Bonum Certa Men Certa

Has Microsoft Fired Its CIO Because Hotmail Secretly Runs on Free Software?

Microsoft's secret love affair with Linux comes to light

Some time ago we saw Microsoft pressuring to force the departure of two consecutive state CIOs in Massachusetts for 'daring' to support OpenDocument format. We suspect that we caught one similar incident in Finland. Surely, there are many more such occurrences, but finding 'smoking gun' proof can be difficult. Remember the "nobody ever gets fired for choosing Microsoft" motto? There are well-disguised political forces working behind the scenes.

“Bad morale at Microsoft is only to be expected.”As we mentioned briefly on a couple of occasions in recent days, Microsoft loses a lot of top staff at the moment and it's important that we stress the severity of the exodus. This is major! Bad morale at Microsoft is only to be expected.

Mary Jo Foley mentioned Stuart Scott's highly mysterious departure last night. It is beginning to seem like this CIO, which Microsoft fired some time ago for reasons that it tried very hard to hide, was... well, in fact just doing his job. I have just received the following E-mail:




This one is in Danish, but you might be able to grasp some of the last line:

http://www.comon.dk/index.php/news/show/id=34420

It looks like there is a rumor that the fellow was fired for doing his job, which means setting up a FOSS infrastructure. I suppose HotMail still runs on FreeBSD, though it'd be hard to find out for sure. The front end is obfuscated.




This is perhaps far from confirmed, but having seen accusations of "paranoia and parochialism" (which are associated/connotated with aliments) it's worth repeating something. Being alert and watching out for things isn't over the line, especially given some of the stuff which is found in the Halloween Memos/Documents. The above may be just rumours, but there is basis for trust given the status of the publication and some of Microsoft's existing (and sometimes secret) hidden deployments of GNU/Linux. Examples include:

It's unofficial: Microsoft bets business on Linux

What the press statement didn't mention is that Aruba mobility controllers run the Linux operating system which Microsoft has aggressively targeted as being inferior to Windows as part of its "Get the Facts" marketing campaign.

[...]

Pandey's appraisal of Aruba's technology is in stark contrast to Microsoft's "Get the Facts" rhetoric which places Windows as a more secure and higher-performing choice over Linux.


Top secret: Microsoft's $6 billion open source play

This month's announcement by Microsoft to acquire digital marketing services firm aQuantive has revealed little on how the companies will integrate their IT, but inside information indicates the deal may be Redmond's largest commitment to free software.

[...]

Whether the businesses are complementary or not, Microsoft's integration work will no doubt involve a lot of open source software used by aQuantive.

Information available from Atlas' Web site indicates the Internet software company employs extensive use of open source software including Linux Apache, MySQL, and Solaris.

Software engineers at Atlas' Raleigh office do client/server development in C and C++, software maintenance and "scripting", and developing and maintaining custom reporting capabilities.


Debian Powers the world

Looks like Microsoft Researches new website InkblotPasswords[.com] , aimed at helping users come up with hard to crack passwords ( while at the same time saving them in a database ) is powered by Debian and Python :)


Breaking: Newsvine Acquired By Microsoft — What is Microsoft going to do with the Linux Hosted site they just bought?

The funny thing is, The site is hosted on Debian Linux...


Microsoft Hypocrites - Pro MS sites that run open source

There are some sites out there that claim to be pro-Microsoft, anti-Linux, anti-open source, or simply appear to favor Microsoft and closed source. That’s fine with me, but then why isn’t closed source good enough for your website? Here is a list of sites that ironically run open source, and even Linux.


There are many Web sites that could be added to the list cited above, including Microsoft Watch, which moved from Windows to Red Hat some months ago.

This may no longer be the case, but several months ago the Flash preloader at https://www.microsoft.com/servers/faces/default.aspx used the Fedora Spinner. Fedora is used elsewhere on the site. There's apparently a whole MSN block which uses GNU/Linux with Apache (again, this may have changed since I last checked). Need one even mention Akamai? For several years, pretty much all of Microsoft's big servers were sheltered behind GNU/Linux clusters which were spread worldwide.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
 
People Don't Just Kill Themselves (Same for Other Animals)
And recent reports about Boeing whistleblower John Barnett
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day