Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 15th Dec 2006 21:12 UTC
"The FSF today launched 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."
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RE[3]: Rights and Choice, My Take on it.
by twenex on Sat 16th Dec 2006 17:05
in reply to "RE[2]: Rights and Choice, My Take on it."
Member since:2006-04-21
Member since:
2005-07-25
My Dell is pretty old, a 2001 Dimension 4300 1.5GHz with some upgrades... 512MB RAM, NVIDIA GeForceFX 5200 w/128MB VRAM, Hauppage TV Card, Lite-On DVD-RW/CD-RW drive, SoundBlaster Live! sound card, etc.
Linux is pretty good on an older system, plus anything that didn't work well with it back then, I replaced with something that was compatible (modem, integrated sound). The only distribution that didn't work well with it was Mandrake (now Mandriva, of course). Mandrake 8.1 - 10.1 would only see USB devices if they were in the first plug of the first USB socket. No other distro had any problems with the Dell.
@pinky - I agree there's a fine line between the OS and programs as it becomes pretty useless, like you said, without basic programs. I guess it just depends on where you draw that line. Kernel, GUI, Communication protocols... things like that to me are part of the OS. Web Browser, Media Player, Mail Program (specifically Outlook Express) to me are definitely not essential to the OS itself and I should have the choice to remove them. Microsoft doesn't allow that. I realize they tied them into the OS, but that wasn't absolutely the only choice they had. They did it to specifically to try to gain market share and hurt competitors. I just don't like that and wish I had the choice.