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FSF Attacks Windows 7's "Sins" In New Campaign
CWmike writes "The Free Software Foundation today launched a campaign against Microsoft Corp.'s upcoming Windows 7 operating system, calling it 'treacherous computing' that stealthily takes away rights from users. At the Web site Windows7Sins.org, the Boston-based FSF lists the seven 'sins' that proprietary software such as Windows 7 commits against computer users. They include: Poisoning education, locking in users, abusing standards such as OpenDocument Format (ODF), leveraging monopolistic behavior, threatening user security, enforcing Digital Rights Management (DRM) at the request of entertainment companies concerned about movie and music piracy, and invading privacy. 'Windows, for some time now, has really been a DRM platform, restricting you from making copies of digital files,' said executive director Peter Brown. And if Microsoft's Trusted Computing technology were fully implemented the way the company would like, the vendor would have 'malicious and really complete control over your computer.'"
for this stupid "sins" campaign.
There has already been some uproar about this being a stupid campaign, it'd be nice to see more.
It's time to tell the FSF to stop being stupid about this, stop spreading FUD, and instead *promote* free software instead of just bashing windows.
And then they wonder why noone is taking the FSF seriously. Thankfully, they are not representative of the open source movement.
Thanks Microsoft.. I hope Win7 is as successful as Vista.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as: Poisoning education, locking in users, abusing standards such as OpenDocument Format (ODF), leveraging monopolistic behavior, threatening user security, enforcing Digital Rights Management (DRM) at the request of entertainment companies concerned about movie and music piracy, and invading privacy.
Hasn't every previous version of Windows been guilty (or at least accused) of these very same "sins"?
Besides, I would imagine that the majority of Windows users won't ever see or hear of this campaign anyway, your average PC World customer won't have a clue what free software is, what DRM is, and most probably don't even know that there are alternative operating systems available anyway. My parents, parents-in-law, my siblings.....hell just about everybody I know that doesn't work in IT. Perhaps if the FSF could get some TV advertising...
You can advertise in this sig from as little as £99.99 a month!
I like that quote. It doesn't work in the computer context, though, because from the perspective of functionality and quality, Linux users are the most famished of any individuals doing computing these days.
It's business and usual... because it is profitable to do these things, and so fulfilling MS obligations to their shareholders. Users of the OS are secondary, as long as they keep buying it of course.
I've always wondered if the FSF was actually somehow on Microsoft's payroll. They' sure as hell aren't doing free software/open source any good. If anything, they're making people want to avoid using open source thanks to Rick Stallman's antics.
Wrong. Children learn to work on the platform that's mostly used in Businesses today, giving them the necessary skills to obtain a job.
Wrong. WGA does not "inspect" the users hard drive, it checks the Windows license. It's mostly used to combat fraud done by computer vendors which sell illicit copies for money. Users at home will purchase Windows with their PC and use OEM Activation, which does not need any user interaction. Enthuasiasts upgrading their PC will need to enter a key, but Activation is also quick and painless.
Not true. Microsoft requires vendors to only sell computers with an operating system to qualify for a discount. You can purchase laptops with Ubuntu from Dell, you can purchase ThinkPads running FreeDOS or SLED.
Vendors may also opt to purchase OSB copies at standard pricing, which has zero restrictions.
Support for old software is discontinued everytime, by every vendor. Every Linux vendor and even free distributions like Ubuntu have a support lifecycle.
Well, i'll give them this point. But Microsoft has added support for ODF in Office 2007 SP2, however it was the ODF guys who weren't even able to spec out something basic as formulas in a spreadsheet specification.
If you purchase DRMd content, you know exactly what you're in for. Windows just supports it. It's like a car that can lock the rear doors to children can't open the doors while on the road. Yes, some people may use that feature to kidnap someone, but that doesn't mean that locking rear doors is bad.
This was true until Windows XP SP2, but Microsoft has really improved security since then.
All in all, it's a bunch of stupid FUD by hippies that eat their gunk from their toes.
I do support FSF here..windows is killing the total charm of operating system..with forceful updates+comupter inspection without warning..microsoft is loosing it everyday.
I was fan of windows once...but off late i m loosing it..they have lost it.
so...lets hope google has something good to offer us.
.... complete control of their employees computers. More lockdown features present in the OS = more power to the IT department = easier for BOFH IT administrators to take away any and all "freedoms" you may think you have when using equipment provided by your workplace.
In other words: What a waste of time sending letters to these companies!
They're sounding ever more rabid, proclaim bizarre things that anyone with a clue can see right through and are frankly counter productive to whatever they are trying to achieve. Once upon a time I had a lot of respect for them in many areas but these days, just seeing FSF in a headline is usually a clue you need to jump to the next new article.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
Windows may be guilty of 7 sins, but its main competitor on the desktop is derived from an OS with a daemonic mascot.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I don't know about you, but I can still copy CDs and other DRM-free content pretty fine with Vista.
Those same "sins" can be applied to any proprietary piece of software; heck, some of them can be applied to certain open-source software as well. Now, putting Windows aside, people use proprietary software all the time -- and for some of it there is no FOSS equivalent. Whether it's Windows itself, or Photoshop, Visual Studio, AutoCAD, Mastercam, Office, VMWare, or any of the slew of proprietary pieces of software out there, it's a bad idea to sit there and categorically attack something that many people are either fine with, don't care enough to be against, or ignorant about whether or not they should be against it.
In fact, that's probably the least likely way those people will end up listening to you, and after all, those are the people you're trying to convince.
A lot of people like Windows very much, and even if they could afford an alternative, like a Mac, they choose not to, because they like Windows. Hardcore industry people, like professional photographers using Photoshop, graphic designers using Illustrator, computer-aided manufacturing engineers using things like Mastercam or AutoCAD are so dedicated to their tool-of-trade that they will take umbrage to anything that tries to insult it. After all, doing so may be taken as an insult to their very profession, and thus, to themselves.
So what I'm trying to say is, the strategy of attacking Windows, and proprietary software in general, in order to help bring people to FOSS is going to have the exact opposite effect -- it's only going to solidify people who use proprietary software and alienate them from any thoughts of an alternative. After all, you wouldn't listen to someone telling you you suck, the software you use sucks, and you're an idiot for using it. Now, I'm not saying that's what they outright said, but that's how it's going to be taken by people reading it.
Maybe FOSS should stop being like PETA and, instead, tell people why it's *good* to use FOSS. Why Linux is *better* than Windows, GiMP is *better* than Photoshop, OpenOffice is *better* than MS Office. And maybe people will listen. But if you insult their software and tell them to use something else, they won't be very open to the idea.
Just a thought, anyway.
IMO, this isn't a very smart move of FSF, from what I have heard, Windows 7 is a big improvement over Vista (from an user end of point), do they really think they can convince people to think different? I'm sure that people who really care about those 'sins' would have already switched to another OS long ago.
Guys at FSF, if you want your message to reach the public, take some web design lessons. For example, take a look at your friends at Mozilla.
Doesn't make sense. Why keep blaming an existing product instead of fixing your own product? Why cant the FSF spend these valuable time and money in making Linux more desktop friendly?
And what does a fortune 500 have anything to care about DRM shit? They want a computer with a os that they could give to their employees isn't it?
