Matt Daubneys Blog

There’s been a lot of talk about the Free Software Foundations (FSF) recent protest against the Apple iPhone (here on slashdot, and here on their website), but what’s all the fuss about? Well, Apple offer a support service known as the Genius Bar where you can book a slot to speak to someone about any problems you may be having with your Apple products. It’s quite a good system in truth, and gives people an easy access route to knowledgeable support agents. What the FSF have decided is to book as many as these slots as possible to constantly ask about the restrictions on software and music on the iPhone.

The underlying reason for the protest I happen to agree with, developers should be free to develop on any platform, and if you purchase music you should be able to easily transfer it between your various music devices. What I don’t agree with is the way in which they’ve decided to protest. Denying what ,for some, maybe an essential service just isn’t right. By all means be loud about your distaste for the various restriction, by all means educate people, but what they’re doing here just isn’t cricket.

More than anything else, they’re going to make every other person who believes in free software look bad, they’re just shooting themselves in the foot. Personally, I hope they realise just how big a mistake they’re making and essentially grow up fast.