Rixstep
 About | ACP | Buy | Industry Watch | Learning Curve | News | Products | Search | Substack
Home » Industry Watch

FSF Attack MSFT

Strong letters sent to all but one of the Fortune 500.


Get It

Try It

The Free Software Foundation are escalating the attack on Microsoft and Windows Se7en with a global campaign targeting 500 of the world's charities and NGOs and encouraging them to think twice about adopting more virus-infested MSFT software.

The FSF have targeted 'Se7en' ways Microsoft products are bad for you.

  1. Education. Computers are expected to be useful tools in education but most children are taught one product: Microsoft Windows. Why? Because Microsoft deliberately spend astronomical sums on lobbyists to help procure the support of educational departments worldwide.
  2. DRM. Digital restrictions management is built into the heart of Windows Se7en. When you use Windows you turn over control of your PC to the MAFIAA media companies.
  3. Security. Enough said. The Internet itself is ready for the compost heap - and all because of Microsoft and the terminably stupid people who just refuse to do the research and get a clue. Microsoft reps themselves have estimated that 97% of SMTP traffic today is spam generated by Windows PCs. They've also admitted there can be as many as 1,000,000 [one million] malware strains targeting Windows and only Windows. It's beyond the pale.
  4. Monopoly. Microsoft continue to pay out billions of dollars in damages for their monopolistic abuses. They were convicted by the US Department of Justice - not for achieving market hegemony but for abusing it. They're crooks and they do not have your best interests at heart.
  5. Standards. Embrace, extend, exterminate - that's Microsoft's motto. Microsoft deliberately take 'open standards' used amicably by the industry as a whole and undermine them. They've done this with HTML, with Java, with QuickTime, with word processing formats - the list is endless. They want to own you.
  6. Lock-In. The way in's with the operating system, Bill gradually learned. But once inside you stop customers from ever getting back out (and free) again. You do this by undermining standards and making sure individuals and corporations can't transfer their precious data to more suitable systems.
  7. Privacy. Microsoft have never given a hoot about your privacy and since May 2000 with the Love Bug everyone on Windows has been obsessed with security anyway. And yet there are countless instances where Microsoft are secretly collecting and culling data on your surfing habits, on what software you are running, and so forth. The hated 'Genuine Advantage' - now renamed 'Activitation Technologies' - is so vile they can remotely cripple your PC and destroy all your data - yes from Redmond straight into your home.

499 Targeted

The FSF targeted 499 of the Fortune 500 in a similar campaign in August. [Guess which corporation they left out?] They also asked for donations to continue their fight against the evils of Microsoft.

'Replacing all your desktop systems with Linux will give you independence from Microsoft, access to thousands of free software applications, and help break the social ill of proprietary software', they pleaded.

'It's a civil liberties movement', says FSF executive director Peter Brown.

Yes but it's so much more - it's about common sense.

See Also
Industry Watch: MG3
The Technological: MSFTValue
Red Hat Diaries: Life Without Walls
Learning Curve: A Gullible's Travels
Learning Curve: Life Without Windows™
Red Hat Diaries: Lauren De Long's No PC
Learning Curve: Microsoft: Fix Your Security
The Register: 'Evil' Windows 7 campaign goes global
FSF: The case against Microsoft and proprietary software
Red Hat Diaries: CONDOLENCES, LAUREN. IT'S A MISTAKE.
Learning Curve: Microsoft: The Truth and the Consequences
The Technological: That Mystery Man with the Camera Again
Learning Curve: Life Without Windows™: The Bogus Backstory
The Register: FSF launch Windows 7 anti-upgrade letter campaign

About | ACP | Buy | Industry Watch | Learning Curve | News | Products | Search | Substack
Copyright © Rixstep. All rights reserved.