I really agree with the sentiment about boycotting Microsoft,
although I'm wondering how much a boycott would do. First off, many
people don't have a choice about whether or not to use MS products -
whether it be at work, or because there is a particular application
that only runs on windows, etc. I'm not clear that using Virtual PC
for the mac, or VMWare, WINE, etc. for Linux in any way helps. In
fact, you could make the argument that that is just as bad. First
off, you end up buying a Windows license for those (VMWare and
VirtualPC) anyway, so that doesn't help. And it helps foster the
notion that MS products are necessary.
Unfortunately, I think that M$ is not alone in the "corporation as
evil empire" genre. Time/Warner/AOL is getting there real fast too.
And there are others.
I don't have any answers, just complaints. Some intelligent folks
deep inside the corporate world figured out that the control of
intellectual property and the control of information was the way to
control the world, and we're just now figuring that out ourselves,
and I'm afraid we're way too late. Those of us in the US, anyway,
don't live in a democracy anymore. If I wasn't convinced of that
before, November permanently made up my mind. We're the frogs that
have had the water slowly raised over time on us, and we never
jumped, and we're about to get cooked.
In the late 1980s and early 90s I was a serious reader of cyberpunk.
(I am lifelong sci-fi fan - I lean toward hard SF these days).
Although I really enjoyed the genre, I was somewhat unconvinced of
the perspective and point of view at the time. Now, I realize that
those folks were only wrong in the small details. The overall
perspective of a dark era where corporations rule is coming true
before my eyes.
Michelle
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