02.22.08

Gemini version available ♊︎

What if Microsoft Owned Yahoo (and the US Government Establishments’ IT)?

Posted in Bill Gates, Corel, Microsoft, Novell, Open XML at 1:02 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

“The Internet has evolved from open standards, having a diversity of companies. [...] And when you start to have companies that control the operating system, control the browsers, they really tie up the top Web sites, and can be used to manipulate stuff in various ways. I think that’s unnerving.”

Google’s Brin (Google), yesterday

Months ago (or some time back in January) I became aware of the US Library of Congress embracing Microsoft technologies that essentially lock out some people from access to public material (historical literature). The same goes for the British Library, which has, for quite some time in fact, been uncomfortable close to Microsoft. We covered this before on numerous occasions, e.g. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].

More recently there was also the outrage at Boston’s public library, which chose Microsoft DRM for delivery of public information. Once again, many citizens were denied access to public-owned material (taxpayers’ asset) in the ugliest of ways (DRM).

The FSF was all over this one. The library administrator who was responsible for this mess joined a discussion I had started about this in USENET, seemingly trying to protect his job. He was assulted by quite a lot of angry people for becoming an agent of monopolisation.

“…all these separate Microsoft frameworks may be assembled around .NET, preparing to jointly ‘punish’ rival platforms.”Several months ago in this Web site we argued against Mono and Moonlight (Silverlight) apologists, saying quite explicitly that Silverlight has some sort of special advantage in Vista, or at least in the existing versions of Windows. This was read somewhere that cannot be found or recalled and it begins to seem like the acceleration discussed at a time may or may not involve DirectX. If so, all these separate Microsoft frameworks may be assembled around .NET, preparing to jointly ‘punish’ rival platforms.

Without the entire framework (i.e. the whole Microsoft stack), there is little hope for interoperability. Ever. We saw that in the Windows-dependent OOXML (document exchange), we see this in Exchange/SharePoint (mind Zimbra and the hostile Yahoo takeover) and even in Silverlight, whose vector of intrusion is the Web, implying that even a Linux-only and ODF-only enterprise is not protected from an ‘alien technology’, whose hostile element is inherent incompatibility. The Web must be based on standards (mind Google’s new statement at the top), which enable indexing of content, portability, and many other things.

A concerned reader of the site has asked to share and to publish an article about the Corel mystery (see [1, 2, 3]) and its relevance to a serious issue that mysteriously escapes our attention amid the fight for “Microsoft Office+Windows as an ISO standard” (aka OOXML) and Microsoft’s fight for the virtual ownership of GNU/Linux through software patent deals.

To summarise the reader’s findings and insights (slightly edited to tidy things up):


What happened to Microsoft working on interoperability?

Where has Microsoft improved Linux & Windows working together since their actions with Corel many years ago when Corel still worked on WINE, the dumping of Corel Linux only to become Xandros and the patent agreement signed with Microsoft and the EEE PC (extend, embrace, extinguish?) with Xandros?

In the year 2000:

Interview: Corel’s Linux VP on the Microsoft deal

LinuxWorld: Will you continue to work with and support the Wine project, and will you continue to use Wine to bring your traditionally Windows applications to Linux?

Rene Schmidt: Yeah, currently we have WordPerfect and CorelDraw, we’ve done those two main suites. Where we are right now is that those are two main investments at this point, and what we are doing is we are looking at the desktop market on Linux and trying to expand it as well.

It will be based really on customer demand; that is what is going to drive us in terms of what we do next on applications for Linux. In terms of Wine itself, we still support it; we have been working with the community to come up with a 1.0 version of Wine and we are hoping that that is going to allow a lot of other ISVs to move their applications more rapidly over to Linux.

Rene Schmidt: Essentially, with Linux, we are very committed to it. And the agreement, or partnership, or alliance, whatever you want to call it, with Microsoft is not anti-Linux or anything. It is really about .Net.”

Very committed you say? Microsoft not anti-Linux? What happened to all the work on Wine and 1.0? All those Corel apps on Linux? Visit Corel’s site now and you see nothing of the sort, but you do see Microsoft related content, banners, and stuff about Vista. Alliance, indeed.

[Ed: It’s the same with Novell, which became Vista prey.]

Why can’t we use DirectX from Microsoft on Linux completely without problems and without using WINE, Cedega or some other alternative?

Google: “They said it couldn’t be done” regarding Novell and Microsoft.

It can be done, Microsoft, but apparently not by you. Thank you to the wine developers and companies like Google who are doing something positive for interoperability.

Off-topic but on the subject of Microsoft’s continued monopoly and power connections:

Library of Congress sells itself out to Microsoft for a mere $3 mil

“This deal involves the donation of “technology, services and funding” (e.g., mostly not money) with a purported value of $3m from Microsoft to the Library of Congress. The Library, in turn, agrees to put kiosks running Vista in the library and to use Microsoft Silverlight to “help power the library’s new Web site, www.myloc.gov.”
The official blogger of the library, Matt Raymond, says “this is really a quantum leap for the library.” Perhaps it is, but it sure smells like a whole lot of proprietary.”

