Re: Does service lookup by name work on Windows now?

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

I just wrote this response, which I will post in https://gnu.org/philosophy/.
Any comments or suggestions?


What Is the Right Way to Upgrade an Installation of Windows?


It is commonplace in the computing field to urge users to "upgrade" to
newer versions of Windows (and other nonfree programs) so as to get
fixes for "security".  This conclusion follows from the assumption
that these programs are honest software, designed to treat the user
right.  We do not expect that to be the case, and we know it is not
the case for Windows.  Therefore, we make a different recommendation.

In fact, newer versions of Windows have exploits before they are
released.  They are designed with various kinds of malicious
functionalities; see https://gnu.org/malware/malware-microsoft.html.

Newer Windows versions contain added malicious functionalities; they
give Microsoft more power over the users.  That is a reason not to
switch to a newer version.  For some users, switching to a newer
version may require rewarding Microsoft with money and even buying a
new computer.  We hardly want to encourage that!

Therefore we decline to support Microsoft by urging users to move to
newer versions; we do not treat the unintentional flaws of Windows as
more important than the intentional ones.

Our advice to those using any version of Windows is to upgrade to
GNU/Linux.

Supporting GNU packages on any version of Windows (or any non-GNU-like
systems) is not part of the GNU Project's core mission.  Our slogan
is, "It runs best on GNU/Linux."  We cooperate with the users who wish
to maintain that support, because we may as well cooperate when it is
not difficult.  We have no responsibility to continue doing so, but as
long as it is feasible and not holding us back, we have no reason to
stop.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation (https://gnu.org, https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)