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GNU/Linux
The Anti-Fascist Operating System 
Why we should use Linux Open-Source Software
instead of Microsoft 1. Freedom, not government censorship Microsoft has written the software (called "Palladium") to implement total government censorship of the Internet. The SSSCA/CBDTPA bill by Senators Fritz Hollings and Diane Feinstein, and the INDUCE bill by Senators Orrin Hatch and Barbara Boxer, both require the use of such "digital rights management" [DRM] software on any computer connected to the Internet. The use of the DRM software will be enforced by your Internet service provider, by means of an unbreakable cryptographic handshake when you connect to the ISP. With DRM your computer will not display any web page or document, won't read any e-mail, won't play any audio or video file, etc., without first getting permission for that particular website, document, etc., from a government-programmed DRM server. Needless to say, permission would be denied to view websites like this one. 2. Software designed to work, not to gouge you for money Microsoft violates world standards for websites, word-processor documents, programming languages, etc., so that people using Microsoft software will create websites and documents that can only be viewed by others if they buy and use Microsoft software as well. Microsoft also leaves defects in its software for years to induce people to buy the next version in the hope that it will be corrected. Microsoft's Windows, Internet Explorer, and other software spreads viruses and spyware, and often stops working (crashes) and has to be rebooted. Heavily used Microsoft servers don't stay up for more than a few hours without crashing in some cases (e.g., a certain TV schedule website that only works during primetime when workers are on duty to constantly reboot its servers). Ironically, the desperate hope that it will be fixed in the new version is one of the reasons why Bill Gates is the richest man in the world. Instead of profit, Linux and other Open Source software is created for personal satisfaction and to help everyone in the world, and is distributed free of charge. It conforms to world standards, and has its defects corrected as soon as possible, since defects are only annoying, not profitable. The Linux operating system and most of its software can run for months and even years without crashing. Some servers running Unix (Linux is a type of Unix) have been accidentally sealed behind walls for years, and lost, because they never needed rebooting or maintenance, thus people actually forgot where they were. The machines had to be tracked down by tracing their cables into the walls. 3. Honesty and value, not lies, extortion, and corruption Microsoft killed the competing operating systems OS/2 and BeOS by threatening to withdraw permission from computer manufacturers to sell copies of MS-Windows with their machines, if they also sold OS/2 or BeOS (which were actually better than Windows). In the same way, Microsoft forbids PC manufacturers from advertising that their computers can run Linux, and forbids them from loading Linux on the computers along with Windows. Microsoft also threatens to withdraw its profitable ads from computer magazines if the magazines run favorable articles about Linux. Microsoft contractually forbids manufacturers of peripheral devices -- scanners, printers, etc. -- from creating the driver software that would allow their devices to operate with Linux. Programmers have to decipher the devices on their own. Microsoft gave 100 million dollars to a corrupt company called SCO to finance bogus legal attacks against the makers and users of Linux (claiming that it included software stolen from another variety of Unix). But they made the mistake of attacking IBM in this way, and that company -- whose OS/2 operating system had been killed by Microsoft years ago -- has defended Linux and defeated the legal attacks. Every legal claim by SCO and Microsoft was shown to be a lie. Microsoft secretly paid tens of millions of dollars to public relations companies to carry on lying propaganda campaigns against Linux, in which their paid agents pretended to be ordinary citizens and wrote anti-Linux letters, articles, etc. Microsoft also secretly pays newspaper and magazine columnists, and right-wing organizations like the Alexis de Tocqueville Institute and the Independent Institute to publish lying anti-Linux / pro-Microsoft propaganda. The company is often the largest contributor to these organizations. So people have had to learn of the existence of Linux, and the refutations of all of Microsoft's organized lying propaganda, by word of mouth or from the Internet. And they've had to install Linux by themselves instead of having the computer manufacturer or distributor do it for them as is always done with MS-Windows. These days, Linux is easier to install than Windows, and Linux user groups will install it for you, for free -- see below. Because Linux was not produced by only a single company that Microsoft could drive out of business, and is instead a cooperative group effort by caring people all over the world, it has survived and is thriving, and being adopted by many new people and corporations every day, and even by some city, state, and national governments. 4. Achieve your full potential! (Note: Linux hardware detection and configuring is now all done automatically by the installation program. But I love that cartoon!)
Get the good stuff, for free, and join a world-wide revolution!
If you want an alternative that works better than Microsoft (and will run many Windows programs, including video games), doesn't support fascism, and costs nothing for the operating system, web browser (Firefox), office software (Open Office), graphic program (GIMP -- replaces Photoshop), audio/video/CD/DVD players (Mplayer, etc.) and creator systems, database software (PostgreSQL, MySQL and SQLite), web server (Apache), and thousands of other programs -- then contact the Linux user group near you (see below). They'll install Linux on your computer for free (retaining MS Windows for Windows-only games and other software, if you wish).
Some excellent Linux distributions
Various organizations and companies package the Linux programs into convenient sets for installation. These sets are called "distributions".
Linux User Groups (LUGs):
Linux Links - The Linux Portal (1017 groups, 333 in U.S.) http://www.linuxlinks.com/UserGroups/ Linux Online - User Groups (850 groups, 302 in U.S.) http://www.linux.org/groups/ Linux Users Groups WorldWide (684 groups, 191 in U.S.) http://lugww.counter.li.org/ Open Directory: LUGS (305 groups, 184 in U.S.) http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/ Operating_Systems/Linux/User_Groups/ Linux User Groups in the Yahoo! Directory http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Software/ Operating_Systems/Unix/Linux/User_Groups/ GLUE: Groups of Linux Users Everywhere http://glue.linuxgazette.com/ Linux User Group HOWTO at the Linux Documentation Project: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/User-Group-HOWTO.html At the author's site: http://linuxmafia.com/lug/ |