"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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Member since:2005-07-02
Oh, of course. If you're against the FSF's manipulative practices and fearmongering, you're clearly a Microsoft astroturfer.
That's not what I said, eMagius. Please stay honest and don't distort my words.
The fact is that when someone *never* criticizes Microsoft, *always* jumps to Microsoft's defense, *always* claims that the MS version of any program is the best there is, *always* claims that competitors to Microsoft are irrelevant, or inferior, or even immoral...well, one is right to suspect that this person is a prime candidate for astroturfing.
Then, when you openly state that you suspect that this person is astroturfing, that you confront that person and they don't even try to deny that they are astroturfing, then this tends to reinforce the notion that they are.
I mean, it is entirely possible that this particular someone (which I will not name here) is not an astroturfer and merely a overeager cheerleader...however, I have a hard time believing that someone could be that dedicated, that philosophically and emotionally attached to a company through pure fanboyism. It boggles my mind to consider this - even die-hard Apple fans are not as utterly, completely committed to MS as this prime candidate for astroturfing is.
BTW, comparing FOSS advocates to Republican is quite a cheap shot, considering how good a friend the Republicans have been to Microsoft under Dubya's reign...
And if you believe that MS doesn't hire astroturfers to pollute web sites with their propaganda, well, I'm sorry to say that I consider this to be incredibly naive. It wouldn't make *any* sense for MS to pass over such cost-effective "guerilla marketing" tactics. They have the means, the motivation, and the past history of underhanded shenanigans to do this, I would be very surprised if they didnt.
Member since:2006-10-06
"The fact is that when someone *never* criticizes Microsoft, *always* jumps to Microsoft's defense, *always* claims that the MS version of any program is the best there is, *always* claims that competitors to Microsoft are irrelevant, or inferior, or even immoral...well, one is right to suspect that this person is a prime candidate for astroturfing. "
Switch Microsoft with linux and you'll have your self on the list of prime candidates.. Or is it just when it comes to Microsoft?
"Then, when you openly state that you suspect that this person is astroturfing, that you confront that person and they don't even try to deny that they are astroturfing, then this tends to reinforce the notion that they are. "
I've surely expect you to deny my claim... Unless ofcause you understand what it will tell about you.
"I mean, it is entirely possible that this particular someone (which I will not name here) is not an astroturfer and merely a overeager cheerleader...however, I have a hard time believing that someone could be that dedicated, that philosophically and emotionally attached to a company through pure fanboyism. It boggles my mind to consider this - even die-hard Apple fans are not as utterly, completely committed to MS as this prime candidate for astroturfing is. "
I do agree that this one guy has taken it far to long. But i don't see how he's any different from those who claim "free software" is the solution to all problems and that gnu/linux is second to none. When you look at it's no diffent from what this guy is doing. Again i expect you to disagree. Mainly because i supect it will put you in the same box as your prime candidate.
"BTW, comparing FOSS advocates to Republican is quite a cheap shot, considering how good a friend the Republicans have been to Microsoft under Dubya's reign... "
Will you'll have to say it's a cheap shot don't you.. how else could you argue against it?
"And if you believe that MS doesn't hire astroturfers to pollute web sites with their propaganda, well, I'm sorry to say that I consider this to be incredibly naive. It wouldn't make *any* sense for MS to pass over such cost-effective "guerilla marketing" tactics. They have the means, the motivation, and the past history of underhanded shenanigans to do this, I would be very surprised if they didnt."
Call me naiv all you want. I dont' really care what a "free software" believer calls me. I have better things to do then worry about the "free software" people.
But again you could argue that the same could be said about the companies spreding hype about gnu/linux... Are you on the payrole at a company pushing gnu/linux?
Member since:2006-07-04
""Then, when you openly state that you suspect that this person is astroturfing, that you confront that person and they don't even try to deny that they are astroturfing, then this tends to reinforce the notion that they are. "
So the allegation of astroturfing, itself, serves as part of the proof, eh? What is this, McCarthyism?
