Some of the more extreme Penguin People figure it’s time to get virulent against Vista, so they’ve set up a Vista hate site.
Well, that might be a bit too strong, but it’s clear they’re going to post or link to anything anti-Vista, hoping that the average computer user doesn’t waddle over to Vista, but instead get Happy Feet and join them.
It’s not that we terribly like Vista, but we don’t like it because it chews up lots of resources for little more than eye candy. These folks have different fish to fry.
The site is sponsored by the Free Software Foundation, which has never really liked the idea of people paying for software, ever, so not liking MS products is hardly a stretch for them.
But what they really hate, even more than Microsoft, is DRM, which they claim is an assault on freedom, rather than an anti-theft device.
(Of course, that’s the only angle they really have to entice a non-geek over to their side, even they’ve figured out the joys of the command line and recompiling the kernel aren’t irresistible forces.)
What they don’t say is that whatever they’re calling the hardware plus Vista-based DRM these days, it’s not something the computer folks dreamed up just because they liked it. It’s something the content creators essentially said, “Do it, or forget about running our stuff on your stuff.”
So if the non-MSers won’t go with the program, they can forget about running that stuff. Until somebody does something illegal, and then things will get very interesting.
You see, if movements like these were truly principled, they would say, “Just take free stuff.” If they were at least honest, they’d say, “Property is theft, it’s right to steal.” In truth, they are neither, and will talk about anything and everything except the “s” word (and think themselves quite brilliant for it).
Yes, DRM can be aggravating, and it can be abused, but what is it in response to? It’s in response to massive theft, and those who oppose it are essentially front men creating smokescreens for thieves, no matter how much they shuck and jive about it.
Yes, it is true that copyright laws and principles need to be revisited and redone to deal with the digital age, to say what is OK, and what is not, but legislators throughout the world have completely flopped on that job.
Nonetheless, whenever they do get their act together, the one thing they won’t do is say, “Copying is cool, do it all you want,” pretty much for the same reason they’ll never say, “Let’s make cars free.”
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