They could at least try. Every single claim they make is laughable. They make overarching claims such as "inspect users' hard drives", which carries a heavy implication of looking through user data when no such looking occurs. Most of the others (vendor lock-in, security holes) are a decade out of date. Then they use terms like "proprietary Word formats" when all Word formats - both OOXML and DOC - are fully documented, as mandated by federal court.
Finally, they talk about DRM and removing support for older versions when you'd be hard-pressed to find an Open Source vendor supporting products for even a quarter of the lifecycle Microsoft supports its products for and the DRM exists solely to allow playback of HD content (and is nonexistent when such content isn't being played), something with OSS can't do.
Really, the FSF is almost as much of an embarassment to the Open Source community as RMS. If we ever want to see the day of the Linux desktop, we'll have to muzzle both of them first.
Founded in the mid-1980s by hacker-activist Richard Stallman, the FSF argues that free software and source code is a moral right. It takes pains to distinguish itself from the open-source movement, which advocates sharing of source code but tolerates charging for software.
I find this point rather interesting, as Richard Stallman gave a speech at Otago University here in small old New Zealand last year, and he was quite adamant that there was nothing wrong with charging for software, and took great pains to make the distinction between "free as in freedom" and "free as in beer".
Is Computerworld confused?
This post was made in complete sincere seriousity; as such any attempts to derive humour are doomed to instant failure.
pap
I think the FSF is using some ineffective rhetoric.
The first sin:
1. Poisoning education: Today, most children whose education involves computers are being taught to use one company's product: Microsoft's. Microsoft spends large sums on lobbyists and marketing to corrupt educational departments. An education using the power of computers should be a means to freedom and empowerment, not an avenue for one corporation to instill its monopoly.
I think this rhetoric only works if the reader already is at least somewhat suspicious of Microsoft.
To someone whose only experience with non-MS OSes is watching 90's movies (remember the Apple product placement) and maybe using a Mac at a friend's house once or twice; to someone whose only complaint about Microsoft software is that it crashes a bit too often and thinks this is just the way computers are; to someone who thinks that Windows and Office is the "standard" software and that it's useful to use what everyone else uses; to someone who doesn't think (rightly or wrongly) that the MS monopoly is causing bad things to happen to them---
What is the FSF saying? That schools should teach children how to use another OS that very few people use, and that might not work well together with what everyone uses? "Yeah, sure, monopolies aren't great, but I want my kids to learn something useful instead of what some ideologue thinks is right."
I don't agree with "the common man"'s interpretation, but I think that's what it is.
I think a much more powerful message could be sent by pounding (hard) on the fact that Microsoft is costing you more money that they have to. But they don't make a big fuss out of that:
4. Lock-in: Microsoft regularly attempts to force updates on its users, by removing support for older versions of Windows and Office, and by inflating hardware requirements. For many people, this means having to throw away working computers just because they don't meet the unnecessary requirements for the new Windows versions.
That really hasn't been my experience when I was using Windows: I wanted faster boxes such that I could play better games. How many people have upgraded computers to run newer versions of Windows/Office? In any case, why doesn't the FSF say in big, nasty, red letters: "Microsoft is making you spend money (excessively)!"? [add an OMGBBQROFL and exclamation marks if you think it makes the message more convincing].
Oh well... I think it's good of the FSF to try*, although I doubt the effectiveness of their methods.
[* I happen to use (GNU/)Linux, but if the FSF was advocating Haiku or OpenVMS or $NOT_LINUX as their main Windows alternative, I'd still be happy: I want more competition in the OS market, and a more fragmented platform base that'll encourage software vendors to write portable code; when you ignore 40% of the market instead of 5%, you might rethink not porting. Maybe this'll just shift apps even more onto the web, though...]
From the seven sins, only three of them have any real value (monopoly, lock-in and standards), but the last two are the same topic actually.
Education is not harmed by using commercial closed source software. It's a mono-culture, no doubt, but it would be exactly the same if anyone was using free software only.
DRM does not restrict what people can do with their computers, it restricts them to infringe copyright.
Security is a Windows problem, largely due to its legacy. But it is no way a sin, because if a user secures its Windows machine, then he has no problem.
WGA does not violate privacy.
It's too bad FSF has gotten to that...instead of being a beacon for free thinkers, they have become worst then communists...
... They wanted their web-design pages back.
Is that a BLINK tag I am looking at? Just that makes FSF or whoever else uses it E.V.I.L. (c)
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
Guys at FSF, if you want your message to reach the public, take some web design lessons.
Do you know and remember the old gnu.org site? You know, the one with black text on white and blue links [probably because that was the browser default]? Where the only document structure was h1 and p, with an em or two thrown about for, well, emphasis?
That was actually a good design (for a particular subset of parameters). It was viewable with any browser (almost including netcat :D), it handled just about any window size well [as well as possible, at least], it was friendly for the colorblind, the structure was quite simple with no sidebars, no top-bars... no clutter.
But then someone went and changed it, and now there are all the colors, and double-column layout (with long columns), and... meh.
I'd imagine it's impossible for the average user of a Windows machine to avoid automatic downloading of updates, which can also automatically reboot your machine even if you're in the middle of work but happen to have left the machine alone a bit.
... I'm frankly getting sick of the FSF. This latest stupid campaign reads like it was written by some petulant teenager without the first clue as to the realities of life and it tars the rest of us who support (and in my case actually write) OSS with the same idiotic uncompromising brush.
Message to Stallman - close source will be around after you've retired from your cosy ivory tower paid-by-the-taxpayer college job so get over it, learn to live with it and stop making other OSS advocates look and sound like immature fools.
this is anti-competitive and discriminates unfairly against Naked Computers
I said it before, I'll say it again.
"The all-new Windows 7! What's in the box? "
Starbucks, Harbuckle of Breath.
Is a 600+ DPI version of the file needed to print the trashing-Windows®-logo. It'd make an interesting conversation piece in my office. ^_^
Some days it's just not worth
chewing through my restraints.
Don't they get points at least for putting in the effort for posting in every BSD related thread their AC "BSD Is Dying" trolls?
And what about the GNU Logo:
http://www.gnu.org/
No open source project ever has to worry about having the Worst Project Logo Ever Created. GNU has it covered.
The parent poster is referring to Mac OS, which was derived from FreeBSD - which had a daemon as a mascot. This should be insightful or interesting instead of offtopic.
From the site copy and pasted not re-typed. "the absence of similar antifeatures form some of the easiest victories for free software." I am being lazy and hoping someone with edit on that site reads this. It would be nice if the site at least looked professional rather than a hobbyists project.
They fitted George Orwell's coffin with rollers so he could turn over more easily years ago.
They're starting to sound like PETA
Anyone got a light for my sig?
The whole "sin" thing makes the FSF and by extension all of us look like a bunch of religious loonies. Combine that with the fact that the FSF is being creative with the truth in this campaign and there goes our credibility.
*Poisoning education - Frankly, writing software for Windows is simply easier (or at least was until recently, it's getting better) especially if the bulk of what you're writing is interface work (like, say, educational software). And the argument that people who learn to use computers running Windows will somehow not be able to use anything else is bullshit, as most office productivity software works roughly the same. I do sometimes get annoyed with Linux (no Linux version of [favourite tool] exists - oh well, Wine) and OpenOffice (simply isn't complete yet) but that isn't Microsoft's fault.
