WinDependence Day), do we have just not be Windows users, or do we have to use Linux? If it's just about not using Linux, then somebody [apple.com] has already started promoting a similar idea.
First, you need to rephrase your question.
As stated, no, you don't have to use GNU/Linux, but you do have to use a Free Operating System (Free as in Freedom). This rules out Apple, Sun, etc. Replacing one set of masters with another set of masters doesn't by you an ounce of freedom or independence, which is what "Windependence" is all about.
So, if you had phrased your question "...do we have just not be Windows users, or do we have to use Free Software" then the answere would be, if you wish to be free and independent, then yes, you have to use free software. If you do not care that a corporate vendor has veto power over your ability to use your PC, then Apple, Microsoft, or any number of other proprietary vendors will likely serve your purposes just fine.
Ok, maybe not Microsoft based on their track record for the last 10 years vis-a-vis reliability, security, and forced obsolescence...but don't kid yourself: Sun and Apple are just failed Microsoft wannabe's, and if you switch to their product you may find, while you are breathing a sigh of relief to be free of Microsoft's stranglehold, that you have in fact only replaced one set of masters with another and are now firmly entrenched in Apple, or Sun's, stranglehold. It only becomes a question of time then, before you are looking for escape once more.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy