[Previous entry: "Children. And men. And small town cops."] [Main Index] [Next entry: "I have seen the future, and it scares me."]

01/25/2007 Archived Entry: "New website for getting Microsoft out of your life"

BRAD R., THE TECH HALF OF THE TEAM at McBlog, has created Goodbye Microsoft to help computer users wean themselves from the snooping, controlling, monopolistic, crashing, diseased (e.g. virus-laden) world of ... well, you know. Good going, Brad!

The site's still rough. One feature I'd seriously like to see is a n00b-oriented how-to (or maybe several of them) for installing and configuring a basic Linux setup. That is, instructions not just for installing one of the popular Linuxes like Ubuntu or Mandriva (the Linux flavor I use), but for getting a smooth-operating set of all the basic features W*s users have come to expect, including media players.

Media playing has always seemed to be Linux's biggest desktop-user weakness; well, that and those programs that allegedly install but then disappear into Nether Nerdland, requiring tech-geek skills to locate and use. My current version of Mandriva (2006) is the first Linux I've used that plays music and video (even in Microsoft formats) without driving me to consider entering a silent order of Linux users. So clearly there's hope.

With the arrival of W*s Vista, which by all accounts adds many Big Brother and Big Nanny features (and many developments that benefit media-industry associations at the expense of ... well, you know, the actual paying customers who buy the operating system), this is a good time for switching. Nice job, Brad. I look forward to seeing Goodbye Microsoft grow & help its share of emigrees escape from Gatesville.

Posted by Claire @ 02:50 PM CST
Link