Microsoft Redefines “Cross-platform”: Mac + Win32

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2008-02-26 05:57:13 UTC
Modified: 2008-02-26 05:58:07 UTC

'"When you speak about interoperability do you mean across different platforms, like Windows and Unix, or among different versions of Windows, like XP and 2000." He meant among different versions of Windows.'

--Joe Wilcox

In Microsoft's latest attack on LAMP, Adobe and Ajax, it wants to have these replaced by technology that excludes Google, GNU/Linux and many other rivals. Even the W3C is at risk.

Watch this new article and see if you spot an oddity.

Silverlight 1.0 for Windows and Mac shipped last September with the Silverlight 2.0 beta one expected "shortly" according to Guthrie.

[...]

Scott Guthrie, a general manager in Microsoft's developer division, blogged ahead of Adobe's AIR and Flex news that Silverlight 2 would feature a cross-platform version of its .NET Framework and let developers program Silverlight content using any .NET language.

Novell's Moonlight is irrelevant here because it is not Silverlight. It's a case of allowing Microsoft to pass on the illusion that GNU/Linux will have some crumbs (poor catch-up) that can still be considered 'support', provided that you pay Microsoft some patent tax,

Have a look at Silverlight's framework. It's just part of the Windows/Vista stack, which it is heavily based on.

Silverlight stack
Image from the public domain

Now, have a look at Mono:

The Mono stack
GPL-licensed graphics

Does Mono have Microsoft DRM? Does Mono have WPF? Feature parity at all? No? Well, that's why becoming Microsoft wannabes and blindly adopting the company's technology is a very bad idea. It only helps Microsoft. Novell in the case, with Mono and Moonlight, is serving Microsoft.

This is not the first time that Microsoft redefines terms to suit its own agenda. Examples include "interoperability" (taxoperability), "free software" (gratis), "open source" (look but don't touch), "release candidate" (a semi-cooked Vista build, according to Microsoft Watch) and "cross platform" (running on XBox and different version of Windows).

One must not allow to Microsoft hijack crucial language like this. The company knows very well why it does that. It's like brand name (or trademark) theft. Remember OpenOffice getting renamed OpenOffice.org because of Microsoft (never mind Lindows becoming Linspire)? Here is an E-mail that we received just hours ago (it's directed at Microsoft):

And you guys think it is cool calling it Office Open and not confusing. Change it already if you respect other peoples property and rights. Don't u have any dignity.

Yet every day you sending out hundreds of C&D when folks use a logo of MS, or any little thing which might infringe and usually not to protect your rights. http://lifehacker.com/360503/open-office-2007-documents-in-openoffice-with...

We mentioned this only days ago. ECMA (Microsoft) chose to completely ignore this issue, which makes people confuse OpenOffice.org (open source) with a proprietary format (OOXML). ⬆