*locking in users - The free software community is as much to blame as Microsoft. People will use whatever they need to get the job done. There are quite a few Microsoft applications for which no good alternative exists yet. Getting angry won't help here - start coding instead.
*abusing standards such as OpenDocument Format (ODF) - They didn't abuse the standards (unless you count the formula thing, which I regard as a bug in the standard itself) but the standards bodies by bribing people. This is bad, and it isn't something you're going to convince anyone of using a misleading headline and a lack of references.
*leveraging monopolistic behaviour - Sort of true, and sort of not true. You can get angry at MS for including a browser and a media player with their OS, but every OS should in this day and age ship with those anyway and you can't blame them for shipping their own. You would have done the same in their shoes, not out of malice but since it's the natural thing to do.
*threatening user security - Most Windows malware could easily be ported to Linux. Seriously, the times when the goal of a virus was to stop the system from booting are over. The sociopaths under the virus writers just want to trash your documents (easily done under Linux) and the spammers just want your internet connection (easily available under Linux also - I know this because I've run netgames and file sharing apps (among other things) under Linux).
*enforcing Digital Rights Management (DRM) at the request of entertainment companies concerned about movie and music piracy - Unfortunately for MS no one uses WMA, everyone uses MP3 (or rarely Ogg) for their music and this is how it ends up on the file sharing networks. Maybe it was evil of MS to try to go that route, but it has been scientifically proven that DRM cannot work and all material anyone wants is available without MS's DRM on it, so this is a huge non-issue.
*and invading privacy - Oh, come on. The FSF cites just the WGA thing, and for all the horrid things it may be, it certainly isn't a privacy risk.
Now, I think there's a lot wrong with Microsoft and Windows (being a programmer, it's mostly the myriad of new API's that strike a nerve, I like it when things are stable and I don't have to relearn everything every two years - I think I'll be skipping at least two or three of 'm and maybe I'll never be back - there are other things also) but I don't think starting a FUD campaign is going to do us any good.
"We call such limitations, antifeatures. An antifeature is functionality that a technology developer will charge users to not include"
davecb5620@gmail.com
I really agree with this point. People learn Excel instead of spread sheets. The problem is, give them another spread sheet, or Excel with a new interface, and their world melts. But also it is a learning computers/programming question. I also think Windows is not as a nutritious platform to learn from. When I was growing up, computers where relatively open, or at least the Acorn was, nearly everything was a mix of BASIC and ARM code. The Acorn was itching to be programmed. A disproportion of programmers I have worked with cut their teeth on the Acorn as a child. Where are our replacements coming from? Uni? I think the problems of learning programming purely from the education system are well documented here, not saying they are all crap, but there is certainly no shortage of those that are. Very few Windows kids seem to come out programmers. Linux is even more nutritious platform, more so then platforms like the Acorn ever where. Not just because everything is open but because of its rich server heritage. The openness is not just in the source, but in documents and books explaining how parts work and why. There are no dark secrets and black boxes, everything is done in the open to those interested. I learnt more in the last few years of playing with Linux at home then I have in the last ten programming on Windows for a living. I think this is why Windows people fear the penguin, if all this is right, it means they are behind where they could be. The big thing I think Windows breaks is your understanding of filesystems. Explaining a virtual filesystem to a Windows (userland only) programmer can melt their mind, explaining the "proc" folder has done that at least a few times. Those who think filesystems don't matter, don't understand how powerful this simple abstraction is. They have never seen a device file, it's hidden from their world, they don't know it's all under their feet. Which goes back to Windows breaking your understanding of filesystems. My kids will be Linux kids and they will know more about computers because of it.
I ditched my last windows computer when I found that Vista wouldn't let me name directories on my computer the way I liked. I couldn't create a My Documents dir as MS had tought us to do for decades. They went as far as not allowing a system admin to remove the My Documents block. When I finally found out how to do it, I got a windows update that blocked that too. So I was stuck with a computer that I bought, with my own money, and I couldn't use it the way I wanted to.
Ubuntu was a lot faster on that computer, too.
no, I don't have a sig
I almost mistook the FSF for the EFF, and thought to myself; "this seems out of character for them". Realizing, of course, that this organization is run by that lunatic Stallman makes this perfectly understandable. Bullshit, but understandable.
Move sig!
This looks like something written by Stallman himself. And yes, he has a point, but who is he trying to convince?
People are going to be put off by calling them "sins". Learning how to use windows is not "poisoning". And people simply don't care.
Tell people why proprietary software is bad for them, why you don't want to support MS and why you do want to support GNU/Linux. Don't just lay into the "MS is evil" argument. It's too strong. It scares people off.
FSF clearly has Microsoft hate disease to the point it is leaping into the FUD game with claims that are quite a stretch. Talk of 'sins'
Microsoft has previously been the dirty monoploy, but many claims are a stretch, some as good as ficticious. Furthormore things have started to change in Redmond.
DRM is hardly a threat anymore. DRM in WIndows was a flop, it's progressing no further, it's a seldom invoked codepath that somehow got blamed for performane problems, crops failing and stillborn babies in Vista (guess what same DRM is in Windows 7, problems there? No dead babies).
These 'sins' are tenuous at best, and are mostly situations that are improving. FSF: please do not be unhelpful, stick to facts or go beat up on Apple please.
Lock in? Seriously, that's being erroded, Microsofts supposed Lock-in is now as feeble as ever, consumers and developers have long taken matters in to their own hands.
Poisoning education? Maybe previously, but you can actually get Linux qualifications nowadays, and the tremendous growth of Linux in schools and universities is another point.
To the more lawless of individuals DRM is so insubstantial as to be no exsistant. Example:
'Windows, for some time now, has really been a DRM platform, restricting you from making copies of digital files,'
Let me fix that for you, FSF:
'Windows, for some time now, has really been a piracy platform, the OS of choice for pirates, warez, and hell the OS itself is the most pirated OS ever.
I would add, that 'piracy' is a feature of Windows. DRM of any kind has been a failure, people take matters into their own hands and get what they want restrictions be damned
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
While I whole heartedly agree with the message the FSF is conveying here, I wish that there were some way for it to sound a little less reactionary. People who don't have the technical savvy to smell the raw evil dripping out of every one of Microsoft's products will simply discount this type of thing as the expected response from sore losers instead of the well-intentioned civic effort that it actually is.
Many people in big business whose choice to use Microsoft software hurts them the most would never consider using any other product simply because they feel that the cutthroat, dishonorable, destructive practices must be better than any others because well... who is clearly winning in market saturation and profitability?
Also, just sayin'... being too smug about being right in class often got me beat up on the playground later.
i went to see that page and i found it really horrible. the layout is not professional at all but rather one of those "conspiration page ALIENS ABDUCTED BY GOVERNMENT ZOMG ZOMG" template. the "shocking" attitude that spreading of opinion more like facts rather then .. opinion, which lead to "yes is true" "no it isn't because of this this and that" flamebait debate
the "get linux" .. no really, i've been using linux on all my desktop and server since '98 but i'm aware of the fact that he's still not ready for end user joe the plumber also why not simply saying to look around for other oses ? it's not about windows vs linux it's about freedom of choice; what about freedos, what about bsd ?
If you want to fight for the cause i think fsf should focus on making linux desktop more friendly to end user while keeping a high level of "hackable" for those who know what to do.
