Taupe Hat Systems

It all started with a fluffy bunny.

A friend of mine linked me to a story at MSNBC about a fluffy bunny. There was a video linked to that story, and I wanted to watch it. OK, I can certainly view that, right? After all, my browser works fine at Google Video and YouTube, right? Surely this will work fine. So I clicked on the video link. (For those of you who don't know, I do my web surfing using Firefox on Linux, which some consider strange for some reason)

Instead of the fluffy bunny, I was instead confronted with a page that told me this: "To use this product, you need to install free software." Huh? Did Microsoft suddenly gain wisdom and decide that Free Software is the way of the future? Can I now look forward to standardized network protocols, well-documented APIs, and the opportunity to clean up the horrible, bloody, insecure mess that is the Windows OS?

Did Satan just get hit in the face with a snowball?

[More:]

Of course not. Read on: "This product requires Microsoft© Internet Explorer 6, Microsoft© Media Player 10, and Macromedia Flash 7."

OK, clearly one of two things is happening. Either someone at Microsoft needs a good application of the LART, which is actually a certainty, or The Beast of Redmond is trying to co-opt the term "free software." I'm skeptical of the latter, and think they're doing the typical Yankee dumb-it-down-until-your-brain-falls-out thing.

Naturally, most computer users don't have the foggiest idea what "software libre" means, and are busy scraping up the newest three-year-old WinIE exploit while they read the news and do their online banking, so who cares if the language means different things to different people? Those of us who actually give a rat's ass about technology and society are, well, different, and therefore marginal.

Odd, this started off as a pretty funny thing, and has magically morphed into a bit of a rant. My apologies. The picture is still damn funny. For those of you who don't like clicking links, here's the shrunken down tiny and therefore lame version. If you're using Internet Explorer, it may not even work right due to the fact that, eight years after the rest of the Web started using it, Internet Explorer still does not properly support the PNG format You really ought to just go ahead and click the real thing:

PS: Yes, I know full well that Flashplayer is not free. If you want to have a debate with me about this, I've got nothing for you.