Richard Stallman, the famous creator of GNU operating system, which is often called Linux, opined in a post in The Guardian that almost every operating system in use today can be qualified as malware.
The list goes on with today’s popular mobile platforms as well as desktop operating systems.
Stallman emphasizes that any software program that is not distributed free of cost falls into malware category, he called today’s software “computing for suckers”, as OS software is designed to spy on users, chain them via DRM and has backdoors for mischievous agendas.
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Stallman argues that all operating systems are vicious and can be termed as malware, “Windows pries on users, restraints users and, on mobiles, censors apps; and even has a universal back door that permits Microsoft to slightly impose software changes. Microsoft cause disruptions for Windows users by displaying forged security holes to the National Security Agency (NSA) before fixing them.
Stallman told The Guardian that even Apple systems are malware too: Mac OS sneaks upon and bounds users; iOS interferes, chains, cuts apps and has a back door. Even Android encloses malware in a no free component: carries a back door for remote compulsory installation or DE installation of any app.
He also said that paid apps also contain plenty of malware as well, as they can spy on the user and report data to plenty other companies. Likewise, he acknowledged streaming apps as malware, since they stop people from saving a copy of the data that they accept, and also keep track of their viewing and listening habits.
In the end he pompously asked if one should actually trust an Internet of trademarked software brands or not and he shrugs and says that it will be foolish to do so.
“It is fashionable to recognize the viciousness of today’s computing only to declare resistance unthinkable. Many claim that no one could resist gratification for mere freedom and privacy. But it’s not as hard as they say. We can resist,” he concluded.
The solution, he said, is to reject software and web services that snoop or track, to support the development of free software that doesn’t track the user, and to design legislation that would criminalize all of these new forms of “malware.”
Do you think almost all operating systems are malware?
The Guardian
