In an odd move the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has decided that Apple is the second coming of the Antichrist (if you remember MS was the first coming). Basically they're ticked that most of the content on iTunes still containes Digital Rights Management (DRM). In order to solve this problem they've decided that the proper course of attack is to clog the Genious Bars at as many Apple Stores as possible and ask a bunch of inane questions.
Personally, I don't really give much of a rip about DRM, it's a pain but if it's what we have to do to get good music fairly cheap then I'll live with it. Besides most of the stuff I buy from iTunes ends up on a CD anyway, so the magic DRM is stripped anyway. Given all of that, I can still understand why some people think it's the worst thing ever - but even so is it so bad that you have to totally inconvience everybody that needs their computer fixed - well maybe not everybody but at least the Mac users. I've had to go to the Geniuses a couple times to get a computer fixed. Generally, when it gets to the point that I have to go there it's pretty bad and I kind of feel like crap because I couldn't fix the problem. Both times I've been there it's been a fairly short wait ( less than 30 minutes), but still it was annoying because I was going to talk to someone that was either going to show me a simple fix that I should have thought of or they were going to tell me it was going to cost too much to get it fixed. If I had had to wait an hour or more then I would have been really annoyed, especially if it had be the result of a punk or a set of punks trying to make a point about something I care very little about in the first place. Not to mention the point they were trying to make would not change any of Apple's policies.
This is just stupid and I hope that the FSF decides to drop this, because it's not going to change anything and lots of people are going to be really annoyed by this/them as a result.
Personally, I don't really give much of a rip about DRM, it's a pain but if it's what we have to do to get good music fairly cheap then I'll live with it. Besides most of the stuff I buy from iTunes ends up on a CD anyway, so the magic DRM is stripped anyway. Given all of that, I can still understand why some people think it's the worst thing ever - but even so is it so bad that you have to totally inconvience everybody that needs their computer fixed - well maybe not everybody but at least the Mac users. I've had to go to the Geniuses a couple times to get a computer fixed. Generally, when it gets to the point that I have to go there it's pretty bad and I kind of feel like crap because I couldn't fix the problem. Both times I've been there it's been a fairly short wait ( less than 30 minutes), but still it was annoying because I was going to talk to someone that was either going to show me a simple fix that I should have thought of or they were going to tell me it was going to cost too much to get it fixed. If I had had to wait an hour or more then I would have been really annoyed, especially if it had be the result of a punk or a set of punks trying to make a point about something I care very little about in the first place. Not to mention the point they were trying to make would not change any of Apple's policies.
This is just stupid and I hope that the FSF decides to drop this, because it's not going to change anything and lots of people are going to be really annoyed by this/them as a result.
Here's the thing. The FSF likes to pretend it has the support of billions of geeks worldwide. But generally it is an assembly of nuts and is given respect when it is being reasonable and helpful. When RMS speaks and asks for things like this... or like when he recently asked for an iPhone boycott... he is ignored or ridiculed. This may be a problem for the Silicon Valley Apple Store, but I suspect that the rest of the country doesn't have enough of "the free software faithful" to clog up the lines at a 7-11, much less an Apple Store Genius Bar.
YanıtlaSil