I really hate these kind of campaign because they hurt my work and my reputation: when i go to a new client and i propose linux then i get that "you open source taliban yadda yadda yadda" and i have to spend a lot of time weighting sentences and phrases to explain why i proposed that solution based on linux, why it's a good thing for the company because of the less cost, etc. etc.
Now i have a new campaign that will drop out my credibility again: ah you use linux, you're an open source taliban where's you tin foil hat ?
seriously fsf, focus on coding, focus on producing good documentation on how to do "stuff" with linux, help on traslations for multilanguage.
if you want to get rid of that poisoning education help debian-edu to prepare a nice distro that can be easily installed on a school network .
Highlighter yellow on white... I'm colour-blind and that hurts my eyes, god alone knows what kind of pain that would inflict on a colour-sighted person.
I'd suggest that I need some kind of replacement retina implant after viewing that, but no doubt GNU purists would argue that there aren't any available without patents.
Andrew Oakley - www.aoakley.com
No, I'm serious. Offer a credible alternative to Outlook in Free Software so that a mobile phone supplier doesn't need it to sync calendar and contacts. Outlook is crap, but there is no credible alternative (don't say "Evolution" because it means you haven't actually *used* it).
Windows SMB has SAMBA as API compliant alternative - no such luck for Outlook. Free loses.
Until you manage this there is *no* chance a business will turn to alternatives. None.
the majority of slashdotters have changed their views of Microsoft in the last year. I remember constant bashing of Microsoft... vista this, vista that.
It seems like windows 7 beta was a win.
Slightly off-topic, but I am sure that W7 and IE Browsers are "tightly woven" with the Sharepoint portal. You can hardly use the portal without the IE Browsers and Office200x. I never hear much ado about the interaction of all that stuff. Not many Firefox add-ons there, are there? This worries me a bit more than anything FFS is going on about.
you probably won't want to give it away free and keep it for yourself.
The seller won't want to kill off any other clients willing to pay 100K and so they won't give it away free either (AND they are the one you're saying wants. but is unable to sell their software because it's GPL'd).
So how does the GPL license stop the GPL code being sold for money?
Maybe a good "DRM disaster" would teach the world more than any amount of vague handwaving by an unknown bunch of extremists.
No sig today...
If someone mentioned to a Microsoft Sales Exec the phrase "Well we have been considering Linux" or something similar, do you think that Exec's reply will be impartial and FUD-less? Has Slashdot forgotten the 'Get the Facts' campaign and smear-site? Microsoft are probably one of the dirtiest players in the software industry. The FSF will die a martyrs death if they don't drop some ethical pegs in order to level the playing field.
We have learnt to to understand our masters. We have identified with their views. We enjoy and love slavery.
Can someone please tell me how most of these problems (except maybe some of the new DRM stuff) didn't apply to XP and Vista? I'm just not seeing what's so special about Win 7 here.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
don't forget if you're using Linux/FreeBSD, etc, you can download the next full version for free.
Poisoning education
Wrong. Children learn to work on the platform that's mostly used in Businesses today, giving them the necessary skills to obtain a job.
http://xkcd.com/627/ Platform specific education turns people into the "Parents, Grandparents, co-workers, and other 'not computer people'" mentioned in this xkcd. Formal education uses multiple sources and generalizations to assure that students can learn new things after leaving school. If I had gotten a degree in "IT" I would have been stuck in my first job, not doing much beyond MS Windows cloning. Thank God for Computer Science where the only battle is which portable language should be used to teach initial programming concepts.
All in all, it's a bunch of stupid FUD by hippies that eat their gunk from their toes.
Only the king of the hippies eats weird stuff, and it's leftovers from his beard. If you're going to use ad hominem attacks, then you should at least use truthful ones.
I'm so tired of the FUD by these guys.
We've all gone through this before. FSF throws more FUD and causes more issues than MS ever did. I gladly use FOSS if it's around and it looks like it works, but I'm tired of the stupid politics.
I've abandoned Linux and no longer go to any Linux meetings because of the idiots that want to conquer the world. They do exactly what they accuse microsoft of doing.
Sorry, the mouse slipped to wrong mod :(
Well, it certainly gives new meaning to the phrase "less is more"
It IS better in some situations. I'm not going to buy Photoshop for a receptionist that wants to do a single thank you card or something. I've got a few people that often resize and crop enormous TIFF images so they can find points with a digitising program that would choke on the full sized images and doesn't need 300dpi images for enough accuracy anyway. I don't need to buy Photoshop just for that, and besides, it couldn't use the 16GB of memory on the machine the largest images are resized on. For that task it is inferior to gimp, Imagemagik etc due to the limitations of it being software on MS Windows stuck to around 2GB max. It's not all about full on graphic design and I can't justify a Photoshop licence for anyone that wants to do some occasional trivial work on images. Where it's non-trivial work and the colour depth limitations of gimp might possibly matter some day I've shelled out for the thing and a machine to run it as well as it can. Not many people have actually used Photoshop much so the different interface doesn't matter anyway. If someone has actually used Photoshop enough to get confused by the different interface and they need to do something non-trivial with images then that is when the get Photoshop.
Photoshop definitely has improved. When I last posted to a Photoshop newsgroup asking where "undo" was (like in gimp which I used before Photoshop) I ended up being flamed by about a dozen people telling me it wasn't there because true professionals didn't need it. Well, I was definitely not that, and if you are not a true professional graphic artist you really don't need Photoshop, I only used it because it was on that system. Besides, gimp now has far more features than the Photoshop those professionals were using back then.
Amazing... I don't even have to RTFA to find out what the 7 "sins" are. For once the list has been copied into the summary for me.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
Why do people insist on demanding Microsoft live up to standards that Apple, and Linux arent asked to live up to?
Windows 7 doesnt even come with an email program now! Linux, and MAC OS come with an email program.
Mac OS comes with quicktime, and Microsoft gets called "anti competitive" because Media Player ships with windows!?
If windows didnt come with a web browser, how would download a competing web browser? ... or any other software option?
APPLE is JUST AS GUILTY if not worse, then any thing Microsoft has done in recent times. But Apple gets a free pass... WHY?
Just admit you hate Microsoft out of spite. It has very little to do with reality, and everything to do with personal bias.
Again... APPLE does far more to keep their users locked into "Apple's way". Apple is extremely closed in its workflow, applications and bundled software. It is Apple or nothing. And you know what... Thats what people like about the Mac!
No wonder Windows is falling so hard lately. They cant even do anything comprehensive without being called a "monopoly".
Microsoft is not a monopoly. Lets get over it. Apple's software runs on the same hardware. If anything Apple is far more closed, and controlling than windows has ever been.
Its really time to stop.
I'm all for making sure competition is fair, but not at the cost of a comprehensive environment / workflow. As long as you can use alternative software... I dont care how or what MS bundles with their OS, or what it builds into its OS. Just as long as its good.
Windows still runs exe's last i checked right?
Good. Then there will be alternatives to MS installed applications.
"'Windows, for some time now, has really been a DRM platform, restricting you from making copies of digital files,'"
Uhhh...excuse me? Does this mean all those mp3 dics I burned for my car in Win7 really didn't work, or the files I copied to my digital music player? All those Netflix and FlexDVD's that hit my Win7 machine really didn't get backed up and really didn't get outputted to a DVD-R? Wow, without the FSF telling me what Windows 7 couldn't do...I was starting to have major misconceptions based on actual working expierence.
