[OLPC-Philippines] Stallman and OLPC

[Mj Mendoza IV]

> Stallman is likening Windows to a drug?

It was Bill Gates that first spoke of 'addiction' to Windows
(written in Fortune Magazine, July 20, 1998 -- http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1998/07/20/245683/index.htm).

"Although about three million computers get sold every year in China, people don't pay for the software. Someday they will, though. And as long as they're going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade." -- Bill Gates

I say, it is an apt comparison because Windows and addictive drugs both get the user hooked. That comparison helps us understand why Microsoft offers such a low price to students and schools -- I saw Microsoft posters in Cyber Zone (SM West) Microsoft Philippines have set Windows XP's price to around 3,000 pesos for "students".

> but how things are going lately, with Stallman at the forefront, and raiding Apple Stores, etc.

RMS have always been president of the FSF, but one change in recent years is that they now have a team of clever people that think of ways to campaign against abusive practices such as DRM and Software Patents.

The campaigns team has made the FSF far more effective, but this effectiveness has brought about a change in how their adversaries respond: they make false statements about what they are doing.

For instance, when they asked their supporters to go, one by one, to make complaints at Apple Stores, an article appeared on Slashdot misrepresenting the campaign.  Many people were misled by that falsehood.

I am subsribed to DefectiveByDesign.org and it gave accurate information about the protests and have seen how the Slashdot article have misled lots of people to the real motive of the action.

> they've become fundamentalists looking to cull the infidels.

If you visit DBD and read about their past protest actions, you'll see they are nonviolent and lawful. This criticism equates their peaceful protests.


Yes, I might sound RMS fanatic here but I believe in what RMS believes, and I can't force you to believe what I believed in -- evidences shows it anyway.


Regards.

Mj Mendoza IV,
Developer, KonsolScript
http://konsolscript.sourceforge.net