[BadVista Advocate] BadVista: We hardly knew ye

[John Sullivan]

On December 15, 2006, the FSF launched its BadVista.org campaign to
advocate for the freedom of computer users, opposing adoption of
Microsoft Windows Vista and promoting free -- as in freedom --
software alternatives. Two years later, the campaign has 7,000
registered activists, the name Vista is synonymous in the public eye
with failure, and today we are declaring victory.

It is obvious that Vista has missed its window for widespread
adoption. Individuals, governments, corporations, universities and
organizations have largely taken a pass or even abandoned Microsoft
entirely. The fact that Microsoft has repeatedly extended XP cutoff
deadlines and is releasing a public beta of Windows 7 tomorrow is
proof of Vista's failure.

Vista was Microsoft's largest ever product marketing launch.
Estimated at a cost of $300M, those marketing dollars were spent in
an effort to fool the media and user community about the goals of
Vista. Thanks to all of you, we got the real message out and those
dollars failed to win the day. Congratulations!

We are retiring the <http://badvista.org> web site and ending the
campaign in order to devote more effort and resources to new
campaigns on the road toward a world in which all users can safely
choose free software. Buoyed by this success, we will need all of
you to continue lending your energy and creativity to this new work.

Today, there are three simple ways you can take action:

  * Make a donation to join the Free Software Foundation as an
    associate member at <http://fsf.org/jf>. If we can make our goal
    of 750 members (we have 332 already!) by the end of this month,
    we'll be in excellent shape to further our campaigns in 2009.

  * Help get the word out that Windows 7 is no different from Vista
    in the ways that matter -- digg this article at
    <http://digg.com/tech_news/BadVista_We_hardly_knew_ye>

  * Subscribe to the Free Software Supporter at
    <http://fsf.org/free-software-supporter>, and stay informed
    about our work against Windows 7 and in favor of superior free
    software alternatives.

Thank You,  
Peter, John, Matt and the BadVista.org team