The whole "all information should be free" concept makes a lot of sense to people who want to steal copyrighted information and that's about it. Linux is very appealing to these people because it can be got for free. But for those of us who are actually in the content production business, know how much time and effort it takes and make a decent living doing it, the idea that all digital information should be free of all restrictions is a load of horse crap.
It's like whining about DRM. Big freaking deal. If you buy protected content, you'll have no problems. If you want to STEAL protected content, then by all means, whine away. If you hate DRM, don't buy protected content. Simple as that. And no, the DRM service DOES NOT affect non-protected content so here's a preemptive "SHUT UP."
Content producers and artists deserve to put limitations on their work because that's how capitalism works. If MS wants to craft an EULA restricting me from reverse engineering or pirating their OS, that's perfectly fine with me. I made the choice to buy Vista. Nobody forced me to do this. I can afford to buy software, music, movies and games. I get paid for my writing. I take no issue with other content producers expecting to get paid for theirs. And the fact of the matter is that I'll never be limited in what I want to do with my computer, regardless of my OS choice.
If you want to talk about proprietary, closed, restricted systems, stating that you support Apple is quite an interesting move to make in this discussion. It shows that one is more of a zealot, copy/pasting whatever fool on some advocacy forum spouts than an intelligent careful thinker. Do some actual research.
I run a slew of linux boxes, by the way. They have their place. But linux is crap for the desktop, the free alternatives to major apps (open office, gimp) blow chunks compared to actual professional tools (don't even try to tell me that they're just as good. Good enough for an adolescent writing bad poetry and putting photos on myspace maybe.)
Linux is great, but hardly an end-all solution and light years from being a solid desktop OS for everyone. If the linux community wants to beat MS and take over the desktop, they should stop worrying about advocacy and start rebuilding the os "from the ground up" to begin to come close to being usable for people who care more about their careers and accomplishing their work than whatever OS is running under the hood.
I'm sorry, but an OS shouldn't be a lifestyle choice. Using it simply because you "believe in it" is putting it in the realm of religion or philosophy. I'm sorry, but an operating system being such a source of passion is actually quite dorky. Use your computer, get your work done and shut up.