While I agree with what most of the FSF does, I think this is just hate mongering. Some of the points they make is ok...but seriously...that kind of thing comes standard with any Windows installtion. FUD? Your fudding right!
But back to the DRM thing since it's what I know about. In no way did I see Windows7 as being any more obtrusive with digital media than XP was. This DRM crap they must be talking about is the same "create protected conetnet" crap they've been putting in to Windows Media Player for years.
libdvdcss and libdvdread
readily available but must be downloaded because of LEGAL issues with some tinpot dictator countries like the US.
And free.
essentially "until we get this settled, do what MS Excel does" ***which Microsoft couldn't do***????
1. Poisoning education: They made a easier to use product in which people who work in the field of education found value. WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN? 2. Invading privacy: Those jerks don't want to call it Windows Gestapo! Curse their backwards naming!!! 3. Monopoly behavior: See "poisoning education", but this time, for hardware vendors! WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE NERDS (5% or less) who don't WANT windows?!? 4. Lock-in: They don't even support their own stuff anymore! By God, I couldn't find ANYONE to help me with my DOS 6.22 install! 5. Abusing standards: Our standards are better than theirs, but they don't agree!! 6. Enforcing Digital Restrictions Management (DRM): They allowed their media player to work with DRM-enabled files, therefore NOT alienating most of their users! What jerks!! 7. Threatening user security: They're popular and people try to hack it! How DARE they? 8. ??? 9. Profit!
After 20 years of the Windows product line, change has been very limited. And not just change to the components of Microsoft products. Understand I was wire-wrapping sockets back in 1978. I quite literally grew up with DOS and Windows. Several things happened to bitter me against it.
- Windows comes by default on almost all machines. An alternative is just now becoming regularly available. How many car companies are there? How many brands of beer?
- No admin that loves sleep would ever just load Windows without an A/V program made by someone else. Got a Ford engine in that Chevy car? Did you buy a Frigidair compressor to put in your Whirlpool fridge? Nothing else is this fragile, and still sells.
- American culture has become accustomed to the concept of the reboot. Where did this come from? From not knowing why the machine failed, and trying the last thing we know how to do. What 20th century product taught us that?
- Not so long ago we had the concept of The Killer App. But since the MS team decided to screw every business partner dumb enough to work with them, you just can't get investment money for Microsoft-based projects, and you haven't for about 10-15 years. Technology pauses.
- A large and growing number of people are spending time in courtrooms all around the world, because of the lavish 'underground' society MS let grow. After all, they needed a harsh environment to sell the support contracts, now, didn't they? Microsoft is one environment in which it's possible to lose $30,000 and spend 5+ years in court trying to get it back.
- Malware. 2,000,000 viruses in the wild and growing by about 100,000 a month. Think that's still being done by two kids in Indonesia? I bet they also have offices in Redmond.
The spell that computer users have been under is just insane; they keep getting bit by MS problems, paying $100 to get their machines flushed and filled over and over and over...but whatever marketing voodoo they bought when they sold their souls is rather complete, don't you think?
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
...near as worthwhile a target as Windows platforms due to (a) market share...
Someone always trots out the market share argument for the poor security record of windows. It's a poor argument. Anyone with a net connection could find a few hundred windows machines and a few hundred linux machines with nmap in not very much time. If it turns out the windows ones are easier to crack that's in no way because there are more of them.
Give someone with no IT knowledge a windows machine and a ubuntu machine and they will both update themselves with little to no user interaction. The windows one will reboot more often and has still have a higher chance of security problems because microsoft software is written to a lower standard and tested by less people.
Linux is better than windows. That's not to say that linux is perfect, or anywhere near perfect, or that being 'better than windows' is good enough.
Did Stallman, Peace Be Upon Him, really say this? I refuse to click on links like this simply because I don't trust them. And really don't want them in the logs at work.
I have problems with Richard Stallman, Holiness to the Prophet, but I can't believe he'd espouse such an idea.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
They don't. Neither Apple nor "Linux" (which isn't an entity, in the first place) are permitted to use anticompetitive practices to illegally leverage a market position which meets the legal definition of monopoly.
Insofar as is legally relevant, Microsoft has been found to not only be a monopoly but to have been illegally abusing a monopoly position, in various jurisdictions.
Did Microsoft write the article summary? *ducks*
History? Reading? Writing? Spelling? Math? What are you talking about. The U.S. has dumbed down education so badly that the citizenry is becoming illeterate and uneducated even in comparison to a third world nation and the entire reason for this is the fact that our political system has degenerated from the Constitution of "We the People" to "We The Corporations". Not only that but I'm sorry to say that the 4th Reich has managed to assume lots of power in the United States and they've done it through our Educational Process by refusing to teach our kids how to Think for themselves. This is a sorry fact of life in the former United States of America because it the principles that were enshrined in our highest document have been repeatedly and continously violated for both economic and political gain by a few individuals.
The FSF should definitely stop thinking about (and marketing) software freedom as a religious issue. Drop all these notions of "sin", "purity", and this whole "dogmatic" take to (computing) life. This crap only alienates people, and leads to wackos thinking in terms of faithful and sinners....
When will these idiots realize that the folks that are the most interested in (Free) software (and thus likely to care), are mostly of the technical rational kind. Never, they will keep making a religious purity argument out of FOSS....
How about putting on rational arguments forward? How about having someone in charge that actually is humanly capable of acknowledging a mistake and/or changing its own mind? Otherwise you only attract the "RMS is always right" kind of people.
that their horrible "design" destroys anything that the good intention created!
Seriously, it looks like an intern did it. Or one of them "web developers" who drove a taxi before that job, and are still in 1999.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
I like the objectivity of the article..."poisoning" is a great verb to use when you are trying to sound authoritative on a subject.
APPLE is JUST AS GUILTY
Actually Apple is "a ninth" as guilty.
You forgot to add balance to your argument - about 9 out of 10 computers sold are windows machines right? So the result of the Microsoft lock-in is NINE TIMES worse than that of Apple - and even worse applies this lock-in to a supposedly neutral platform.
Anyway some of us on Slashdot actually enjoy the vendor lock-in provided by Apple strange as it may seem to you - less configuration, better support etc - so please don't try to spoil a perfectly valid business model for us. Remember if you don't like it there is a competitor that you can choose that is NINE TIMES bigger.
"Windows [...] has really been a DRM platform, restricting you from making copies of digital files..."
Interesting. I've been using the Windows platform to strip and bypass DRM for years!
If you are anti-Windows, maybe it is time that you push your favorite software developer to start putting things on a unix/linux platform.
Me, personally, I use Windows because the developers are not pushing applications out to Linux/Unix.
If the developers did port more things to Linux/Unix, I would quit using Windows without even blinking
Is Windows a monopoly? no. Windows is compatible with a buttload of stuff. Unix, is not. Unix can support the stuff, but the developers choose to not develop for there because there is not a big enough market. It is a messed up double edged sword. If developers started pushing more applications to unix, it is very possible that their competition could outsell them by sticking to Windows. If you jump to Unix and get people to follow, then others will take lead based off of that.
"Windows may be guilty of 7 sins, but its main competitor on the desktop is derived from an OS with a daemonic mascot." - by Trepidity (597) on Thursday August 27, @04:52AM (#29213649) Homepage
Windows IP Stack is derived from that SAME OS, w/ a "daemonic mascot", BSD...
