Nov. 29 was BMD (Benefit Macromedia Day), so Dec. 24 is Buy No Software (BNS) day

If you Buy Nothing you can't visit the entire Buy Nothing website

The "buy nothing" campaign is like an SUV with an "earth first" bumper sticker. Or maybe it's like the trendy "gaptivism" pseudo-prostest clothing you can BUY.

We got email calling for donation to a campaign to fight consumerism and advertising.

Buy Nothing, the campaign says. This is exactly what we've been, to a large extent, already doing.

Instead of buying a computer, we put together an old system from items we salvaged from the dumpsters, and from curbside trash.

Then instead of buying software, we programmed it ourselves, building on top of much of the GNU Linux FreeSource.

But because we did not BUY our computers, they won't run Macromedia. Since many of our computers have old obscure microprocessors, they're not supported by the Macromedia Microsoft Macintosh Cartel.

And because none of our computers run Macromedia, we can't properly see their Buy Nothing campaign. (Macromedia doesn't provide source code for their "Free" downloads --- as RMS would say, the Macromedia plugin download is only "Free as in Free beer, not Free Speech".)

Here's what the Buy Nothing campaign looks like on our eyeglass-based screens:
(If the above image doesn't display properly on your browser, Buy No Software (BNS) and reformat your hard drive with GNU Linux and a FreeSource browser such as Konqueror, Galeon, Dillo, or Glynx (Graphical Lynx) or Glinaccess (accessible GNU Linux for the visually impaired).)


We were actually thinking of donating to the Buy Nothing campaign, but what we discovered on the Buy Nothing campaign page was much worse than offensive ads. What's much worse than offensive ads?

Testimonials!

Testimonials for Closed Source proprietary software.

It never ceases to amaze us why some of these corporation-bashing websites and so-called "alternative" culture portals serve as testimonial advertisments for Macromedia software and other proprietary bloatware.

So here's my satire of their testimonial.

I guess we'd call it an adbusterbuster (adbuster2). Bust the adlusters!

Here is a version of the site as it originally appeared in a freesource browser.

Buy No Software (BNS) boycotts Closed Source Testimonal websites.

Corporate websites such as BND, while alleging to free us from consumerism, actually support Closed Source software consumerism. How can we be free of consumerism when encouraging the proliferation of the Macromedia Microsoft Macintosh Cartel. BNS encourages the use of GNU Linux, as an alternative to the MacMicMac Cartel.

BNS, held in conjunction with WSD (World Sousveillance Day), December 24th.

While the major corporations continue to produce sites that promote coroporate Closed Source software (that is often also inaccessible to the visually impaired), we had sincerely hoped that if there was ever going to be any resistance to this Proprietarization of the Web, that it might come from the arts community. We therefore call upon the arts community to call into question the Proprietarization of the Web, and the Proprietarization of our communications and interactional media.

Let's Stop Stuffing our Stockings with Software...

At the epoch (Dec. 24th) of the orgy of commerce that serves as the endcap of every year, it is time to also take a critical look at the corporatization of cyberspace.

Therefore, in cooperation with World Sousveillance Day (inverse surveillance day: www.wearcam.org/wsd.htm), DEC 24 will also be a day of protest against software cartels, corporate software alliances in association with powerful states, and international software bureaucracies, which regulate and support private closed-source software power.

How to participate:

If even just a small number of persons participate, this will send a message to others that it is possible to communicate and live in cyberspace without softWARE.

This work belongs to EXISTech Corporation because I did this work while on Company Time (TM).

This work is released under GNU GPL, in accordance with EXISTech Corporate Policy and Procedure Number 65535.

--EXISTech Employee number 9432, acting in the capacity of Assistant Filing Clerk Trainee.

http://wearcam.org/bns.htm


Buy Nothing Christmas requires you to BUY Microsoft Word

See a sature of Buy Nothing Christmas


More BND Bloatware