[fsf-members] Re: [FSF] Your chance to get involved on the new campaign against Windows 7

[Alessandro Vesely]

Matt Lee wrote:
> Windows 7 represents something we're calling "Windows' 7 sins", which
> plays on the Seven Deadly Sins.
>
>        1. Lust
>        2. Gluttony
>        3. Greed
>        4. Sloth
>        5. Wrath
>        6. Envy
>        7. Pride

I hate anti-X campaigns. However, I like this theme. Among other 
things, it lends itself to revamping the sequel of "Hell Gates" jokes. 
Let me paste a few links

http://www.suslik.org/Humour/Computer/Microsoft/gates.html
http://www.cse.cuhk.edu.hk/~cslui/JOKE/bill_gate.html
http://jokes4all.net/bill%20gates.html

> We are looking for something different from our BadVista campaign. We
> are unlikely to be blessed with as many mistakes as Microsoft
> committed with Vista. Already, the narrative in the media for Windows
> 7 is, "It's better than Vista" -- so we need to focus on the bigger
> picture of why society should avoid Microsoft and switch to free
> software.

However, the free software community obviously is affected by windows 
existence. Sadly, many packages are more easily installed on Windows 
than, say, on a Debian Lenny system. In addition, it looks like aping 
Windows interfaces, in an attempt to ease migration, strikes much free 
software. Is this a Good Thing? Should a campaign counter it?

> Here are some examples you might like to write about:
>
> 1. Microsoft corrupted the computer standards organization ISO to push
>    through encumbered standards like Office OpenXML.

Would it be worth to recall the MARID case? What Microsoft did (and 
still does) to email is really bad...

Outlook and Exchange are very bad, even for Microsoft average quality. 
 Delivery failure notices, in particular, are routinely corrupted or 
hidden.

I don't know if Live/Hotmail eventually managed to run on Exchange, 
but I wouldn't bet on that.

> And many more...

One subject I'd like to write about is the role of computers in the 
history of human kind. Many people thinks that computers have been 
invented as "business machines" to ease accounting; someone else may 
suppose they have been invented for cracking German codes during the 
war; newbies may believe they have been invented to connect people to 
the Internet. The historical truth is that they have been invented as 
a proof of concept that "thinking" is some sort of mechanical process, 
not necessarily requiring a soul or a personality. I believe that is 
still their primary role, from an historical POV.

In that respect, one bad thing that Windows did is lobbying for its 
adoption at educational sites. "Computer courses" are synonyms with 
using a word processor and navigating the web, which does not do 
justice to philosophical definitions of "thought". In a hurry to 
expand their users base, Microsoft tends to hide the showpieces of 
"thinking machines". (That's also why I don't generally think it's 
worth to imitate their approach.) That hiding matches well with those 
politics that are disturbed by the fact that people think too.

Perhaps I'll expand on that, if I have time. However, I'm not sure 
political or philosophical considerations may be effective for that 
campaign...