(Not that that's bad, because BSD's widely recognized as "the best in the business" afaik, for things IP - only thing is, I personally just don't LIKE what they've done to HOSTS files in VISTA, since 12/09/2008 "Patch Tuesday" onwards, into Windows Server 2008 &/or Windows 7)
That problem, is NOW the inability to use 0 as a blocking IP address in a HOSTS file, vs. 0.0.0.0 (next smallest & next most efficient) & 127.0.0.1 (worst of the lot, in the "loopback adapter address"))
That, & what rootkit.com found:
PERTINENT QUOTE EXCERPT:
http://www.rootkit.com/newsread.php?newsid=952
"BTW, the firewalls based on NDIS v6, which was introduced in Windows Vista, are much easier to unhook and bypass."
APK
P.S.=> I just don't understand MS lately - they're trying to sell folks what they do NOT want (the DRM stuff is probably the BIGGEST 'sticking point' for most folks, vs. what I note above on a guess though)... that? That doesn't work for greater sales - if they start listening to us "geeky types", they'd be far better off, because nowadays, folks don't pay as much attention to CORPORATE ANALYSIS/REVIEWS, but, instead, those of end-users like themselves (especially more "techie" users opinions/views/reviews)... apk
The anticompetition thing Microsoft is going under is for Windows Media Player - not for DirectShow Filters. Quicktime is like a suite of DirectShow filters for the mac. The player is just a frame around that. WMP is much more then that.
Beyond the obvious method of physical distrobution, one can always download a browser through the wonders of wget.
90% of all computers don't come with Mac OS on them.
Right now, I'm wondering if you have some problems with the understanding of what is real or not. How can you say that Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly? Go to any shopping center, it doesn't matter where, and you can go into all the businesses and ask them if they have any computers without windows on them. The few who won't say 'no' are the people who don't even know what you're talking about. You won't find any public school in the US with student computers running anything but Windows (excepting the precious few schools which have been blessed by Apple), and you'll be hard-pressed to find one running servers running anything else.
And how the hell do you think that Apple is more locked than Microsoft? Last time I checked, there's a FOSS Mac OS X core available, but no FOSS Windows core. With Windows, you'll never be able to access the kernel, short of writing hardware driivers. Apple has contributed to the public, while Microsoft has only accepted payments from us. And don't forget, people still think highly of them because of the discounts they give to public education. While switching to a FOSS solution would save everyone billions combined.
Why are you sending me to the FSF.org website when I simply hover on it? Links are supposed to be clicked, damnit. The FSF must follow usability rules too, that little stunt shows me you only care about yourselves and you think too much highly of yourselves.
...seeing as the only people who will take this campaign seriously are those are ALREADY use Linux. You think yout typical Dell customer is gonna be affected by this?
The price to upgrade from the previous version. If I ever switch to Mac OS, this will be the reason.
As much as I like and respect Stallman's works, and his fight for digital freedom, I find this little snippet quite disturbing.
What I appreciate about the statement, however, is that he's willing and able to deal logically with an issue which is too often dominated by fear. Most people aren't willing to discuss the issue, because if they come too close to advocating ephibophilia or pedophilia, or even just fail to assert opposition to it, they will be ostracized.
In my opinion, there's a basic problem of establishing consent. Children are not puppets, but it is relatively easy for an adult to manipulate them or silence them through threats or through the authority they hold over the child. From that perspective I agree with the law which says that when you're young enough you simply can't legally consent to various things, including sex. I don't believe any rule like "X years of age or older" will be perfect, erring on one side or other in various cases - I do think it's better to make the error of telling someone they're not old enough to consent when they are ready than to make the error of telling someone they are old enough to consent when they're truly not ready.
With teenagers I think we have a different set of problems: the age at which people are physically and mentally prepared to have sex does not correspond to the point at which they're legally allowed to. We've criminalized natural behavior.
Bow-ties are cool.
Thank you for saying this, I was just going to mod you up, but I thought a reply would emphasize the point further.
I'd feel much better about what the FSF is doing if they weren't so intent on one target. Apple does just as much lock-in as it can and always seems to get a free pass. I seem to remember a new version of OSX is coming out, why no page about it's sins? iPhone? iTunes? Amazon's Kindle?
I'm not the biggest Microsoft fan, and they've been the bunt of many of my jokes, but it's hard to ignore the simple outright hate. From what I understand, the FSF is an organization that supposed to encourage positive growth in open software, not encourage negative hate towards certain companies.
Put this in a netbook form factor, maybe with HD TV out too, and it's the perfect multimedia Linux pocket companion. Getting very close now to what I'm waiting for.
Just further evidence that the free software movement is akin to a religion.
Isn't Linus an atheist?
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:kuTSg2WmK0cJ:windows7sins.org/+http://windows7sins.org&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=mozilla
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
So far i've converted 3 people to Linux, and they are loving it. I'm trying my best...!
you know you can fry stuff putting things into things that dont like the things you put into it...
Why don't they just create some nice Linux on the Desktop ads for TV? Get a bounty going and have users donate to a fund that can be used to hire someone to create the ad even better yet have your users create an ad using tools available on Linux Desktop. I can't see why you couldn't get tons of cool ads that would kick ass on the Apple and MS ads I see on tv.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
"Windows, for some time now, has really been a DRM platform, restricting you from making copies of digital files"
There hasn't been ONE GODDAMNED THING preventing me from making copies of ANYTHING. If there is something that's supposed to keep me from copying stuff, it sure as hell isn't working.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
I went to the link in the post: windows7sins.org, which claimed (its not saying it anymore) that there was some event today at noon in the Boston Common. Well, I took a walk down there and did a big loop through the place without seeing any nerdy gatherings. Was anyone else looking for it *slash* did anyone find this event?
Instead of moaning about it , why don't they use their open source knowledge to help STRIP THE DRM OUT OF WINDOWS 7. I know it will be my #1 priority. That and installing a HEAVY FIREWALL to manage or disable Windows 7's collusion and communication with big name software manufacturers.
'i went to see that page and i found it really horrible. the layout is not professional at all'
;)
The use of the lower case first-person singular is a nice touch
davecb5620@gmail.com
"I now no longer believe the FUD from the freetard cr .."
..
I stopped reading past the 'freetard' comment
davecb5620@gmail.com
I do believe you're a diehard linux fan... I really do :]
...
"... I'm frankly getting sick of the FSF. This latest stupid campaign reads like it was written by some petulant teenager without the first clue as to the realities of life"
I take it you that you don't disagree that the following is an accurate depiction of Microsoft practices.
Poisoning education, Invading privacy, Monopoly behavior, Lock-in, Abusing standards, Enforcing Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), Threatening user security
"and it tars the rest of us who support (and in my case actually write) OSS with the same idiotic uncompromising brush"
That would be speaking only for yourself and what OSS have you contributed to ?
--
Bill Gates' hurricane stopper
davecb5620@gmail.com
"The U.S. has dumbed down education so badly that the citizenry is becoming illeterate and uneducated...
It's almost certainly just a typo, but there's just something funny about seeing "illeterate" in a rant about the educational system.
Maybe more than a year, I'm very angry about Linux desktop.
Until KDE 4. I was very happy Kubuntu user with 2 monitors. Then 8,04 was come and everything goes bad.
