Software freedom

If anyone had any doubt that our insistence on freedom was important,
just read this.

http://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2007/08/24/0027.html

What is even more astounding is the incestuous love-in these other
groups have, with their Sam-worship, that prevents them from doing the
obvious and right thing.

It's a Windows world? Nope, sorry.

Apparently some dude named Jame at APC thinks it is a Windows world.

James, clearly, you haven't done enough research. Google is the leader in searches with about 55% of all searches. MSN is a staggering 9%.

http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/013595.html

And Yahoo! has twice the hits of Hotmail. Most hotmail customers were customers before Microsoft took over.

http://weblogs.hitwise.com/leeann-prescott/2007/05/gmail_traffic_up_17_since_open.html

As for desktop market share, we're gaining a lot.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5492399.html

Also, Vista doesn't look or act anything like XP, therefore making one argument of yours invalid.

http://chris.pirillo.com/2007/08/14/windows-vista-complaints-department/

http://keznews.com/2558_Microsoft_partner__Vista_less_secure_than_XP

http://lifehacker.com/software/ask-the-readers/six-months-later-windows-vista-regret-278746.php

Three's enough, right? People don't like Vista.

Also, though it sounds like bashing, it's complaints about how Microsoft is shoved down people's throats. On top of that, they "sell" you a product that you are authorized to use under circumstances that Microsoft alone decides. These terms are also subject to change by Microsoft. Don't believe me? Read the EULA, like you should have when you installed.

http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/420

http://download.microsoft.com/documents/useterms/Windows%20Vista_Ultimate_English_36d0fe99-75e4-4875-8153-889cf5105718.pdf

You are referring to GNU/Linux, I assume, when you implicate that it "has the flexibility of titanium." Call me crazy, or a "fan-boy", or a geek, or whatever, but the ability to modify software (including the OS) on your own implies to me the flexibility of mercury. Also, it has the same capabilities as your precious Windows. However, my price: free. Of course, you can be happy that you just got a flesh thermometer by Microsoft because you just paid $800 or more for the OS and office. Not to mention the fact that I can still alter all of my software and make it look and feel just the way I want to. Then, I can legally distribute that to other people to help them have a better user experience. Free. Freedom.

Don't tell me that I'm switching to Vista. I'm not. I have the choice, and my choice is to use GNU/Linux. I have that freedom to choose that I will buy a system that doesn't have Vista on it. And the number of GNU/Linux preinstalled computers is rising. Why do you think Microsoft started their FUD campaign, "Get the Facts?" They see GNU/Linux as a threat to their monopoly.

http://lxer.com/module/db/index.php?dbn=14

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/41360/41360.html

I've done all of the actual research for you. Try running with it. Decide for yourself. Maybe you could provide facts of your own? Or even an attempt at proof?

Thanks,
RMS.

Microsoft FUD, proven WRONG.

Microsoft claims patent infringement, but they won't state specifics about it. You want a FUD campaign? That's it. It's just a rouse. NASA is Linux dependent. The GNU multicomputer utilities allow them to have the processing power they need. Do you think NASA is going to get sued?

http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS7317694195.html

What can you find in GNU/Linux that is the same as Windows? Furthermore, the idea of Windows originated and was put out by Apple. I say this in the sense of how we think of GUI computing today.

http://toastytech.com/guis/win1983.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lisa

Lisa was the first GUI system.

http://www.comphist.org/pdfs/CompHist_9812tla7.pdf

You'll notice that Windows came out the year previous to the Macintosh system, but the Apple had the drop down menus and icons like Windows didn't have then. Now, who stole what?

Also, a vague and unsupported argument like, "Linux is communism." is exactly why there can't be intelligent, fact based discussions regarding reasons to switch to Windows or GNU/Linux. Linux is an operating system. GNU is a philosophy. If you had compared GNU to communism, it would have at least been comparing apples to apples.

Windows fanatics, GNU/Linux is its own operating system with features unique to it. One of the perks is the variety of replacements for high-end commercial software. Add to that the fact that you can modify that software and distribute it for free. It's freedom that Windows users can't claim on as much of their software.

BBC iPlayer Protest - Manchester - Tuesday, 14th August 2007

The plan for tomorrow. Meet upstairs at 12:00 or thereabouts at Odder,
which is a pub right across from the BBC. Look out for people with a
bunch of yellow suits.

We have yellow suits and helmets for a lot of people. Everyone will get
one or the other. Hopefully, we'll have enough for everyone. We also
have a lot of flyers, and banners.

The police know we're coming. They seemed perfectly fine about it. The
press, less so - the Manchester Evening News seemed quite dismissive of
us. We'll see.

Anyway, it's going to be a nice peaceful protest. Bring cameras, take
photos and let's have a really cool event.

I will be videoing. We hope to get some cool footage for Defective By
Design.

Look forward to seeing you all later,

rms.

Bad ideas never dies.

The latest relapse is:

For every dollar of Microsoft revenue from Windows Vista in 2007 in the U.S., the ecosystem beyond Microsoft will reap $18 in revenues. In 2007 this ecosystem should sell about $70 billion in products and services revolving around Windows Vista.

The source for this rosy forecast is the recent IDC whitepaper, The Economic Impact of Microsoft Windows in the United States.

They summarize this boon as:

The IDC research shows that the launch of Windows Vista will precipitate cascading economic benefits, from increased employment in the region to a stronger economic base for those 200,000 or so local firms that will be selling and servicing products that run on Windows Vista. Nearly two million IT professionals and industry employees will be working with Windows Vista in 2007.

These direct benefits —157,000 new jobs and $70 billion in revenues to companies in the US IT Industry — will help local economies grow, improve the labor force, and support the formation of new companies. The indirect benefits of using newer software will help boost productivity, increase competitiveness, and support local innovation.

In the history of economic thought, this is Multiplier Effect, the belief that an increase in spending leads itself to more spending and even more spending, in a feedback loop that in the end amounts grows the entire economy. This bootstrap theory was popularized by John Maynard Keynes and became influential in some circles as a way to reduce underutilization in the economy. In other words, if unemployment is high and industrial capacity is underused, then it is worth while to have the government make work for people or spend money. Work, any work, will get the money flowing again. This lead to the various "alphabet agencies" of F.D.R.'s New Deal program.

Keynes, at his boldest, illustrated the magical properties of his multiplier effect like this:

If the Treasury were to fill old bottles with banknotes, bury them at suitable depths in disused coal mines which are then filled up to the surface with town rubbish, and leave it to private enterprise on well-tried principles of laissez-faire to dig the notes up again (the right to do so being obtained, of course by tendering for leases of the note-bearing territory), there need be no more unemployment and with the help of the repercussions, the real income of the community, and its capital wealth also, would probably become a good deal greater than it actually is.

-- from The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money

The most cogent criticism of the Magic Multiplier goes back 50-years to Henry Hazlitt's, Economics in One Easy Lesson, where he tells the tale of "The fallacy of the broken window". It goes something like this:

Imagine the town baker's shop window is broken by an errant baseball throw. A unfortunate expense to the baker, one might say. But that is a narrow parochial view. Look instead at the benefit to the whole community. The window will cost $300 to replace. That money will go to the glazier who will then use his profits to buy a new sofa from the furniture store, who will then use his profits to buy a new bicycle for his child from the toy store, and so on. The money will continue to circulate in over-widening circles, bringing joy to all. The original loss of $300 by the baker will more than be made up for by the aggregate increase in the amount of goods and services exchanged in the town. Instead of punishing the little boy who broke the window, he should be raised up and praised as a Universal Benefactor and Economic Sage of the First Order.

The problem with that argument is it fails to look at the poor baker and what he might have done with the $300 if his window had not broken. Maybe he would bought a new suit with that money. The tailor then might have bought a new sofa with his profits, and so on. The interconnectedness of the economy was not precipitated by the broken window. It was always there. The only thing that changed by the broken window is that the baker has no new suit, and the glazier has his money. Since you can never see the suit that was never made, it is easy to forget that the benefits to the glazier did not come from nothing.

So back to the IDC report, and this forecast of $70 billion dollars in Vista-related spending. The question to ask is, where is all this money coming from? And what might it have been used for if not spent on Vista-related purchases? Obviously this money was not created out of a vacuum. Is it coming from profits? From shareholders? From deferring other investments? Cutting back on training? Moving more jobs off-shore? Reducing quality? What companies and sectors of the economy are going to suffer for this shift in investment? What innovations will not occur because people are allocating resources to this upgrade?

In the end is $70 billion of new value really being produced? Or are we merely fixing broken Windows?

BBC MUST DIE!!!

How dare they team up with M$ with its costly iPlayer and has closed the door to the free world?

BBC MUST DIE!!!

My fellow freedom fighters, join us NOW to shutdown M$ and its evil players at London & Manchester:

http://www.defectivebydesign.org/iPlayerProtest

We are always hungry and money is better spend on food!!

Peace.