____/ [H]omer on Thursday 29 November 2007 01:25 : \____
> Verily I say unto thee, that chrisv spake thusly:
>
>> It's simply inexplicable that they can just say to their OEM customers
>> "starting on this date, you will only sell the brand-new OS".
>
> This is what is so unhealthy and perverted about the OEM lockin business
> model. There surely must be few other industries where manufacturers can
> force dictatorial policy like this on retailers - but that is the nature
> of the "agreement" between Microsoft and its "partners". Discounts for a
> dictatorship; that's the trade-off.
>
>> Consumers should be given a choice
>
> That assumes corporations exist to serve the needs of consumers. They do
> not; they exist to serve *themselves* ... /despite/ consumers' wishes.
>
> Vista is a prime example; everything about it is anti-consumer, and pro-
> corporate. It exists to serve Microsoft (market saturation with XP means
> a need to introduce a new cash-cow). It exists to serve Intel, and other
> hardware manufacturers (bloated software needs newer hardware). It exist
> to serve the MPAA and RIAA (Draconian Restrictions Mangling). Everything
> about Vista is an "upgrade" *only* for the corporations that control you
> and everything you buy ... *not* an upgrade for *you*, the consumer.
>
> In fact, just being a consumer at *all* makes us victims of this control
> system. This is why I strive for autonomy in all things, if possible. By
> using GNU/Linux, I have achieved a measure of autonomy in computing that
> not only liberates me from the upgrade treadmill of planned obsolescence
> in software, but in hardware too. Unlike in the corporate world, there's
> no axis of corruption motivating Free software developers to upgrade the
> software just to satisfy some hardware vendors' greed, whilst reviving a
> saturated software market.
>
> On the contrary, Free software development is motivated by the technical
> challenge of solving problems in a way that has scientific merit; making
> something new and exciting for its *own* sake; a symbiosis of developers
> and users helping each other without restrictions. It's not about money.
>
> Money should be a means to an end, not an end unto itself. Unfortunately
> the proprietary software industry has taken something that *should* have
> been a purely scientific endeavour, and perverted it into a twisted arms
> race for domination, and a shameless scramble for money, to satisfy this
> megalomaniacal obsession with power and greed. Microsoft is instrumental
> in this perversion of computing, indeed their protagonists often applaud
> them for this achievement, as the rest of us struggle to undo it and are
> branded as "loonies" in the process.
Well said. Sadly enough, political intervention is unlikely to resolve this
because it's driven by the very same goals, which include getting re-elected,
protecting your friends, and rarely about serving the citizens (that's just
a 'nice to have').
By the way, did you use paradj to hyphenate and justify? I haven't used it in
years.
--
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | < http://debian.org >
http://Schestowitz.com | GNU/Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
Mem: 515500k total, 444216k used, 71284k free, 2392k buffers
http://iuron.com - next generation of search paradigms
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