Very bad.
Today I'm trying to use that Gnome thing on ubuntu 9.04.
After 10 years of KDE usage, I switch to GNOME because of unsupported dual head on KDE 4 with ATI.
I can barelly work with 2 montors with an ATI 34xx. Screen flaggy. Many components was broken, Skype frezes computer when someone opens video. That gnome can't mix mp3 player with other things sound sources. Firefox 3.5.2 eats lots of sources and freezes each 20 secs for 5 secs. galleon was died randomly. Copy paste wont work between gnome and KDE elements (I have to use kate and kmail). Most minimized programs can't be maximized. I have to switch to some other desktops and re try again.
At overall, it was absolute mess.
I wonder how they choose that gnome thing over KDE for base desktop for Ubuntu.
Anyhow. I can't use KDE 4 because monitor/vga problem. And I can't use Gnome because shitty quality.
SO I say to FSF.
Hey guys, your clean up your backyard first.
After 10 years of constant Linux Desktop usage I'm very seriously thinking to move to Windows.
DRM will never be defeated by shooting the messenger.
How about we give it a try a few times and see what happens to the DRM when there are no more messengers?
--bornagainpenguin
Have a Virgin Mobile USA smartphone? Give VMRoms.com a try!
"He just kept saying "But Vista's the latest and bestest program..."
I'm sure he wanted the "bestest". I'll tell you what's annoying - reading people who semi-quote others by dumbing down their language to make them look incompetent or clueless.
It happens all the time on slashdot. I maintain that if you lie about "how" they said something you're effectively lying about "what" they said.
In Western democracies turnout can vary a lot, so if a candidate gets say 51% with 50% turnout he got 25.5% of potential voters.
Hitler, even with a street army intimidating voters, never got more than 33% of the vote (much less the population). He used some "national emergency" political maneuvers to take power and take power and cancel future elections. I think there was a subsequent election, run by the nazis with little opposition and direct intimidation of voters (invisible ink to find out who voted how, fictional counts, etc.) but he certainly did not have a consensus for war and genocide.
Most Germans, certainly most Berliners, were against going to war. They were driven to fight by intimidation and propaganda.
And I'm off topic... Damn Godwin!
You got me into this! You were the ideologue! I'm only a poor assassin! - Twenty evocations, Bruce Sterling
"Just because you're family doesn't entitle you to take-advantage of other members."
In my experience, yes, it kind of does. Certainly one shouldn't go too far overboard, but that's one of the perks - and prices - of being family.
lol this is so dumb. there are so many blatant holes in this view.
It doesnt matter than 9 out of 10 computers are microsoft windows machines. Thats user preference. Users do have a choice you know!
No one is forcing me to buy a dell windows pc. I could go to the Apple store and by a MAC, which is the same exact hardware. Not only is it the same exact hardware, you cant service your hardware without bringing it to Apple and they dont allow anyone to sell "mac clones".
It does not matter at all how many people buy a product, if there is a choice in the market place. There will always be a prefered choice by the majority but that does not mean you have a monopoly. ESPECIALLY when the competition is allowed to do what you're not allowed to do. Thats unfair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Imagine if microsoft made it so that windows only ran on microsoft hardware. Wouldnt that be illegal? Wouldnt dell be pissed off? Wouldnt ALL of the OEM's around the world go ape shit?. Well then why is Apple allowed to LOCK in, its os... to only hardware it sells?
Why is Apple allowed to bundle itunes, safari, mobile me, mail, ichat and many others, and Microsoft is told "you cant".
Why cant my iphone run firefox or opera's web-browser? Why cant I play FLAC in itunes????????
I dont care how many people buy a product. It really does not matter as long as there is competition. If anything it proves that EVEN if you try to lock in people like Apple does... you can still lose to competition.
Apple's entire company is based on them providing you a complete experience/service. They dont want you going outside the Apple walls, and they make it very hard to. Apple is so good at locking its users in to the Apple world, and it is the reason many people buy a MAC in the first place!
"Anyway some of us on Slashdot actually enjoy the vendor lock-in provided by Apple strange as it may seem to you - less configuration, better support etc - so please don't try to spoil a perfectly valid business model for us. Remember if you don't like it there is a competitor that you can choose that is NINE TIMES bigger. "
EXACTLY.. See, there is my point.
BTW. I dont agree at all with the nine times bigger. That doesnt matter. What matters is market competition. MAC vs PC = same hardware, different software. They are two great options.
But anyways you proved my point. APPLE is good at locking people in, and most if not all users who buy Apple, are attracted to that "lock-in" that apple provides, because like you said its less configuration, better support etc.
Apple's all inclusive mentality is attractive! OK... so Why cant Microsoft offer an all inclusive experience?
It's not fair that one is allowed to do one thing, and the other is not. There is no reason to allow Apple an unfair advantage, while people sit around and claim Microsoft has an unfair advantage.
PERSONALLY... like you said... Apple users are attracted to that all inclusive mentality, and guess what... so are PC users but we live in a very fractured software world, where as Apple users live in a very complete software world were it interacts nicely and seamlessly provides a unifying experience. That unifying experience is a value to mac users!
To PC users though, its wrong. Its wrong for us Windows PC users, but not wrong for Mac users? AND its also the very reason many are leaving windows to go to apple.
Microsoft needs to be allowed to do whatever it must, but not at the expense of blocking other companies from writing competing software. That means, Microsoft can ship windows with an email program, but cant design windows in a way that blocks a user from installing a different email program.
JUST because something comes installed with an OS, does not make it prefered or anti competitive. Hell most Dell PC's come pre-installed with garbage i'll never use, and yet they're allowed to do it and microsoft cant.
Microsoft is damned if it does, damned if it does not. I'm tired of MS writing "example software" that ships with its os. By that i mean, software that has its balls cut off because they're terrorfied of being penalized again.
As long as you can still install firefox, eudora, thunderbird, aim... whatever.... MS should be allowed to bundle their software with the OS, and it should be comprehensive software.
LOOK at windows backup. they purposely limit its functionality, so that it ALMOST works as a solution... but it does not provide a solution at all because it's limited to a single back up job with very little options. Compare that with Apple's Time Machine... APPLE GETS AWAY WITH MURDER BECAUSE IT PROVIDES REAL FUNCTIONALITY THAT THE USERS LIKE!
Every peice of software included with windows, is example software. NONE of it has any serious functionality because they purposefully write it in a way that it does nothing useful. This is so the competition feels better about themselves.
Is Norton ghost crying foul at Apple's Time Machine? DOES ANYONE REALLY CARE? I'd rather have a nice solid backup solution built into my OS!!!
Instead we have windows 7 backup, which now allows you to select which files you want to back up, but it only allows you a single back up job. Lets say you only want files A B C to go to back up drive 1, and you want files D E F to go to back up drive 2. You cant do that with windows 7 backup because they're affraid of being called anti competitive.
And it leaves me wishing I owned a MAC with Apple's Time Machine.
SEE the problem?
Windows 7's "Sins"... sounds like it would be a list of problems with Windows 7, yet all but two of the "sins" is about Microsoft or one of their other products.
Also?
"The security of your computer and network depends on two things: what you do to secure your computer and network, and what everyone else does to secure their computers and networks."
-and-
"Unfortunately your browser does not have JavaScript enabled. Please consider whitelisting this site."
