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FSF's "Defective By Design" Targets Apple Genius Bars
mjasay writes "At OSCON this year, MySQL's Brian Aker made this bold statement: 'Microsoft is irrelevant ... We're more worried about Apple.' The Free Software Foundation appears to have caught the hint, and has turned its attention to all-things-Apple with a 'denial of service' attack on the Apple Genius Bars. The idea is to completely book all Genius Bars and then ask the 'geniuses,' over and over again, a few questions about Apple's proprietary ways (while, apparently, real customers with support issues are left to flounder). Lost in this anti-Apple fervor, however, is the Free Software Foundation's complete and conscious failure to protect the web. Richard Stallman has long felt that software that doesn't sit on his desktop doesn't affect his freedom, but isn't the opposite true? Why is the FSF focused on Apple when the bigger concern should be Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, and other web players, a point made by Tim O'Reilly recently at OSCON?" Defective by Design is just one of many FSF projects, remember; it hardly seems fair to say that the FSF has been ignoring the implications of software as a service.
LOL, enjoy your crap QT Mobile interface. I will continue enjoying my slick new iPhone. The quality of applications that have already been released far exceed that of (most) open source applications. Not talking about the kernel it self, which is an amazing beast. Talking about g.
I agree that Apple is too restrictive on what applications they allow, however they have a contract with AT&T they need to protect. They also have contracts with like 77 other carriers. People kind of forget this, those agreements are put in place to protect the mobile networks. Can you imagine a bot net running on it ?
DRM in music ... I totally 100% agree, it needs to be done with. However, until the remaining 90 y/o, fat, grossly overpaid music executives die off, there isn't going to be a change here. How much have I spent on iTunes ? Over $400. Why ? I hate going to music stores, I stopped doing that MANY years ago. I have a choice, steal the music off P2P or download it legally from iTunes.
This will just cause the general public to hate the FSF.
No. Just Apple Fanboys who can't see past the obvious.
Having people standing around with soap and buckets of water should be enough to keep the FSF at bay.
Immature bullshit like this.
As opposed to mature bullshit, like when Jobs tried to defraud the FSF out of gcc, or when Apple tried to defraud the public out of using graphical user interfaces?
A You have a point, you can advertise it on your web site,
Yeah, Apple would love that: Apple's billions in marketing dollars and PR against FSF's nearly zero budget.
Organizations like FSF don't win by putting up a few web pages.
but grow the fuck up. Doing shit like this will only turn people AWAY from your message.
I don't think the FSF gives a damn about annoying people like you.
Personally, I wouldn't participate in such an action. But I can see why the FSF is doing it, and nothing you have said suggests that it's a bad idea. Being controversial and annoying the hell out of Macintosh users simply isn't going to hurt the FSF with anybody in their target audience.
And this is not the first time that the FSF has taken on Apple, and it hasn't hurt them. Even Apple depends on FSF software.
If you're a UNIX/Linux supporter, however, you need to realize how important Apple has been to you.
I've been a UNIX user for 20 years. Apple has been nothing but trouble and annoyance. They tried to kill all other GUIs with lawsuits, Jobs tried to steal GNU software, and Apple more than anybody else has perpetuated myths and lies about UNIX and Linux usability.
Apple products aren't perfect, but they are good enough to hold off the behemoth, and that's been worth something.
Apple hasn't been "holding Microsoft at bay", Apple is in bed with Microsoft, and Apple has done nothing significant to help open source.
When the battery in your iBrator dies, you need someone with that special touch to replace it.
That's strange -- I've replaced iPod batteries myself several times in the nearly 7 years I've been an iPod owner.
by large segments of the population. Immature bullshit like this. You have a point, you can advertise it on your web site, but grow the fuck up. Doing shit like this will only turn people AWAY from your message.
Says someone who talks like a high school boy showing off to his friends how many curse words he can use in a single sentence.
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
Fine, but harassing retail workers with questions like "Why does iTunes still contain so much DRM-laden music?" isn't going to accomplish anything...
What kind of word is "laden" anyway? Doesn't the use of a word like "laden" alone make that person look like an idiot? I wouldn't be surprised if Rowling's next book is "Harry Potter and the laden iPod"...
> I've sent several donations already this year,
> but I won't be sending more.
Proof or STFU
"Life is short and in most cases it ends with death." Sir Sinclair
Disclaimer: I do not drive an SUV, I never have, probably never will, and think that many SUV owners don't need an SUV.
I think that people who actually need SUVs are the minority of SUV owners. There aren't that many places one needs an SUV where people actually use them because in the places still rural enough where people need them, people usually can't afford them.
Yeah, I've heard of Martin Luther King. I don't have a whole lot of regard for him though. He didn't really change anything. RMS created real infrastructure to make it easy for people to live within his ideals, and the changes he made possible will live past his death and despite his permanent personal obscurity. MLK made a spectacle of himself, roused the rabble until he got shot, then they all dispersed and went back to business as usual. He was a loud mouthed punk.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
You exposed nothing of the sort. I'm not impressed with MLKs achievements because I don't find them impressive achievements, and said so.
You think your country represents freedom, and that he was a great man.
I think your country represents tyranny, inequality, exploitation and war, and that MLK was an insignificant man who has been put on a pedestal because it is politically correct to do so.
He didn't make a better way of life possible, all he did was ranted about what his brothers and sisters ought to do, and then he died, and they don't do it, because they're trapped in an exploitative system that is beyond their capacities to escape, and he didn't change that fact in the slightest.
He's a sorry excuse for a hero who achieved not very much at all.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth