FSF: BadVista Campaign

[Michael]

oston, MA?December 15, 2006?The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today launched BadVista.org, a campaign with a twofold mission of exposing the harms inflicted on computer users by the new Microsoft Windows Vista and promoting free software alternatives that respect users' security and privacy rights.

?Vista is an upsell masquerading as an upgrade. It is an overall regression when you look at the most important aspect of owning and using a computer: your control over what it does. Obviously MS Windows is already proprietary and very restrictive, and well worth rejecting. But the new 'features' in Vista are a Trojan Horse to smuggle in even more restrictions. We'll be focusing attention on detailing how they work, how to resist them, and why people should care?, said FSF program administrator John Sullivan.

The campaign will organize supporters into effective and unusual actions drawing attention to this daylight theft of computer users' rights, aggregate news stories cutting through the Vista marketing propaganda, and provide a user-friendly gateway to the adoption of free software operating systems like gNewSense (http://www.gnewsense.org).

Peter Brown, executive director of the FSF said, ?Whilst Microsoft embarks upon its largest ever product launch, its marketing dollars will be spent in an effort to fool the media and user community about the goals of Vista. Our campaign will ask the important questions. Can you set yourself or your company free? Can you ever be free from Microsoft? As with our campaign against Digital Restrictions Management, we aim to demonstrate that technologists can be social activists, because we know the harm that Vista will cause?.

Among other harms, BadVista.org will focus on the danger posed by Treacherous Computing in Vista. Commonly called Trusted Computing in the industry, it is an attempt to turn computers from machines controlled by their user into machines that monitor their user and refuse to operate in ways that manufacturers don't authorize.

Supporters can sign up to receive more information and participate in the campaign at http://badvista.org.

http://badvista.fsf.org/

Terrific to see such a campaign... It's just a pity they couldn't have begun their efforts a few months earlier to try for a greater impact on mainstream computer users.

[DarkTrancer]

Nice

I read through the "badvista" web page,it`s about time someone got a few others together to shout out to people about some of the bad things from the "Evil Ones".All that boxing in end users,the hideous DRM,TC etc...YEAAYY for the common people.

But wait,they are plugging people to use gNewSense it`s gotta be as good as vista then.
One download later, slapped it into my main machine with contempt in my eye for the evil windows that i am about to do away with.Installed and up and logged in Yipppeeee.
Thought i`ll relax and bask in the new light of gNewSense and start up some tunes,installed xmms added a folder to play ..nothing.Ack mp3 codecs right? downloaded installed after a bit of messing around...nothing...wtf no audio drivers,download installed for the alc850 ...still nothing...no digital output to my nice logitech 5500s.
Ok,then i`ll try something else..i`ll customize my themes etc i love doing that,wait only one lcd on my dual head 7800gt`s is working...must hack the xorg conf, dammit thats tricky ...so i`ll try out a nice game now i got somethings working...ut2004 yep linux compat etc,wait wheres my sli switch...WTF did i pay all that money for NOT to get damn sli working in Linux.
Never mind i`ll mix up some tunes with my Behringer BCD2000 mixing console,Nope i wont no drivers.
What does that leave me with...hmm watch tv via Winfast 2000xp,nope.
Chat with friends on MSN via my logitech fusion cam,Nope.
Watch a dvd,Nope.
Watch re-encoded movie from the dual RAID5 Sata arrays,NOPE.

Tried to install it on my server,mostly the same problems...no sound,crappy xorg detection of my 6800gt,poor samba speed to my dual raid 5 ...ok on my laptop....dont even get me started there.

The point after all that? I so very much want to move everything to linux,but seriously, how? It would take weeks to hack every config file to get it all up and running for my puters,how is a normal person supposed to handle it all.I do realise that for most people net and email are the limit,but for those of us that want to do more are they really saying linux is better after you`ve torn out all of your hair with all the config file,downloads,deps,kernels,drivers.
I hear you thinking now,hey but you have to download drivers etc for windows too.
Yep that is very true,the downloads are a little bit harder,theres no apt-get,but once u have the driver double click (maybe reboot)and it works.Download and install a driver for say nvidia cards and u still have to chop away at xorg config.

Am i making any sense here?I am not advocating Vista/Windows but is the linux they are touting better? Does everything work like it should?
No

Everytime a new distro comes out for FC,Suse,Ubuntu i eagerly download and install it and everytime i`m pissed off with how much time and effort it requires to JUST get it running.

God bless linux,but for me it is just not ready.

[Michael]

gNewSense is actually Ubuntu just with more freedom.

What problems had you run into with Fedora Core 6?

[DarkTrancer]

gNewSense is actually Ubuntu just with more freedom.

What problems had you run into with Fedora Core 6?

Hey Michael sorry for the little rant there,i went on like that, more to show people that for the average person there is still problems to be sorted.

I havent tried the new-new FC6 yet,but i`ll get round to it soon,as for ubuntu/suse it is allways my onboard soundcard output via optical and my two 7800gt`s.Both in getting dualhead to work and sli mode.
Also usually have some sort of problems with the onboard nvidia raid solution,not so much with my two Revo 64 Raid 5 cards+drives as it has it`s own firmware built in.

It`s not that i cannot after alot of trouble get linux workin with some of my hardware,it`s the time it takes to get it to a useable stage for me.That time should be spent on my website,playing games with friends,playing music,making music etc...

If they want to make gNewSense the new vista replacement they have got to acknowledge that like me there are many people for who linux has got a lil way to go yet.

[Michael]

Hey Michael sorry for the little rant there,i went on like that, more to show people that for the average person there is still problems to be sorted.

I havent tried the new-new FC6 yet,but i`ll get round to it soon,as for ubuntu/suse it is allways my onboard soundcard output via optical and my two 7800gt`s.Both in getting dualhead to work and sli mode.
Also usually have some sort of problems with the onboard nvidia raid solution,not so much with my two Revo 64 Raid 5 cards+drives as it has it`s own firmware built in.

It`s not that i cannot after alot of trouble get linux workin with some of my hardware,it`s the time it takes to get it to a useable stage for me.That time should be spent on my website,playing games with friends,playing music,making music etc...

If they want to make gNewSense the new vista replacement they have got to acknowledge that like me there are many people for who linux has got a lil way to go yet.

The rant was fine, it's understandable.

I was basically just curious as to all of the problems you ran into... On any given week I usually do upwards of a half-dozen to dozen new Linux installations / hardware builds, and very rarely do I run into any show-stopping issues. Fedora Core is my distribution of choice as well as what I have other Phoronix contributors use, and to say the least Core 6 is an excellent release.

Also, once you do get Linux working, in another thread you should write some comments about NVIDIA Linux SLI... I'd be interesting in hearing what more users have to say about that.

[DarkTrancer]

Thanks Michael, you have a very calming influence

Yes,i think i will keep trying Linux distros and will make FC6 a priority.
One question i still have,your main computer that u have no install problems with is it a store bought computer (IBM/Dell/Gateway etc..) is it built by yourself?

I am wondering if in the quest for the hardware i choose in a pc not what the manufacturers offer,am i making life with linux harder for myself?
Windows is a safe haven for me,if theres a problem it doesn`t take me long to fix it,i am not yet to that level on linux.Maybe that scares me away more too?

[Michael]

DarkTrancer,

My main workstation is built by me and so is my secondary desktop. My business laptop and programming laptop are both Lenovo/IBM brand.

Then on the Phoronix side all of the testing machines are built by hand.

If you run into any issues with Fedora Core 6 just make a thread in the respective sub-forum and I and others can help out -- though it's really a clean and polished release so any problems should be minimal.

[Rob Williams]

I'm interested in seeing where this goes. I can't bitch about Vista because I haven't used it enough, but plan to install it sometime this week to replace my XP. I wasn't impressed by the BETA 2... it seemed like an OS built for morons.

With Windows in general being such a horrible OS, it's still some difficult for Linux to overtake it. I think the next few years in computing is going to be very interesting, but may not be in a good way.