Fuck that. I'm not enabling javascript. Fix the goddamned site so it doesn't ask for potential security risks to be enabled if you're that concerned about how secure people's computers are.
"Right now, I'm wondering if you have some problems with the understanding of what is real or not. How can you say that Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly? Go to any shopping center, it doesn't matter where, and you can go into all the businesses and ask them if they have any computers without windows on them."
Go to an Apple store, do you see any Apple computers with windows on them?
Go to best buy, do you see any windows PCs with MAC OS on them? No, because Apple refuses to allow that to happen.
Apple in many ways keeps itself out of the PC world by strictly controlling its products!
Apple does not allow MAC OS to be installed on non-Apple PC hardware. Apple does not allow Mac Clones. The only thing stopping windows PC users from installing Mac Os on their Pc hardware... is Apple and not Microsoft.
I have no problem understanding what is real or not. I'm just capable of seeing the bigger picture, which others are not. I dont break down the PC market vs the Mac market. They are the same personal computer market. You have a choice, buy a Windows pc, or an Apple pc. They run on the same hardware. Oddly enough Apple's software only runs on hardware they strictly control. Imagine if Microsoft did that? Your head would explode in anger. And yet why is Apple allowed to dictate the hardware it runs on?
You see... Windows became popular because it ran on PC compatibles. That is why Apple lost historically. Apple makes a very nice product, but they're very strict about where you buy it, and what it runs on. They make sure you pay through the ass for something that PC compatibles do just as well, but cheaper.
Apple's small market share, is their own doing. Not Microsoft's.
There are two ways of looking at the PC market. 1, is it just a windows market, or is it a windows, mac os, linux market?
I say its a 3 way market. Yes Windows has the majority share, but so what? Crayola crayons has a majority share too. There will always a greater percentage of something, but that does not mean there is a monopoly.
Microsoft's greatest mistakes were with the API tricks they pulled and rightfully so they were penalized. However this has gone too far. People just hate microsoft and they cant admit it. At this point, most people dont even know why they hate micrsoft. I hate them too for many reasons, mainly though for writing incomplete software, and i suspect thats due to fear of being called "anti competitive"
Cutting the balls off, so that Apple can get away with murder and raise its market share... is not fair.
When i grew up, my highschool had commadore 64's and Apple computers. They did eventaully get PCs though. Its my understanding that Apple was the only thing available in most schools back then. Back then it was less clear as to whom would be used by everyone. Today thats clearer, and both systems are quite similar if not the same now. I learned Word, on a Mac in high school.
That has nothing to do with it. The core? The kernal? it has nothing to do with this. Thats like saying if Ford invented a brand new engine type, they must tell their competitors how it works, and produce it for free. Its silly. A company can make a product as it sees fit.
We're talking about bundled features with the OS and strict control over hardware, software and service.
Apple is allowed to do what Microsoft wishes they could.
I'm glad you posted rather than mod me up. You added something to this that i failed to do so...
I wasnt even thinking about OSX Snow Leopard coming out. Thats very interesting. FSF is out to criticize Windows 7 which will be released very shortly, but not the new version of OSX which comes out around the same time?
I guess Apple does no evil?
Its clearly hatred. Its unfair and bitter. Its become cliche to attack Microsoft.
Microsoft deserves a lot of criticism but they dont deserve to be hated so blindly. Apple gets away with murder... and mainly because Apple users like that "lock in". They enjoy that all inclusive experience because its different than what microsoft offers. Ironically Microsoft cant offer it, because they will be slaughtered by governments and bitter critics all around the world.
So Apple gets a free pass.
Its not right. Frankly I think we stand for freedom a bit more universally, or at least be fair to microsoft and allow them to compete with Apple, using Apple's style of "all inclusive experience".
I'm not the biggest Microsoft fan either. Sometimes i think they're out of touch and provide poorly designed software because they lack vision... and other times i think "If only Microsoft were allowed to write software that has full features, rather than "just enough" features to keep them from getting sued by the anti competition/microsoft haters"
Microsoft is not perfect.
Windows 7 is very nice btw.
Mac OS is also very nice.
I enjoy both platforms, but i see the hypocrisy for its as clear as day.
I'm not against Free Software, and I actually like Linux a hell of a lot. I love that people are so dedicated to the cause, and their work... so much that money doesnt even matter... and that the ideals do matter more than anything. I LOVE that. Its passion, its generous, and its a wonderful thing we should promote...
but not at the cost of being mean and spiteful.
The signal to noise ratio in this thread is amazingly high for such a new thread. Almost like it was filled with tons of astroturf posts, and even some straw dogs to distract the direction of the conversation. I will have to agree with the point of some of them, but they are as such, straw dogs, and do not invalidate any of the actual claims. I've personally experienced most of these "7 windows sins", and had others relate to me their experiences validating the rest.
"I thought the BSD TCP stack was the reference implementation, hence everyone copied it." - by VGPowerlord (621254) on Thursday August 27, @04:09PM (#29221995) Homepage
That's pretty much it, in a nutshell (as to what I was stating) I suppose...
Still - "everyone's" a big word though, but, for that most part (in my experience @ least)? I have yet to see one in a modern OS that is NOT based on a BSD version.
APK
P.S.=> Anyways/anyhow - whew: Still waking up here (just having coffee now)... but, in any event, thanks for your time & reply! apk
Yet, it is precisely TC that enables those applications to restrict your freedoms; without TC, there would not be such restrictions.
This is the same reason certain other classes of items are subject to regulation: weapons, encryption, chemicals, etc. It is not the thing itself that is problemmatic -- the trouble comes from what other people do with that thing.
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
At $BIG_GROCERY_CHAIN they recently changed their customer discount cards to a new style for reasons I never really questioned. The ink on the new card (keychain style) scratched off in my pocket within a week. The old card lasted nearly five years without issue. Unfortunately the old card is no longer supported.
I know it's a stretch and I'll probably get voted off-topic, but I thought it was an interesting comparison.
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According to the FSF's site, "This page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Ahem.
... and then they built the supercollider.
All OK about DRM and Windows. Recently i helped a new MACBook-User to "move" her music .....
First step: All music on the ipod was deleted.
They treat their customers like criminals !
FSF: Please investigate also the MAC-DRM so people are informed.
I think Apple is worse regarding DRM than Windows. You won't find so many "workarounds".
Greetings from Switzerland
Quite a funny combination:
The IE standard support can't be beaten, I guess... Pity you don't have support for Firefox or anything on the OS you're a "fanboi" for. :-)
Thanks for the deep insight into monopoly economics and behaviour, like actively destroying standard compliance as a business practice.
Karma: Excellent (My Karma? I wish...:-( )
I'm afraid it goes much further than that. There was no warning whatsoever about the facial hair shown in the video. I had to get up 3 times last night to calm down my daughter. She happened to sit next to me when I played the video.
RobVB,
If you would like to learn more about Windows 7 and how it can best serve you with new features you won't find in XP, Microsoft does have a site with whitepapers, tutorials, walkthroughs and screen casts on all the âoeunder the hoodâ features in Win 7. Check out the Springboard site for Windows 7 on TechNet here http://tinyurl.com/832nco
Jessica
Microsoft Windows Client Team
The needs of the people outweigh the rewards of hard work and creative output.
Where have I heard this crapola before?
Using the word "leveraging" like this is a sin.