Richard-qbiciii wrote:
Freedom is choice... not free. I don't want my choices or money
messed with. That is my voice and power.
Actually, if all you focus on is freedom of choice your software freedom
can disappear.
A recent example of this is Harvey Anderson's post to the Mozilla blog:
http://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2012/05/09/windows-on-arm-users-need-browser-choice-too/
Anderson points out that the upcoming proprietary Microsoft Windows
variant (which runs on ARM processors) will only allow web browsers to
run in the less featureful "Metro" environment instead of the more
featureful "Windows Classic" environment. He surmises "In practice,
this means that only Internet Explorer will be able to perform many of
the advanced computing functions vital to modern browsers in terms of
speed, stability, and security to which users have grown accustomed."
The solution? Anderson argues that "Windows on ARM users need browser
choice".
Anderson's call for more browser choices would be met if Microsoft
allowed only other proprietary web browsers to run like Internet
Explorer can. Anderson isn't arguing that computer users deserve the
freedom to run, share, and modify the programs they have. Choice can be
satisfied without respecting users' software freedom.
