Badvista.org, a campaign from Free Software Foundation against Windows Vista

Translated from Vilaweb.cat:

"The new Microsoft operating system, Windows Vista, will be available in the shops on January 30th, but before it is even available to the users it already has a declared enemy: the Free Software Foundation (FSF). This foundation dedicated to the promotion of free software has open the webpage BadVista.org, a campaign dedicated to explain inconvenients of Vista and to promote free alternative software like GNewSense.

Less freedom for users

BadVista.org critizises the anti-piracy measures of the new Microsoft operating system with the argument that these measures are too restrictive and they limite the users freedom. In concret, it is said that 'the new caracteristics of Windows Vista are a Trojan horse hiding restriccions for the user'; refering to the methode to protect author rights of the owners of some audiovisual contents reproduced in the computer. For example, the operating system includes advanced measures to avoid the user copying videos and music protected with Digital Rights systems Management (DRM), measures including data encrypting between different components of the computer.

High hardware requirements

Another critic in BadVista.org is the high number of hardware requirements needed to use Windows Vista. For example, it is said that up to 2GB of RAM will be necessary for the newest versions to work properly although Microsoft says 1GB is enough. In fact, Dell also has said previously that the newest versions of the operating system would need 2GB.

In BadVista.org you can also find articles from blogs and media specialized in tecnology critics with the new Microsoft operating system and links to free alternative distributors of GNU/Linux."