Silverlight and DirectX in a tree, k i s s i n g.

some things never change, why isn’t the US gov keeping Microsoft away, why these agreements? How deep does their power go? How can Microsoft ever be stopped? how long until Microsoft owns America and Gates is in Government? This is scary and people are mostly too asleep to care, cuddling their XBox and unconcerned, unaware.


The text of the above (enclosed by horizontal bars), just as a reminder, comes from a reader. He or she closes by adding: “Roy, please do a story focusing on Microsoft’s failure to deliver interoperability, esp. regarding Wine and DirectX.” Assuming there is interest, there are plenty of references from the past year that can be turned into a comprehensive post (with emphasis on patent deals on Wine and Microsoft’s DirectX 10 hoaxes). It isn’t entirely clear, however, if this would lead to loss of focus. If someone is interested in this, please post a comment.

Bad Silverlight

Do not allow US Government to exclude
people with Microsoft Silverlight and/or DRM

Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • Reddit
  • email

Decor ᶃ Gemini Space

Below is a Web proxy. We recommend getting a Gemini client/browser.

Black/white/grey bullet button This post is also available in Gemini over at this address (requires a Gemini client/browser to open).

Decor ✐ Cross-references

Black/white/grey bullet button Pages that cross-reference this one, if any exist, are listed below or will be listed below over time.

Decor ▢ Respond and Discuss

Black/white/grey bullet button If you liked this post, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or join us now at the IRC channels.

4 Comments

  1. CoolGuy said,

    February 22, 2008 at 2:31 am

    Gravatar

    What we need a open gpl standard for flash like functionality independent of any company.

    This will work on every browser and ever OS.

    Flash needs to go open source – open standards like mozilla did to survive or else they are going to be wiped out very soon.

  2. Roy Schestowitz said,

    February 22, 2008 at 2:38 am

    Gravatar

    A lot could be achieved with Ajax and Ogg as a component in HTML(5), but I’ll write about that soon (Microsoft may be working against that, by proxy). There are also some lesser-known attempt to do AIR the open source way. Mashups and CSS 3 are quite powerful also and there are nice examples of the powers of AIRless programs such as Zimbra. Mix that with Prism and Gears and voila! You are platform- and almost vendor-independent.

  3. i believe said,

    February 22, 2008 at 7:12 am

    Gravatar

    yes, please do a write up on this

    the history of the bought corel shares, death of corel linux and rebranding of xandros and patent deal with m$, the refusal to “open” directx and the spinoff/burial of would be corel software to linux and the advancement of wine under corel is a must.

    please bring this information to light, microsoft is not for interoperability, no matter how much this is said, events of their past in crushing those who oppose/compete with them cannot be forgiven, especially with how they are seemingly intwining themselves with linux and seek to rule them and crush them at the same time via patents.

    where was the DoJ with their corel investment? look @ the bottom of one of the corel related news items where they bought some banking/database/something or other software or company for a huge sum, this continues to go on and now they are getting involved in US government? jesus! it will never end until the government IS microsoft in some form.

    bless boycottnovell and its energy for truth

  4. Roy Schestowitz said,

    February 22, 2008 at 7:44 am

    Gravatar

    DoJ *IS* Microsoft. Watch this:

    http://boycottnovell.com/2007/10/23/fourth-patent-deal-europe/

    FCC and FTC aren’t much better and we covered this here as well.

    Speaking of controlling the government, mind this more recent one:

    http://boycottnovell.com/2008/01/27/opendocument-poisoning/

    Pay attention to the subsection on Congress.

    I’ll try to cover Corel again, but there’s a pile of postings we’ve yet to make about present events rather than a historical perspective. I’ve made a mental and a physical note to write about Corel/Xandros, whom I believe to be Microsoft chums (they were almost the first vendor to loudly support OOXML back in the end of 2006 or the very beginning of 2007). Shane covered this. I’ll get the reference. Here:

    http://boycottnovell.com/2006/12/05/is-the-open-document-format-odf-now-dead/

    WordPerfect? OOXML? Since when is WordPerfect a friend of Microsoft (think about the horrid abuses)? Bizarre, isn’t it?

