Why not Windows¶
Windows and Office work fine – Why worry about it?
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Restrictions
A legal copy of Windows is expensive, but what do you get? Windows and Office are licensed, not sold.
By using these products, we have to agree to a number of harsh restrictions. For most Windows licenses, you can’t keep the software when you change the hardware. You sometimes can’t even give your software away. Who can run the software? On which computer? What can you do with it? The list of restrictions is long and some items are outrageous.
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No source code
The source codes of Windows and Office are hidden, so, no one is allowed to understand how these programs work.
If you can’t get a right to inspect source code (the human-readable inner workings of a program), you can’t have someone correct flaws or evaluate how your privacy is protected for you.
And guess what? On software that comes with source code, viruses and spyware aren’t effective, and security isn’t bought on extra. The antivirus software industry, in which Microsoft is now a significant player, prefers you to use Windows.
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What about choice?
Software should come without locks in it.
Why are Office documents difficult to export? Why are the formats continually changing? Why can you not even uninstall some programs? It might be that if you look for choice, Microsoft products aren’t for you.
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Stand for a free society
For a free society, the software we use must be free. Not “free” as in price, but “free” as in freedom: the freedom to control the tools we use to share our ideas, culture, and information.
Today, that control is being taken away. The very idea of owning your computer is being replaced by a model of digital tenancy, where the manufacturer sets the rules.
Modern software offers convenience, but it increasingly demands your freedom as the price of admission.
Tip
Many people find that Windows, an otherwise decent piece of software, withdraws so many rights from them, that it is not worth them using it. macOS is not much better, either.
If you find free software attractive, you might want to give GNU/Linux a try.