why are some ppl annoyed by google groups 2102

Michael Heiming

Not an option on some terminals at my university, like the library machines, which are exclusively Windows.

But your IP wouldn't be masked to the news server. Besides, I've tried a lot of free anon news servers and they don't subscribe to a lot of groups I would like to use.

The ones you pay for...well, I'm a student and I don't see why I should fix something that works. Also, I don't see why I should pay money to subscribe to a premium news server with an AUP (in addition to and including your ISPs AUP). It is like paying money to be subject to even more rules.

Free speech is getting more and more muzzled in some countries, e.g. the UK where saying the wrong thing can now get you into trouble. Anonymity is key to being able to speak freely, which you don't have with an unmasked IP connected to an anon news server. The anonymity must be as fundamental as possible to avoid being unmasked.

True that privacy in Windows is a problem, but: 1) I often have no choice, as some comps in my university are exclusively Windows only. 2) AIUI, privacy in Windows is only a problem if you have stray packets going out, which I don't due to a good software firewall. Of course there are issues with document metadata as well, but that can be redacted.

Don't get me wrong. There are some things which I would use Linux exclusively for, such as the power of the bash terminal compared to point-and-click Windows. Many of the programs I write exclusively operate in Linux.

But I have yet to see an adequate subsbreastute for MS Office and games wrt Linux.