Apple helps Windows lock-out Free Software

I have mostly been installing Microsoft on a new laptop. It pains me more than you know. And the reason why I’ve been installing Microsoft? Because Apple’s iTunes® and iPhone® have locked in my client’s user experience; much of her iTunes music is DRM protected and her iPhone won’t sync with GNOME Evolution.

Who would have thought, eh? Champions of the alternative, landlords of the moral high ground, purveyors of shiny things for the people, protecting, nay, promoting the interests of their erstwhile and long-standing adversaries, the muck spreaders of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.

For what it’s worth, I ended up having to use WinToFlash to create a bootable USB stick, which worked very well. And I can also report that the Ubuntu Linux installation is so far superior to the Windows ‘experience’ that it makes me smile to be part of the world’s 1% of Linux users. I know, smugness is little consolation in the face of the juggernaut of popular wisdom.

And there’s a nice message, warning you that:

“Your computer will restart several times during installation.”

Thanks for letting me know.

Postscript: My, that took a while, quite a way off the 13 minutes it took me to install Ubuntu. In fact, I went to bed in the meantime.

I woke up to the joy of Product Keys and Activation, and they seem somehow... archaic. Also, Bing is the default search engine, and you have to actively seek out Google. A throwback to darker times.