Windows 8 is officially a flop. Despite attempts to force people to use the operating system by shipping restricted boot on new Windows 8 tablets and phones (not to mention a record smashing advertising budget), sales have been sluggish. What we have here is our best opportunity yet to help people give up Windows in favor of an operating system that respects our freedoms to choose, share, change, and view the code we use to conduct our digital lives.

We're proud of the infographic we made last year. Now, we want to build a counter-marketing campaign around it--imagine this infographic on subway cars, in print publications, and maybe even on a billboard. Unlike Microsoft, we don't have $1.8 billion to spend. But with your help, we can build a grassroots marketing fund that will really get noticed.

Can you donate $25 to help us take our campaign against Windows 8 to the next level?

This PR campaign is just one component of our plan for 2014. We want to improve our online resources for helping people upgrade to GNU/Linux, and we want to take our show on the road--helping to demonstrate GNU/Linux to new audiences at conferences, universities, and other events around the world. To do this, we need to invest in demonstration computers, USB drives, and travel.

If you'd like to see us providing on-the-ground access to GNU/Linux, please consider making a donation of $25 or more today.

Windows 8 is an easy target in some ways. And yet, Microsoft's reach is so wide and its pockets so deep that we need all the help we can get to take advantage of this moment. No one likes Windows 8, but whether they'll be willing to keep using it anyways depends on whether Microsoft's customers know there's something better out there, and whether we can give them the resources they need to upgrade from Windows 8.

Please consider donating today, or better yet, join the FSF as a member if you haven't become a member already. Any donation you make by January 31st will help us meet our annual fundraising goal of $450,000.

Sincerely,

All of us at the Free Software Foundation