FSF's "Defective By Design" Targets Apple Genius Bars 838
mjasay writes "At OSCON this year, MySQL's Brian Aker made this bold statement: 'Microsoft is irrelevant ... We're more worried about Apple.' The Free Software Foundation appears to have caught the hint, and has turned its attention to all-things-Apple with a 'denial of service' attack on the Apple Genius Bars. The idea is to completely book all Genius Bars and then ask the 'geniuses,' over and over again, a few questions about Apple's proprietary ways (while, apparently, real customers with support issues are left to flounder). Lost in this anti-Apple fervor, however, is the Free Software Foundation's complete and conscious failure to protect the web. Richard Stallman has long felt that software that doesn't sit on his desktop doesn't affect his freedom, but isn't the opposite true? Why is the FSF focused on Apple when the bigger concern should be Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, and other web players, a point made by Tim O'Reilly recently at OSCON?" Defective by Design is just one of many FSF projects, remember; it hardly seems fair to say that the FSF has been ignoring the implications of software as a service.
Re:Here's what they will accomplish: (Score:2, Funny)
We (Free Software Developers and Activists) don't care about Developers like you. Freedom is more important than prettyness and the fact that in the prettyness-vs-freedom debate you choose the former shows we cannot expect much from you.
What you say is bullshit. Stay in your Borders-and-Walls-BSD and let us deliver freedom to the users.
It's like Critical Mass... (Score:1, Funny)
...only nerdier!
What will actually happen (Score:4, Funny)
Genius: do you own an Apple Product?
Moron: uh, um, no.
Genius: Next!
or
Genius: do you own an Apple Product?
Moron: yes, here's my iPhone 3G. Why don't you guys support XYZ
Genius: Use the source, put your app on the AppStore
doesn't it "just work"? (Score:1, Funny)
I don't understand. I have been told the Macintosh "just works". How is it possible that anybody "needs" to use the Genius bar? I thought the Genius bar was just, I dunno, for the coffee and the light conversation with attractive, well-dressed people.
Re:doesn't it "just work"? (Score:1, Funny)
When the battery in your iBrator dies, you need someone with that special touch to replace it. Users can't be trusted to replace parts, that would be chaos.
Re:Mean-spirited? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Here's what they will accomplish: (Score:4, Funny)
>It's just that everything about Apple's approach
>to marketing their products creeps me out and
>causes me to experience an anxious nausea whenever
>I come into contact with their products or with
>dedicated users of their products.
Yes, your first contact with good looking people that actually bathe and exercise may leave you disoriented.
Re:Mean-spirited? (Score:2, Funny)
OMG, a slashdot story putting the Stallman Zealots against Apple zealots... this will be a gooooooood flamefest :)
Apple DoS on FSF (Score:5, Funny)
All it takes is...
FSF: "You have bad policies!!!"
Apple: "Please leave the store."
FSF: "No! You have bad policies!!!"
[Apple guy calls security - they show up 3 minutes later]
Security: "You are coming with us."
FSF: "Fine. I'll leave."
Security: "You don't have the freedom of that option. The police are on their way to arrest you for being a public nuisance."
FSF: "Can I call my mom?"
THE END
Adsperger... (Score:5, Funny)
Adsperger (n): Someone who advertises or engages in publicity without any understanding of how the ads will be perceived.
Adspergize (v, transitive.): To alienate a readership through poor understanding of their response.
Adsperg (n): An advert that annoys the reader not from deliberate intent, but from an inability to understand the likely range of responses to the ad.
To a lesser extent, we all act in a similar manner at times, being offensive in public. This post could well annoy people with Aspergers Syndrome. Well, I can be an insensitive clod at times, and do suspect I have a touch of AS.
Oh well. "For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn." Welcome to slashdot.
Re:Apple DoS on FSF (Score:5, Funny)
Don't taze me, bro!
Re:Mean-spirited? (Score:3, Funny)
>Apple Geniuses are hourly employees who work in shopping malls.
I'm surprised so many people with 140+ IQ can't do better.
Re:This is harassment (Score:4, Funny)
Perhaps when the original poster correctly quotes ``A Prince's Bride" then perhaps they'll be taken seriously.
Swing and a miss.
Re:Mean-spirited? (Score:4, Funny)
I think this works very well to get the FSF's message across. Of course, this only holds true if the message is "The Free Software Foundation is a horde of trolls".
I think you meant "a Hurd of trolls"...
Re:Mean-spirited? (Score:5, Funny)
The first 10 minutes is the tire, the other 20 is spite.
Re:For the Nth time... (Score:3, Funny)
I don't care what you criticise Apple for, unless it's plain wrong. If it's wrong, I'll correct you, generally. You said:
From The FSF rant: [fsf.org]
So I guess you agree with me that they're lying, then ?
Simon.
Re:This is why they will never be taken seriously (Score:4, Funny)
When was the last time you heard someone say "Wow, PETA's right! I'm going vegan!"?
PETA show pictures of gorgeous women with no clothes on. Now, if the FSF did similar things with pictures of RMS etc, they might stand a chance.
Re:Mean-spirited? (Score:3, Funny)
The hot air billowing from Al Gore's festering piehole, perhaps? How about his home that sucks down 20x more power than that of the average American, all while he's telling us to make do with less?
Besides, the evidence is rapidly mounting that "anthropogenic global warming^W^Wclimate change^W^Wwhatever we want to call it this week to spin the latest news that doesn't work in our favor" is a crock aimed by the Grünsturmabteilung at your freedom to live your life as you see fit.