Loving the FreeBSD
Benjamin Walkenhorst
krylon at gmx.net
Sat Aug 23 08:48:27 PDT 2003
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Hello Ramanan,
On Donnerstag, 21. August 2003 14:34 Ramanan Selvaratnam wrote:
> Not sure whether trusting a company that has been criminally convicted
> in the US as untrustworthy with privacy is the biggest freedom denied
> through the way Microsoft develops and maintains software ....
Well, of course it's not only the privacy issue. But privacy is important
nowadays, and Windows is doubly risky in that aspect, because a) Microsoft
has not exactly a reputation for producing bug-free software; there's lots of
security holes for attackers to exploit. And b) Microsoft also happens to be
a bunch of greedy bastards that take every opportunity to take a close look
at your private data. Just think of MediaPlayer. A friend of mine once caught
defrag sending a packet to a microsoft-server containing something like an
"ls -lR /" of his local harddrives (or so he told me) while setting up a
firewall.
I use my computer for e.g. writing my diary; I certainly do not want anybody
to read my diary.
> IMHO the freedom related to software and abuse of this is a far wider
> issue important at every level.
> Personally I see privacy as less of an issue than equal opportunity to
> human heritage which is another freedom clearly abused.
Of course you're right; and Microsoft's behaviour is much more repulsive than
the quality of their products. Thus I'm twice as glad to be free of their
monopoly. For whatever reason one prefers free software over microsft's -
freedom, stability, security - it's a good choice in every respect. And it's
free - what a deal! =)
> eg: I can pass on a FreeBSD CD to another in need without fearing the laws.
On the other hand there's plenty of windows-users who don't own legitimate
copies as well.
They have to go through some trouble with license keys, though. I can't
remember the last time I had to enter a license key... And it's certainly
something I'm glad to be rid of. ;-)
> Regards,
>
> Ramanan
Regards,
Benjamin
- --
Benjamin Walkenhorst
eMail: krylon at gmx.net
homepage: http://www.krylon.de
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