Your tactic of labelling those with whom you disagree as "astroturfers" is a cop out. It's your "trump card". Whenever anyone disagrees with your agenda, you can resort to pulling the "ASTROTURFER!!!" card, which (you miguidedly believe) magically discredits anything the poster has to say. Unfortunately for you, it discredits you, not the poster that you tried to discredit.
That goes for you, tweenex, b3tSimmons, and the rest of the FSF crusaders that are trying to turn OSNews into a battlefront in their holy war against Microsoft. And turn OSNews into an "amen corner" for FSF, where everyone nods in agreement and no dissenting opinion shall be tolerated.
Edited 2006-12-16 22:48
"The 'Llano' processor that AMD described today in an ISSCC session is not a CPU, and it's not a GPU - instead, it's a hybrid design that the chipmaker is calling an 'application processor unit', or APU. Whatever you call it, it could well give Intel a run for its money in the laptop market, by combining a full DX11-compatible GPU with four out-of-order CPU cores on a single, 32nm processor die."
"The scuttlebutt is that IBM seemed perfectly content to wait until May to launch the Power7-based Power Systems servers, but something changed and compelled the company to move up the announcement of its first machines using the eight-core processor to today. Big Blue is not in a habit of explaining its motives or its timing for product launches, but it seems clear that IBM wanted to get out in front of a whole lot of processor and systems launches that are expected between now and the summer."
Mozilla has announced that they are going to drop support for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger definitively. "Mac OS X 10.4 was released in April of 2005 and a lot has changed since then," Josh Aas writes, "We would like to take advantage of more modern technologies on Mac OS X and 10.4 support has been a hindrance. Where we can work around supporting 10.4, doing so consumes valuable time and effort. Neither Chrome nor Safari has to deal with this."
"The ancient bug was discovered by Google security researcher Tavis Ormandy in January 2010 and involves a utility that allows newer versions of Windows to run very old programs. Mr Ormandy has found a way to exploit this utility in Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and 2008 as well as Windows Vista and Windows 7. The patch for this vulnerability will appear in the February security update. Five of the vulnerabilities being patched at the same time allow attackers to effectively hijack a Windows PC and run their own programs on it."
"Today, Clang completed its first complete self-host! We built all of LLVM and Clang with Clang (over 550k lines of C++ code). The resulting binaries passed all of Clang and LLVM's regression test suites, and the Clang-built Clang could then build all of LLVM and Clang again. The third-stage Clang was also fully-functional, completing the bootstrap."
With all the virtualization schemes running on top of Linux, how do they exploit the underlying kernel for I/O virtualization? The answer is virtio, which provides an efficient abstraction for hypervisors and a common set of I/O virtualization drivers. Discover virtio, and learn why Linux will soon be the hypervisor of choice.
"The Mono Project releases the first preview of Moonlight 3.0, giving application developers a first look at the open-source implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight 3 technology for the Linux platform." Sadly, it's still Firefox-only.
"In a definitive defeat for film studios - and in a first case of its kind worldwide - Australia's Federal Court has ruled that ISPs have no obligation to act on copyright infringement notices or to disconnect subscribers after receiving multiple letters. If copyright holders want justice for illegal file-sharing, they need to start by targeting the right people: those who committed the infringement."
Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz, an advocate of Web 2.0, used Twitter early Thursday to announce his resignation. He was named CEO in 2006 as Sun faced a switch in strategic direction away from proprietary systems and toward open source code, including its valued Solaris 10 operating system. "Today's my last day at Sun. I'll miss it", he said in a tweet to his followers, reported the New York Times on its Web site at 1:12 a.m. Thursday. He added a bit of haiku: "Financial crisis, Stalled too many customers, CEO no more."
"The venerable GNU Image Manipulation Program is undergoing a significant transformation. The next major release, version 2.8, will introduce an improved user interface with an optional single-window mode. Although this update is still under heavy development, users can get an early look by compiling the latest source code of the development version from the GIMP's version control repository."
Member since:
2005-07-06
Oh, of course. If you're against the FSF's manipulative practices and fearmongering, you're clearly a Microsoft astroturfer.
That logic worked for the Republicans for years, didn't it? You're either with us or you're a terrorist, right?