Larry wrote this “Time to Fork the FSF” blogpost a few days ago and it reminded me on why I stopped contributing (economically) to the Free Software Foundation.
You see, I feel their efforts are misguided, in particular, their “Defective by Design” campaign which actually drives me nuts.
Yeah, it’s cute that you’re sending Bricks to Nintendo, calling out Windows’ “7 Sins” and my personal favorite, the “Amazon Swindle“.
I see them raising attention to big problems, but I don’t see them providing an actual solution. And as long as a decent solution isn’t available, Free Software won’t prevail.
Sure, you can whine all you want about how Apple locks down iPads, but I don’t see them selling an “FSF-endorsed” Tablet that is about as good (Hint: They could start by grabbing Android as a base, or even Tizen) and offering a product that’s so awesome, it’ll actually generate revenue for the FSF, to further empower their campaigns.
I hear “Photoshop is bad”, but I think you should say “Gimp is awesome” instead. I hear “Windows is evil”, but I’d rather hear “Use Fedora today!”.
I see FSF at the same level as the PETA nuts or the Green Peace crazies, throwing buckets of red paint on leather coats of celebrities, yelling “MEAT IS MURDER”. This is a pretty bad image, one I do not want to be associated with.
What I’m trying to say is that instead of calling Amazon’s or Barnes and Nobles’ stores “evil”, that energy would be better spent creating a store of your own, with your ideals firmly in place, and advertising it. Instead of ranting how evil Nintendo is, create your own game console, one with Free Software, and advertise the hell out of it.
I’d buy that for a dollar.
-Nushio
Heck, I’d give $1.50. I think all of the FSF programs have merit, but sometimes the message gets mixed up with the messenger. What the average person remembers is the messenger and not the message. That’s a hurdle the FSF has to overcome.
In my case, it’s the message what I have a problem with.
I don’t mind them calling the Amazon Kindle, the “Swindle”, but dammit, I want to read eBooks, where else can I get them, DRM-Free? And I mean recent books like Game of Thrones, not 300-year-old Shakespeare.
EBook Dealers and Publishers without DRM. No, they’re mostly not as visible as Amazon and Barnes and Noble, but yes, they do have original new fiction.
Bookmarked, I’ll be checking it out on the weekend, might help me come up with something to write about
Thanks for the link!
Gimp is awesome! \o/
Juan I agree with you totally. Have had quite a big email conversation about this actually with a friend of mine.
The problem I see is that they use those “Strong words” and then explain the stuff, but do not provide real solution.
For one. Think you had IPad and you accidentally browsed to defectivebydesign because your friend linked you to it. Well the first thing you see is IPad is IBad for freedom – sign the petition. Well If I paid hard cash for my new IPad of course I will use it as long as it works and I’m not going to drop using it just because Apple locks it down.
Anyway there is much better ways to campaign against DRM like researching on a topic such as “DRM raises the activity of piratism.” and then explaining why DRM is bad and offer solutions for it and not go bashing the existing products. Instead suggest to the visitor that next time think what you buy.
Well others in the industry do not hesitate to use FUD all the time, why would the FSF not call those who precisely lies or abuse their
userscustomers ?Why do you refuse no room for a larger conversation ?
Those matters are important, and need to be discussed and not dismissed.
How will they play in the future ? How will you be able to do what you want do ? Can you just by yourself decide what type of hardware or OS or security or managing your identity, maybe today yes, easy enough right ?
what about tomorrow ? …
Oh, but I’m not really against speaking out against the big companies, I just feel that the energy and money would be best used in something that really gets our cause closer to reality.
Saying “Nintendo bricks your 3DS” is one thing, saying “Nintendo bricks your 3DS, get a GamePark instead!” and making games that people *want* to play is another.
Take your shtuff and go over there: http://opensource.org/