[BadVista Advocate] Ubuntu?

Don Hensley Don at donhensley.com
Fri May 11 05:22:26 EDT 2007 

Well Lam, you have indeed asked an important question. Here is my take on it 
--remember you asked, and I'm a long winded old man...    ;)

The problem is one of "Mission creep".

Mission creep is the expansion of a project or mission beyond its original 
goals. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_creep

The sole and only goal of BadVista Advocate is to show the Vista is bad, and 
why (Basically but not solely limited to, DRM, TC, Security, non free Binary 
blobs, and so on).

Proposing alternates is not actually part of the mission (although using an OS 
that is 100% free of any of those things as an 'example' of a "Good OS" is 
OK.

Although technically discussion of other OS's, even totally Free ones like 
gNewSense, is not actually part of the mission here.

That is one of the very difficult parts of this campaign. You see most of us 
are not Vista users, and probably not many of us use Microsoft products at 
all. This makes it somewhat difficult to stick to just what is wrong with 
Vista in a first person, hands on, sort of way.

The challenge here is not so much to convince ourselves that Vista is bad, or 
that XYZ system is good, or better --it's to find a way to reach out to non 
technical users, and explain to them why Vista is so bad for them.

This can be a real difficult task, largely because of the sly way in which the 
Vista peddlers work --they quite literally attempt to hook you on their 
product and make you believe that only by sticking with them can you have the 
candy they offer --they know this is rarely true, and if true it is only true 
because they have tried to close your mind to any other candy shop, and while 
they are at it they are frantically trying to close ALL other candy shops 
too. 

And if that wasn't bad enough, they also bring pressure on any other company 
that might be willing to share it's recipe for candy with the public (this 
is, in my opine), why there are so many Microsoft drivers only, or a grudging 
release of non free binary blob drivers for GNU/Linux.

Which brings up yet another ploy the Vista peddlers use --they downplay and 
try to bring scorn on the GNU part of the GNU/Linux combination. They do this 
because it's not the Linux kernel that scares them, it's the GNU part.

I couldn't prove this, but I would bet that saying or using GNU in front of 
Linux would be cause for being fired at Microsoft --they promote the use of 
the term "Linux" for the entire chain of GNU/Linux.

They would like you to think this is just because saying "Linux" is easier, or 
that the "Linux" part is the only important part. But they know that the 
"Linux" part is zero threat to them.

The GNU part is the train coming down the tracks that will cause them great 
grief --because GNU is more then a tool chain, it's a concept, an idea, a 
methodology, for making a system that they have captured and enslaved (and 
it's users along with it), back into a free thing that when free also makes 
it's users free.

Microsoft is many things, but stupid about spotting dangers to it's methods of 
enslavement it is not.

That GNU software has gotten to the point it has, IN THE FACE OF ALL THAT, is 
a truly amazing accomplishment --an accomplishment that in and of it's self 
is testament to the raw power of the concept of Free Software.

OK so now my little bit about 'Mission creep' has it's self suffered enough 
mission creep... I just wanted to try to clarify what is (or should be) going 
on here at BadVista Advocate.

We need some good campaign ideas.

I hate asking for that which I myself have no great suggestions for, but that 
is what we need. 

You know, some sort of simple, viral, sound (or video) bite that gets to the 
top of YouTube or is emailed to every ones friends... one of the real 
problems that most (or at least many) of us geek types suffer from is a sort 
of lack in the creative advertising skill set. 

I actually think this is normal for people that can think creatively in code 
--code has an artistry all it's own, but unfortunately it's not an art form 
that Joe and Jane Sixpack can see. 

And in some ways that's as it should be --if we do the job right the user of 
the code is totally unaware of the code's existence. He just learns to click 
and get his game/porn/stock report/sports scores, or whatever --without any 
inkling of the artistry that went into the code that makes it possible for 
him to do that.

Well anyway I got that out of my system.

But we do need some creative ideas for showing the general users out there 
that Vista is very bad for them, their friends, their children, and even 
their pets! Not being free is bad period. 

In the technological world that is rushing at us in ever increasing speed, the 
difference between Free Software and Free People is non existent. They become 
one and the same thing.

So that is what BadVista is about at the bottom line. A free world, or a world 
owned by some over arching corporation --which will it be?

There are not many of us advocates, compared to the forces arrayed against us, 
but we have something the other side does not have --an idea that freedom is 
of vital importance to the human race. 

If we keep sight of that, we will overcome.

Don.
*************************
 On Thursday 10 May 2007 11:39 pm, Lam YongXian wrote:

Actual to some extend, debating about this is also contributing to the
main topic of "advocate badvista". By suggesting what alternative we can
adopt and what we should not. I agree that it is becoming too in detail
about the internal of ubuntu. As long as we can relate all back to the
badvista campaign, i think it is fine =)

What do you think?

---
Lam YongXian
Adolflam.com

FSF member #5279
**************************************
> That's neither the point or the argument. The point is that this
> discussion is a misuse of the services that FSF has granted us. It goes
> against their ideals, and we are "guests in their house." The proprietary
> vs. totally free debate is elsewhere. Use that mailing list for that, use
> this one to fight Vista. John has already been very polite in letting this
> conversation go on as long as it has, even though he has asked us to get
> back on topic several times. I think that we should respect these facts
> and get back to the point.
>
> Jacob
>
>>> Now, I'm going to wait for the debate to continue, because no matter
>>> how
>>> often we say it, people will have their two cents on the matter.
>>
>> rms refers to this software freedom issue as ethics and moral values,
>> which is all about right and wrong. All of us have an ability to judge
>> issues as morally good or not. However, this does not mean that right
>> and wrong have the same meaning for everyone. On a personal note, I
>> myself disagree with rms on several issues.
>>
>> Take note that concepts such as ethics carry weight too -- some may
>> feel this issue is irrelevant while others feel strongly about it.
>>
>> As a FSF list, we should be talking about software freedom and not
>> about ethics and bashing software/people/companies, etc.. ex. "You are
>> wrong to use non-free software."
>>
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Koh Choon Lin
>> Singapore GNU Group
>>
>> singapore.gnu.googlepages.com
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Advocate mailing list
>> Advocate at badvista.org
>> http://badvista.fsf.org/mailman/listinfo/advocate
>
> _______________________________________________
> Advocate mailing list
> Advocate at badvista.org
> http://badvista.fsf.org/mailman/listinfo/advocate

Actual to some extend, debating about this is also contributing to the
main topic of "advocate badvista". By suggesting what alternative we can
adopt and what we should not. I agree that it is becoming too in detail
about the internal of ubuntu. As long as we can relate all back to the
badvista campaign, i think it is fine =)

What do you think?

---
Lam YongXian
Adolflam.com

FSF member #5279



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