So this really is happening then.
I think it's time to take stock. This is happening. And we are powerless to stop it. Microsoft threw a small minority of its users under the bus, but it's the lusers they are interested in gaming now.
To push major proponents of your brand to the point where they have no choice but to abandon you, shows a certain calm, calculated foresight. They knew what would happen. It's just collateral damage.
Just as the audio industry is not on the road map of OS or hardware builders, the dev community and the tech savvy among us are small potatoes. Microsoft has mechanisms in place to keep certain people 'loyal' and unable to jump ship, but really, they don't care what you think, and if you feel that strongly about it that you will go elsewhere, well that's a shame, but you know, you are in a minority. Most will moan and eat it. C++ devs, whatcha gonna do, eh? Start using another language? Good luck finding one with the speed and libraries that language has. But it is academic.
We are not the demographic Microsoft is targeting here. They are going for the mass market end luser paradigm. And it works.
Case in point: My folks have finally bought a new computer. After many precarious years running XP, wide open, they had to buy a new machine as the other one just ground to a halt. They got win X.
I mentioned in passing the implications of this, but was met with a 'don't care'. To be fair, my family are gravely ill, so I can appreciate it to an extent. Computer security and being data-raped are low down on their list of priorities. There will be many more like them. Those too ill to care (though I accept these will be in a minority), those having too much of a good time to care, those that are unable to care, those that want to care, but just can't because they have been ground down so much they have lost the will to live, etc. etc. - Microsoft wins! They know this. They aren't mugs.
It's a war of slow attrition and they have won it.
Let's just accept that and move on. Those of us that can set up dual boot systems with Linux are few and far between. Those of us that can do it and will be tasked to do it for others will also be few and far between, because most people don't know it is a problem, or don't care. There will be no mass exodus from Windows. Microsoft is at that awkward stage in its lifecycle, you know the one, where they are about to die. They are fighting for their lives. They will show no mercy and relinquish not one inch of ground. In fact, they will just get nastier and more dangerous from now on in. Only a madman would buy into microsoft from the outset today. For the rest of us after being baited, we are now being switched. We can turn off the life-support machine, or we can carry on being abused. Only a few of us have options outside of Microsoft. I don't.
I'm talking about those of us with software that will not run on any other OS, and won't work properly in VMs because of hardware driver support etc. - we are stuffed.
Let's just accept, that our computer is not our own any more, even though we paid for it. Let us accept that we are going to be effectively blackmailed and have to pay protection money to Microsoft whenever they see fit. Let's just accept that they are in bed with the government and giving them all our data. Let us accept that they now have carte blanche to also sell our data to 3rd parties with impunity because the govt. will turn a blind eye coz of the spying. Accept you have no right to privacy, let alone anonymity. Accept that you now need to learn new rules about your behaviour, such as not complaining about anyone in a position of power, because they have dirt on you.
Accept you are a digital serf. Learn to eat shit, and learn to love it, coz it's happening. And you, my mighty tech overlords (yes even you magnificent tech bastards from el Reg) can't do a single thing about it. You've been gamed and lost.
Start getting used to this new digital dystopia. A world where your neighbour can access your medical records, and see that you attempted suicide 10 years ago, that you have been on Prozac for 20 years, that your child died in a miscarriage, that your wife never really got over because she is being treated for Diazepam addiction, for which she would have died had it not been for that liver transplant she received. And your neigbours thought you were such nice people as well.
Those neigbours might be able to get that info because they have access to certain databases, or they might just do what most people do: Buy it! That's right, once everyone's data that has been data-raped from them is on the big bad brother database, it's just a case of monetizing it and farming you out. No one will be safe, except for a few high level politicians and movers and shakers. Be assured you will never find Suckerberg's proctological (is that even a word?) data on line, for any price. Thank god.
We are well and truly on this road now. Let's stop shouting and screaming 'Stop'. We are being data-raped, and the data-rapists will not stop.
Oh, so they say the data is anyonymized - weasel words. They say the aren't selling the data - weasel words. The lies, the lies...
They always lie at the start. It's part of the game. Then when they eventually get called out, it's the limited hangout defense. Then they get probed more and say 'fuck it, you know what, yes we are data-raping you, have been for some years, what the fuck you gonna do about it, bitch? Yeah, I thought so, don't fucking have it in you do you, cunt!'. Then they data-rape you some more, just for payback for the temerity not just to question them, but thinking that questioning them would yield any other result than making them more angry. Behaviour modification at its finest. You slap your bitch when she looks at you the wrong way, you make her pay. You never let one thing slide. You slap her harder if she does it again. Pretty soon your bitch will come into line, and what's more, then she'll really start to love you. It's pimping 101.
Because they do want us to love our servitude, our oppression. And them. Big brother just wants to be loved, because being hated is being in a precarious position. They want 100 percent compliant, obedient slaves. And they know how to get it, they know how to play it, like the true pimps they are.
We are their bitches now. Resistance is futile. You will be Data-Raped. You will not take issue with this. You will enjoy it. You will even learn to ask for more.
Please excuse my crass analogy. But I stand by it, for it is apt.
Does anyone know if Orwell ever ran girls out of a brothel ? Because he sure had pimp game down, I'll give him that. With his inherent understanding of human psychology, frailty, weakness and well, humanity, he knew what made us tick, and he knew what made 'them' tick.
Microsoft are fucking pimps. And they aren't just farming out our old beaten and weathered bottoms, they are farming out your 3 year old daughter's as well, your six year old son, hell, they are even farming out your dead wife who never quite got over the miscarriage and committed suicide. Nothing is sacred to them. Every thing is power. Not even money at this point with them.
Certifiably, absolutely, 100 percent batshit crazy, and criminally insane.
Welcome to the future folks. It arrived last year, but most people are still playing catch up. Hold on to your hats, it's going to get hairy. At this rate, we will be micro-chipped sex slaves before 2020.
We are at a pivotal point in human evolution, and it just looks like the human race is not going to make it. From where I'm standing, I don't even think it deserves to make it.
It was fun while it lasted.
So long, and thanks for all the pish.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
