Os "pecados" do Windows7

Só para registrar e linkar a campanha da Free Software Foundation (FSF) denunciando os "sete pecados" do Windows 7.

As reclamações da turma do Stallman são as mesmas de sempre.

1. Poisoning education: Today, most children whose education involves computers are being taught to use one company's product: Microsoft's. Microsoft spends large sums on lobbyists and marketing to corrupt educational departments. An education using the power of computers should be a means to freedom and empowerment, not an avenue for one corporation to instill its monopoly.

2. Invading privacy: Microsoft uses software with backward names like Windows Genuine Advantage to inspect the contents of users' hard drives. The licensing agreement users are required to accept before using Windows warns that Microsoft claims the right to do this without warning.

3. Monopoly behavior: Nearly every computer purchased has Windows pre-installed -- but not by choice. Microsoft dictates requirements to hardware vendors, who will not offer PCs without Windows installed on them, despite many people asking for them. Even computers available with other operating systems like GNU/Linux pre-installed often had Windows on them first.

4. Lock-in: Microsoft regularly attempts to force updates on its users, by removing support for older versions of Windows and Office, and by inflating hardware requirements. For many people, this means having to throw away working computers just because they don't meet the unnecessary requirements for the new Windows versions.

5. Abusing standards: Microsoft has attempted to block free standardization of document formats, because standards like OpenDocument Format would threaten the control they have now over users via proprietary Word formats. They have engaged in underhanded behavior, including bribing officials, in an attempt to stop such efforts.

6. Enforcing Digital Restrictions Management (DRM): With Windows Media Player, Microsoft works in collusion with the big media companies to build restrictions on copying and playing media into their operating system. For example, at the request of NBC, Microsoft was able to prevent Windows users from recording television shows that they have the legal right to record.

7. Threatening user security: Windows has a long history of security vulnerabilities, enabling the spread of viruses and allowing remote users to take over people's computers for use in spam-sending botnets. Because the software is secret, all users are dependent on Microsoft to fix these problems -- but Microsoft has its own security interests at heart, not those of its users.

Tô meio preocupado com o comportamento do fundador do movimento, Richard Stallman, nos últimos tempos...

Tava na dúvida se ia fazer essa nota. Não há muita novidade nos "pecados" do Windows 7.

Os problemas éticos do Windows 7 denunciados pela FSF são os mesmos do Vista, XP, 2000, 98, 95, 3.11, etc.

Fico com aquela impressão de estar dando murro em ponta de faca. Tá na hora de evoluir o discurso.

IMHO, o software livre já passou do momento "revolução" (já sabemos que o método funciona e pode competir com modelo proprietário).

Agora, é vivemos um momento de "evolução". Acho que a imagem bicho-grilo não ajuda na hora de convencer gente de terno e gravata a comprar os serviços de empresas dedicadas ao software livre. (Veja tb a recente discussão sobre adoção da GPL no Slashdot)

Só para ilustrar... A inforworld publicou um resumo do último relatório sobre o desenvolvimento do kernel do linux.

The report says that companies supporting kernel development do so for a number of reasons and to bring the most benefit to their commercial efforts, including IBM, Intel, SGI, and HP on the hardware side; Red Hat, Novell, and MontaVista on the operating system side; Sony, Nokia, and Samsung from a component perspective; and non-computer industry companies such as Volkswagen (cars) and Quantum Controls (yacht navigation systems) who use Linux as the foundation for other products.