02.25.11
The Main Difference Between Real PCs and Proprietary Systems
Picture published by Linux wizard Gerard Braad (we were unable to find the original source)
Summary: Ending the illusion that two proprietary operating systems which have stores ‘glue’ them to hardware are actually the only game in town
WE do not regularly post funny pictures (sometimes we link to them to avoid copyright infringement), but the above is the exception because it says so much in just one single image and it can be left to people’s imagination and interpretation.
A Microsoft booster from the MSBBC has just published an article comparing Apple and Microsoft stores, obviously promoting the illusion of just two bogus and proprietary choices, just like in politics (where both/all major parties belong to Big Business). Gordon — perhaps replying to this man (Rory) — wrote about “The Microsoft Store”, noting that the game of brands can deceive a lot of people and the corporate press will just play along.
People have a perception of “Mac v PC” not “Apple OSX v Microsoft Windows”. The branding is there, and Microsoft are the generic no-namers that are as common as muck. A “PC” means “Personal Computer”; ie the OS and the hardware as a combo. This means that Macs are PCs, so are Windows PCs, so are Linux PCs. They are all just a combo of hardware and OS allowing for software to be installed, hardware connected to personalise the device to perform certain tasks.
Most non-techy people don’t know what Windows, Internet Explorer etc is even if they use it all day at work. They switch on their PC, go make coffee, catch up with some gossip and come back to wait for Windows to boot up. They are oblivious to the Microsoft brand. This is not a fertile ground to open a store around that brand, specially when it puts it in people’s faces that it’s another “me too” clone of an Apple store without the sparkle.
Real PCs are GNU/Linux (or no-OS); bundled PCs may only have Windows on them. Sadly, however, we live in an age with an implicit collusion where just about any PC gets delivered saddled with an operating system which people do not need. For the first time in ages, today I needed to approach a Windows-running (or Windows-saddled) PC for a minute as it had a printer connected to it and this was an awful, awful experience. It is very clear to longtime GNU/Linux users that they are extracting a lot more value from their PCs (hardware). Will ‘mainstream’ press like the MSBBC give GNU/Linux fair coverage? Or will the chicken-and-egg cycle carry on? That’s the cycle where the MSBBC says that almost nobody uses GNU/Linux and actively plays a role in ensuring nobody can use it (c/f iPlayer fiasco), let alone knows about it. A lot of today’s MSBBC management consists of former Microsoft UK executives. We’ll write about media distortion by Microsoft later tonight. █
twitter said,
February 25, 2011 at 6:15 pm
Google Jacking and mind jacking!
I’ve uncovered a form of stealth advertising where popular subjects are linked to the thing being advertised via Google search results. The first thing I did when I saw that nasty little Windows logo over the large hadron collider control room page was to do a Google search to see if a place famous for free software use [2] had Microsoft on the brain. The results were surprising, to say the least.
What I found were a bunch of results implying a false relationship between the large hadron collider and Windows. The first and second result both have the text blurb, “Microsoft’s Windows 7 arrived in late 2009 and kicked off a PC upgrade.” What’s really sneaky about the ZDNet articles is that the quoted text is nowhere visible, it’s in the metadata like a porn page looking for search hits. There’s a link to a Microsoft Research page third, which lamely boasts, “A recent MSNBC story on the Large Hadron Collider uses HD View to show super-detailed photos.” Tech Blorge, Tech Republic, practical-tech.com, and data center knowledge.com also have advertisements and advertisements disguised as articles show up in the text blurbs too. One result from a Microsoft page mentions the large hadron collider in passing as someone tries to convince a forum member not to pave Xandros on the 701 EEEPC with XP. The first three hits look like an obvious attempt at linking Microsoft to a popular high tech project. The others are random but that random connection might have been the object of Microsoft’s massive advertising budget and the sites are Microsoft friendly if they are not actually part of the Microsoft “controlled press”.
Adrian Malacoda said,
February 28, 2011 at 9:37 pm
I’m absolutely irritated by the “PC and Mac” marketing meme. The worst of it is, strangely enough, when one of them does support GNU/Linux. Then it becomes “PC, Mac, and Linux.”
“PC” is not an operating system.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
March 1st, 2011 at 4:40 am
Yes, I’ve noticed that pattern.