DecorWhat Else is New


  1. Links 08/06/2023: Istio 1.18 and FreeIPMI 1.6.11

    Links for the day



  2. Gemini Links 08/06/2023: Sourcehut, Gemini Identity, and BBS Comments on Cosmos

    Links for the day



  3. IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 07, 2023

    IRC logs for Wednesday, June 07, 2023



  4. The Need to Evolve on the Internet

    Tux Machines is one year away from its twentieth birthday and its increased focus on protocols aside from HTTP/S is paying off; Tux Machines also weaned itself off all social control media, including Mastodon and Diaspora (they're not the future, they're the past)



  5. EPO Management is Still Bullying the Staff (While Breaking the Law and Violating the European Patent Convention)

    Overloaded or overworked EPO workers are complaining about further deterioration at the workplace and their representatives say "this management style may well contribute to feelings of disengagement, depression, or even burn-out"



  6. His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) Not Responding After 20 Days (Well-Founded Report of Tax Fraud) and British Police Pretending Not to Exist

    The crimes of Sirius ‘Open Source’ have helped unearth a profound problem in the British law enforcement authorities; What good is a monopolistic taxman (called after the British Monarchy even in 2023) that cannot assess its own tax abuses? Or abuses connected to it via a contractor? Meanwhile, as per what I was told, the police is not responding to my MP and that’s ANOTHER scandal (police not only refusing to act against crimes, committed against many people, but moreover not responding to elected politicians)



  7. Links 08/06/2023: Cinnamon 5.8 and Leap 15.5 Release Mature

    Links for the day



  8. Gemini Links 08/06/2023: Emacs and Thoughts on Bubble

    Links for the day



  9. Links 07/06/2023: Reddit Layoffs and OpenGL 3.1 in Asahi Linux

    Links for the day



  10. Gemini Links 07/06/2023: Jukka Charting Geminispace

    Links for the day



  11. IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 06, 2023

    IRC logs for Tuesday, June 06, 2023



  12. NOW LIVE: Working for the Public — Universities, Software and Freedom - a Talk by Richard Stallman at Università di Pisa (Italy)

    As noted a few hours ago, Richard Stallman is delivering a talk at Università di Pisa this morning



  13. Richard Stallman's Talk is in Two Hours and There's a BigBlueButton Livestream

    Dr. Stallman is in Italy to give talks at universities this week; he will soon give a live talk, accessible in his site or directly at the source



  14. Links 06/06/2023: Angie 1.2.0, New EasyOS and EndeavourOS Released

    Links for the day



  15. Gemini Links 06/06/2023: OpenKuBSD, GrapheneOS, and More

    Links for the day



  16. Links 06/06/2023: OpenSUSE Plans for Leap

    Links for the day



  17. Gemini Links 06/06/2023: Bubble 4.0, Neutral News, and Older Bits

    Links for the day



  18. IBM's War on Open (Look at the Pattern of Layoffs at Red Hat)

    By abandoning OpenSource.com and OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice IBM sends out a clear signal that it doesn’t understand or simply does not care about the community of Free software users; its siege against the FSF and other institutions never ended and today we look at who’s being laid off or shown the door (the work environment is intentionally being made worse)



  19. Links 06/06/2023: IceWM 3.4.0 and Liveslak 1.7.0

    Links for the day



  20. Gemini Links 06/06/2023: Apple Might Kill VR, Tea Tea Deluxe 1.2.7 and Tea Land

    Links for the day



  21. IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 05, 2023

    IRC logs for Monday, June 05, 2023



  22. Links 05/06/2023: Debian 12 Almost Ready, Hong Kong 'Cannot' Remember Tiananmen Massacre

    Links for the day



  23. Gemini Links 05/06/2023: New Ship in Cosmic Voyage, Stack Overflow Moderator Strike

    Links for the day



  24. IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 04, 2023

    IRC logs for Sunday, June 04, 2023



  25. Links 04/06/2023: Unifont 15.0.05 and PCLinuxOS Stuff

    Links for the day



  26. Gemini Links 04/06/2023: Wayland and the Old Computer Challenge

    Links for the day



  27. StatCounter: GNU/Linux (Including ChromeOS) Grows to 8% Market Share Worldwide

    This month’s numbers from StatCounter are good for GNU/Linux (including ChromeOS, which technically has both GNU and Linux); the firm assesses logs from 3 million sites and shows Windows down to 66% in desktops/laptops (a decade ago it was above 90%) with modest growth for GNU/Linux, which is at an all-time high, even if one does not count ChromeOS that isn’t freedom- or privacy-respecting



  28. Journalism Cannot and Quite Likely Won't Survive on the World Wide Web

    We’re reaching the point where the overwhelming majority of new pages on the Web (the World Wide Web) are basically junk, sometimes crafted not by humans; how to cope with this rapid deterioration is still an unknown — an enigma that demands hard answers or technical workarounds



  29. Do Not Assume Pensions Are Safe, Especially When Managed by Mr. EPOTIF Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos

    With the "hoax" that is the financial assessment by António Campinos (who is deliriously celebrating the inauguration of illegal and unconstitutional kangaroo courts) we urge EPO workers to check carefully the integrity of their pensions, seeing that pension promises have been broken for years already



  30. Links 04/06/2023: Why Flatpak and Wealth of Devices With GNU/Linux

    Links for the day


RSS 64x64RSS Feed: subscribe to the RSS feed for regular updates

Home iconSite Wiki: You can improve this site by helping the extension of the site's content

Home iconSite Home: Background about the site and some key features in the front page

Chat iconIRC Channel: Come and chat with us in real time

Recent Posts