David McNab wrote:
> From: "Seth Johnson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>> http://www.slashdot.org/yro/01/02/23/2134255.shtml
>> http://pcsupport.about.com/compute/pcsupport/library/weekly/aa030101a.htm
>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/2/17230.html
>
>
> Looks like the copy protection 'arms race' is set to flare up like never
> before.
>
> The copy-protection advocates, like IBM, 4C, BSA, RIAA etc will do
> everything in their power and bloated budgets to lull the consumer into 'pay
> per view', and accepting all levels of privacy violation and suppression of
> intellectual freedom.
>
> Thank goodness that universities, as opposed to (say) cable companies,
> masterminded the birth of the internet. Their legacy of freedom of
> information will prove hard to defeat, but the 'information capitalists' are
> determined and extremely well funded. It's going to be one helluva fight.
>
> I can envisage future versions of Windows which will firewall any
> non-standard internet traffic (blocking protocols not approved by M$,
> including Freenet), and which will require constant phoning home to
> Micro$oft to keep tabs on users.
>
> I can also see a heavy thrust towards 'web-ware', software which will simply
> not run without the cooperation of central servers.
>
> The first step in this is the new Windows XP and Office XP, which shut down
> unless they are 'activated' via phoning home to M$. Soon, the only operating
> system available with new computers will be XP. (I bet the cracking scene
> has already found a workaround to this:) )
>
> I guess the key to victory here is to make all efforts to keep the public
> suspicious of the content industry - a process of education, from the
> grassroots level of telling all one's friends and acquaintances, through to
> larger-scale activism. Encouraging people to switch to Linux and free
> software in general.
>
> Optimistically, though, I can see Linux becoming so user-friendly that it
> will ultimately emerge as the operating system of choice, with the majority
> of PC buyers saying no to windows and promptly installing linux. Mandrake is
> a leader in usable linux, with their 8.0 version delivering a class act in
> ease of installation and usage. Not *too* far to go before Linux is truly
> fit for mass consumption - 18 months perhaps?
My personal opinion is that Mandrake is a broken, broken distro. It is
easy to use, though. And my opinion stems from personaly using ver.
7.2, so perhaps 8.0 has gotten better.
The biggest problem with getting a GNU/Linux for the masses is being
able to walk into a store like Best Buy or CompUSA, see a box running
GNU/Linux, and take it home. The hard part of GNU/Linux is just setting
it up; after that, it just works. Your Aunt Louise probably couldn't
even set up Windows from a bare hard disk, so why would we expect her to
be able to set up GNU/Linux.
Once I see GNU/Linux boxes sitting on the shelf at Best Buy, I will know
that we have won.
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