All Joking Aside...........
It's easy to laugh at the Free Software Foundation, after all, they are just another "crazy doomsday prophet", shouting "the end of the world is nigh upon us". It sort of summons up the image of a dirty old man that looks like Jesus, carrying a placard. A cliche as it were.
Activists in every endeavor, tend to get scorned. Inside each and every one of us there's an alarm that goes off saying, "beware the fanatic".
We still need the FSF, and people like them. They sound the alarms that most of us are too busy, too lazy, too indifferent, or too dependent to heed.
The Microsoft Corporation has already reached monopoly status, but deny it they must, or run afoul of the law. Yet still they justify it with the reasoning that, it;s better, and more convenient for us, if they are. To a certain extent that's actually true. However, if you want to pass yourself off as a public utility, then you should be a public utility.
Ah, would it were that M$ was in public control, the dawn of a new era. To make the gigantic leap from the umbrella of greedy corporate control, to control by corrupt, inept public officials. It seems that no matter which way you turn it's a lose, lose for us lowly peasants. The feudal system hasn't really gone away, it's just been renamed, "democracy".
I kind of admire FSF, and the people that struggle, invest their talent, time, and initiative, into trying to bring us free alternatives, to the submission of overt enthrallment by any large corporation.
That said, most of us agree with the FSF, even take the time to rail against M$, however ineffectively.
So, Linux is an alternative to Windows. But unfortunately one that everybody complains about. But, it improves with every distro, through the labors of many good people. M$ has thousands of paid programmers to further their ends, Linux but a relative few.
We complain about Linux, because ours is a generation of perceived entitlement. We're entitled to the intellectual labors of others, free downloaded music, free movies, and free programs and security software. After all, why wouldn't we be? So, not only does it have to be free, it has to be the best, after all, we're entitled to that as well!
So, show a little respect for the FSF. They complain the same as we do, about the same things that we do, and that makes us kindred spirits.
Complaint should inspire purpose, transform itself into action. Like the old, old saying goes, "are you just going to sit there and complain, or are you going to do something about it"?
Mostly that's a big, "NOT" isn't it boys and girls"!