Over two years ago, the FSF started its BadVista campaign with the goal of educating the public on problems related to software freedom, DRM, and more, with Microsoft’s latest operating system. Today, the FSF is declaring victory; the name "Vista" is synonymous in the public eye with failure.
The real credit, I suppose, should go to Microsoft. Vista’s design put the desires of big media companies, software companies, and Microsoft itself ahead of the desires of users. Vista defeated itself.
But the FSF’s campaign drew a huge amount attention to the problems with Vista — especially early on — and provided a central location aggregating and amplifying criticism of Vista. In doing so, the FSF played an important role in helping the whole process along and in balancing this criticism with a more positive message about free software alternatives.
Gratitude is due to the FSF staff, members, and supports who made BadVista a success. Please read the announcement, Digg the article, support the FSF, and follow its other work in its other campaigns so that all the FSF’s work can be as successful as BadVista.