I suspect the launch of this new website, badvista.org, was inevitable. This new site, put together by the Free Software Foundation, says right up front the its mission is "exposing the harms inflicted on computer users by the new Microsoft Windows Vista."
According to FSF program administrator John Sullivan, "Vista is an upsell masquerading as an upgrade. It is an overall regression when you look at the most important aspect of owning and using a computer: your control over what it does. Obviously MS Windows is already proprietary and very restrictive, and well worth rejecting. But the new 'features' in Vista are a Trojan Horse to smuggle in even more restrictions. We'll be focusing attention on detailing how they work, how to resist them, and why people should care.”
Right now, the site consists mainly on negative stories about Vista from a variety of sources. Of course, you must realize that the FSF, as its name implies, is a huge supporter of Linux and other freeware products. But, after reading so much lately about Vista, both pro and con, I think they have a point about Vista being an upsell rather than a real upgrade. There really isn't all that much new about it. The Aero graphical interface is cool and their security has been improved...but that's about it. The rest of the changes are small and perhaps not worth the money.
(Disclosure...I am not writing a negative article here because I didn't get a free computer from Microsoft (see last blog). I still have not heard from Microsoft, probably because of the holidays.)
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