It's one of those battles that you're not sure who to root for; in this case I've got to pull for the RIAA. And that's the only time you'll ever hear those words here. If you're curious about how secure the latest offering from Redmond is, just take a gander at this; that's not quite secure as Unix, but what the hey, corporations have to eat, too. And to pile on, Ubuntu was on offer in the Windows Marketplace; the interesting thing about this was that there were over ten thousand downloads!
Now I'm not a purist in the open source movement in the whole 'no one should use proprietary software' way of thinking; it's really hard to get off them, and I generally install them on the machine I use to lure unsuspecting victims potential converts. But the writers at this link raise an interesting question, and one that might even fall afoul of the Buy Blue crowd. I'm agnostic on this, as no way do I have the moolah to shell out for one.
Get ready to pay up the wazoo for internet access (isn't it already pretty high nationwide?); it seems that Net Neutrality is just waiting for the headstone:
Increasingly, it seems, those companies will be allowed by the Government to charge for different levels of internet service - ending net neutrality.
Kneuer, who previously served with a Washington DC law firm representing telecoms companies, had fueled the crowd's anger during a short Supernova presentation.
So the guy at least partially in charge of making this decision formerly was a telco lobbyist. What a shock.
And if you are an internet radio fan, well, there's some bad news coming. Internet radio may well be over, beginning June 26. All because the RIAA and friends (SoundExchange) want to charge royalties for everything, even stuff that isn't licensed to them, and the government is siding with..guess who? Just another reason to get your music from here.
Anyone remember that AT&T (Spies 'R' Us) has been saying how they will start filtering content, all because of the 'Pirates!!!!!'? Well, another surprise is in store, as they will be rolling out their own video on demand service (thanks can't find who gave this!).
And speaking of 'filtering', what's going on with Yahoo? Isn't it enough to turn over user accounts to the Chinese government to help them arrest 'dissidents' (i.e., critics of the Chinese government)? Now they have to actively 'filter' things related to open source? Yikes.
Better start backing up those DVDs while there's still time; it may be soon illegal to do so. Aw, heck, just go and get Vista. You know you want to. Better the spyware you know, then the spyware you don't know, I guess.
I would actually buy and try Vista, if it didn't cost as much (and often more) than a brand new laptop. Hmm. Vista or laptop? Decisions, decisions. That's a toughie. Oh, wait, Vista won't run in a virtual environment (after initial plans to allow it), and no way would I put a machine at risk running it unprotected, so never mind.
Good time to download a distro or two, before they completely shut down the net. And maybe buy some carrier pigeons. I wonder if they can handle Scoop? Live blogging will never be the same.
After having a gander at this site, I'm having second thoughts about trying Vista at all; no virtualization allowed, but tons of DRM:
DRM is enforced by technological barriers. You try to do something, and your computer tells you that you can't. To make this effective, your computer has to be constantly monitoring what you are doing. This constant monitoring uses computing power and memory, and is a large part of the reason why Microsoft is telling you that you have to buy new and more powerful hardware in order to run Vista. They want you to buy new hardware not because you need it, but because your computer needs it in order to be more effective at restricting what you do.
So get newer and faster hardware so it can spy on you and tell what you can and cannot do with your own hardware, software and data? Where do I sign up? Their marketing slogan should be
Vista: Because we own you. Mwahahahaha!
No wonder more than ten thousand people downloaded Ubuntu as an upgrade to Windows at their Marketplace. They're not even pretending anymore. If you read (and agree to) the EULA (End User License Agreement), this is what you are agreeing to:
* If your copy of Vista came with the purchase of a new computer, that copy of Vista may only be legally used on that machine, forever.
* If you bought Vista in a retail store and installed it on a machine you already owned, you have to completely delete it on that machine before you can install it on another machine.
* You give Microsoft the right, through programs like Windows Defender, to delete programs from your system that it decides are spyware.
* You consent to being spied upon by Microsoft, through the "Windows Genuine Advantage" system. This system tries to identify instances of copying that Microsoft thinks are illegitimate. Unfortunately, a recent study indicated that this system has already screwed up in over 500,000 cases.
What's not to love about that piece of work?
O(biwan)pen source, you're our only hope. Greener, cheaper, more secure, no DRM, more stable, and more fun. Put away your wallets and put on a smile, open source is here to stay. 2007: Year of Linux on the Desktop; 2008: Year of Unix on the Desktop.