Freedom

[Steve Johnson]

The interesting thing to me is that it is our "freedom" that has created
this situation that Jim experienced.  If we all had exactly the same
computer mandated by our government, with the same software, same version,
same modem, etc, etc, etc,  there would be no compatibilty type issues, and
there would be no competition so the software would probably all suck, the
hardware would be slow, and we would have no other options.  Someone might
choose (even though they might go to jail) to write a new operating system
and give it away just to make the lives of those using the government system
better.  However, even though it was the greatest thing in the world,
because it was not 100% compatible with the government mandated systems, you
would still have to dual boot...

sj

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Herrmann [mailto:Jim at itdepends.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2001 1:21 AM
To: kclug at kclug.org
Subject: Freedom

I had an experience tonight that I just had to share with my Linux brethren,

and I have BCCed my immediate family.

The story starts with the fact that my daughter is a huge Beatles/Paul
McCartney fan.  I am too, for that matter.  Paul has released two songs that

can be paid for and downloaded, with the proceeds going to benefit the
police
and fire fighters of NY.  The songs are "Freedom" and "From a Lover to a
Friend", which he performed at the benefit concert in Madison Square Garden.

Would I download these songs and burn them to a CD so that she can listen to

them?  Sure, great, I can do that, no problem.

So, the choices of places listed in the paper was bestbuy.com,
music.msn.com,
and windowsmedia.com.  I should have had a clue of what was to come right
here, when two of the three sites were under the M$ umbrella, but I
proceeded
with guarded hope.  A search of the bestbuy.com site turned up nothing, so I

tried the msn sites.  This wouldn't allow me in if I wasn't using Internet
Exploder.  Well, the Konqueror browser allows one to fake out the server
telling it you're any browser you want to be, and I got in, but things
looked
bad, so I searched in Goggle for options.  I found that cdnow.com was also a

possible download site, so I setup an account and purchased the two songs.
Everything's cool, right?  Wrong.

In order to download the songs, I *had* to use Liquid Audio, which only runs

on Windows and Mac.  The easiest way to get around this was to just bite the

bullet and boot over to Windoze, which I keep around for just such
emergencies.  I then downloaded the 12 Meg install for Liquid Audio, ran the

install, rebooted (of course), and signed on to cdnow.com and downloaded the

songs.  Well, actually, I downloaded a little file that told Liquid Audio
where to download the file.  When I started to download the songs, get this,

I was REQUIRED to register with Passport, that MS-Big Brother tool, to be
able to get the songs that I had already bought and paid for!  Of course, if

you actually read the Passport license, everything that passes through the
MS
servers, belongs to them from then on, but I'll save that for another rant.

Luckily, I have my own domain, so I gave it a bogus address at
itdepends.com,
and the download proceeded just fine.  Liquid Audio includes the ability to
burn CDs from the files I downloaded (no doubt that feature required several

meg of the 12 meg download) and that went smoothly.  I got the CD burned and

labeled, and I was shutting down to boot back to Linux, when guess what I
got?  That's right a BSOD!  In fact, I was stuck in a BSOD loop, and I had
to
do a hard reset of my computer to get out of it.  Now I'm back in Linux
writing this letter.  Whew!

The totally ironic thing here is that I had *no choice* but to use Windows
(actually I could have used Mac, but that's not an option if you don't own
one), I was *required* to register not only with the vendor actually
handling
the money transaction, but also with Microsoft's Passport so that I could do

what?  Download "Freedom"!!!  That is irony incarnate.

The lyrics of the song go like this:
"Freedom!
Talking 'bout Freedom!
We gotta fight for the right to live in Freedom!"

Tonight I got a vivid reminder of exactly why I am enduring the transition
to
a new operating system and all that goes with that experience.  Linux and
open source is all about freedom.  I'm going to fight for the right to live
in freedom from tyranny with Linux!

Peace, love, and Linux,
Jim Herrmann

P.S.  See you at the meeting!