I’m roughly the same age as the show hosts, and it strikes me that the major difference between when I became interested in Linux, free software, and fighting DRM almost twenty years ago and today is the default consumer experience.
I first got interested in Linux because Windows 95 and Windows 98 were terribly unstable and required frequent complete reinstalls. Then XP was more stable but also much more resource hungry. I first got interested in Digital Rights Management because PC games in the 1990s had almost no DRM and most digital media of the time was also not encrypted or encumbered. I noticed the growth of DRM. I first got interested in privacy on the internet because I watched it erode.
My oldest child is twelve, and I’m trying to guide him towards the same principles I hold but he just doesn’t care. The first version of Windows he used was Windows 7, and it was almost flawless. The only game consoles he’s ever used required a constant-on internet connection to work. He watches his shows from a proprietary DVR and streams content from Netflix and Vudu and Amazon Prime that will only display on specific approved devices. The only PC games he’s ever played require an internet connection. He never had the consumer privacy I did twenty years ago. He takes for granted things so many things I see as terrible, and for the moment I’ve given up trying to convince him otherwise because I think I’m more likely to alienate and irritate him than to make any inroads. And I can’t blame him, I would probably think the same way if I was in his generation.