More MS Problems, Rosa Review, and Firefox 47
Firefox 47 was released today bringing a few new features and Asa Dotzler blogged yesterday on the new approach for Firefox 48. Folks just continue to have problems with Microsoft and Windows 10. Some are so frustrated they've started a petition and asked for EFF's help. Back in Linuxville, Jack Germain suggested ReactOS as an alternative to Windows 10 and DarkDuck reviewed Rosa R7 KDE. The openSUSE ownCloud Summit has been cancelled and Doc Searls' meditation on the next big fight hit the nail right on the head.
Doc Searls posted a long post today on asking, "What's Our Next Fight?" He said Linux and Open Source has been won, so what do we fight for next? He touched on several areas, but it all boiled down to freedom. He demonstrated how folks are willingly giving up freedom and privacy for convenience and shiny gadgets. One day we will wake up and the only conduit to the Internet (and your files) will be an AOL-like control/filter through one of the big giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook, or Apple. Perhaps it comes hand-in-hand, but privacy is looking like an antiquated and quaint concept of yesteryear and most folks today seem to care very little. He quoted one expert asking:
What do emails, buddy lists, drive back-ups, social networking posts, web browsing history, your medical data, your bank records, your face print, your voice print, your driving patterns and your DNA have in common? Answer: The US Department of Justice (DOJ) doesn't think any of these things are private. The physical design and the business models that fund the communications networks we use have changed in ways that facilitate rather than defeat censorship and control.
Next Searls tackled the Internet of Things that some just looove to tout. As that same expert said, "Now we have networked devices, the so-called Internet of Things, that will keep track of our home heating, and how much food we take out of our refrigerator, and our exercise, sleep, heartbeat, and more. Internet technology design increasingly facilitates rather than defeats censorship and control." Things will just continue to get worse and worse, and to add insult to injury, the powers that be are using Linux to do all this. Searls said this is where the next big fight is. "It's our job to correct that." Relatedly, Tim Berners-Lee is working to "reinvent the Internet" in a manner that goes back to decentralized access and less governmental control and censorship.
Microsoft continues to anger its loyal users. A server update back in February broke clustering and filled free space with log entries. So, four months later the company issued a fix with an accompanying request to let them know if it fixed the issue or not. As The Reg said, "Doesn't exactly inspire confidence." Now Windows 10 seems to kill network connections by what amounts to a denial-of-service effect. It appears it's all that phoning-home software is eating up all the bandwidth. That part probably won't be in the commercials. Now, folks are so frustrated with Microsoft's practices since the launch of Windows 10 a new petition has been created to ask the Electronic Frontier Foundation to intercede. 3,123 have signed so far and the comments are interesting. The very first one said, "Two ways to protect your privacy: 1. Move to Linux, a non-Microsoft OS, and, 2. Move to Linux, a non-Microsoft OS." Jack Germain suggested ReactOS to "escape the drama of upgrading to Windows 10."
Jim Lynch picked out some of folks' favorite Linux features from an interesting Reddit discussion today. One he featured said, "The fact that my OS isn't literally one giant piece of advertising malware that for some reason thinks it has the right to do something I didn't ask it specifically to do. I don't want an OS that thinks it knows better than me, and is constantly trying to trick me." Another mentioned the middle-click paste. Yeah, I like that one too.
In other news:
* ownCloud Summit at openSUSE Conference Cancelled, Highlights of YaST sprint 20
* ROSA Desktop Fresh R7 KDE: nothing to complain... almost
* Firefox 47 Released, Here’s What’s New, Firefox 48 Beta, Release, and E10S