Defective by Design, the “militant wing of the Free Software Foundation” (my words) isn’t happy with the openness of the iPhone platform. In response, they are advocating the physical equivalent of a Denial of Service attack against Apple Stores around the world. They want people to book multiple 10-minute slots at the Genius Bar in every Apple Store this Friday and Saturday, and then grill the Genius about Apple’s iPhone policies.

First, let me say that I’m big into open and free software platforms. I was a Linux system administrator and developer for years, and couldn’t have done my job without the openness of that platform. More recently, as a physics student I relied on many free software applications and platforms in my pursuit of my degree.

Now … this is probably one of the FSF’s worst ideas ever.

The Geniuses at the Apple Stores are there to answer technical questions from customers, not to be held accountable for Apple’s privacy and openness policies. By booking up their time you are effectively committing a Denial of Service attack against each and every store. Tell me FSF, do you consider this an acceptable way to behave online? Does Defective by Design advocate launching attacks against non-Free software websites? No? Then why is it OK to do in Real Life?

I know, I know. They’re trying to get Apple’s attention by tying up the Geniuses that day. But it certainly isn’t going to win any awards with the customers who won’t be able to get technical help. They’re not going to be too sympathetic to the FSF’s platform.

Finally, if (according to the FSF), the iPhone is such a terrible platform, why even bother with it at all? Apple isn’t going to open it up. That isn’t the way Apple operates. If you don’t like it, either use something else or even better: BUILD something else. Where is the FSF’s alternative to the iPhone’s operating system? Why does the OpenMoko platform suck so much? Instead of throwing all this energy into complaining about Apple, why not do something positive with it and build a viable alternative?