(Trigger Warning) Jeremy Bicha & Debian-Edu, TecKids, Ubuntu incest scandal at DebConf25: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part X - Deliberately Violate European Patent Convention (EPC), Tolerate Cocaine Use in Management, Hide That From Staff and Stakeholders: The "Alicante Mafia" (as staff calls it) is a disgrace to Europe
Apparently Last Day for Nearly 1,000 Confluent Workers IBM Laid Off Last Month: IBM is a dying company pretending to be strong because of its age
In Past 6 Months IBM Lost About 100 Billion Dollars in 'Value' While Debt Ballooned to 70 Billion Dollars: Welcome to a universe of fake finances and phony accounting based on fictional assets with made-up 'worth'
If We Move Everything to Devuan...: IRC, Git, Apache and so on
Campinos is a Lame Duck President This Year at the European Patent Office (EPO): The strikes are not ending. If anything, they intensify further.
Microsoft Says Mass Layoffs Are Coming and Puts a Price on Them: Microsoft will shrink
The Corporate Media Intentionally Overlooks How Google's Debt Trebles in Just Over a Year: We'll soon see how much more money Microsoft has borrowed
Upgrade Successful: we had a downtime of only 1-2 minutes overall (for two reboots)
Links 30/04/2026: Slop Industry Cannot Keep Up With Bills, "The World Is Getting Too Hot to Feed Itself": Links for the day
Then Come the DDoS Attacks: Is someone trying to 'kill' Techrights?
The Register MS Running Spam Pieces for Huawei, a Banned Company: Money does not excuse bad behaviour
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 29, 2026: IRC logs for Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Gemini Links 30/04/2026: Outdoor Time, Old Computers, and Joining Geminispace: Links for the day
Dr. Andy Farnell on Weaponising Morality Against Technofascism and Slop: It's longer than a "tweet", so social control media addicts are likely mentally unfit to read it
Six Months: Techrights will be around (and active) for a very long time to come
Why We Publish "The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt": We intend to report the facts, fearlessly, until real and lasting solutions are reached
SLAPP Censorship - Part 61 Out of 200: Garrett and Graveley Must Understand That Reporting Women's Issues in the United States of America (“the US”) is Not Impermissible: when you cover Microsoft corruption and have real effect
Weeks After Mass Layoffs of Red Hat Engineers We Learn of European "Buyouts" and Layoffs at IBM: At Microsoft, they tell us there are merely "buyouts", but they don't tell us what happens if you say "no!"
OS Upgrade Tentatively Scheduled for Tomorrow: We have some contingencies in case the upgrade goes wrong
Links 29/04/2026: LLM Chatbot Usage Goes Down Sharply (as Do Stocks Associated With Them), Microsoft's Circular Financing Accounting Fraud at Risk: Links for the day
Gemini Links 29/04/2026: Returning to an Exodus and Farewell APU: Links for the day
Slop Has a Long Way to Go Before It Gets Basic Facts Right: Please do not rely on slop for anything
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part IX - European Patents That Are Illegal (But Serve Non-European Monopolists in Exchange for 'Quick Cash'): People who shamelessly violate the European Patent Convention (EPC) have the audacity to lecture workers on "ethics"
Canonical is Selling You, Ubuntu is a Data-Collecting Platform: Canonical is looking for money in the wrong places
Links 29/04/2026: "Snowden Affair 13 Years Later" and "Landmark Data Center Pause": Links for the day
Seems Like Only Techrights Covered IBM Laying Off About 33% of Confluent Staff: How can such a large round of layoffs evade today's media?
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 28, 2026: IRC logs for Tuesday, April 28, 2026
Gemini Links 29/04/2026: Bad Diet, New Middle Ages, and Temperature Model: Links for the day
IBM is Already Doing 'Voluntary' Layoffs This Year in Europe ('Buyouts' Ahead of Mass Layoffs): IBM's efforts to hide or belittle layoffs is noteworthy
Tracing Back the Misuse of the Word "Buyout" to Describe Merciless Mass Layoffs: So we can assume very large Microsoft layoffs are on the way, this time not spun as "buyouts"
Growing the List of Sites That Are Rogue: It's very important to raise and spread awareness of which ones are fake
Links 28/04/2026: Uganda Criminalising ‘Foreign Agents’ and China’s Economy "Starts to Show Cracks": Links for the day
Anthropic and Claude Are National Security Risks Not Because of Politics But False Marketing and Vandalism, Plagiarism Sold as Innovation: The slop hype is causing severe damage
Like GAFAM, US Telecom Industry Has Severe Debt Problem: Maybe their real problem is true profitability
Gemini Links 28/04/2026: Misfin, ELPiS, and Developing Another Gemini Client: Links for the day
US Government Sites See More Traffic From Apple Devices Than Microsoft Windows PCs: Keep this in mind when Microsoft talks about mass layoffs while calling these "buyouts"
Layoffs Versus Buyouts: Microsoft has mass layoffs and those target the most experienced people in one of the best-paid locations
Latest Example of False Marketing by Anthropic: Like Scam Altman, they're better at buying publicity (paying for hype) than they are at delivering something of genuine value [...] That has the full make-up of fake news and a publicity stunt
IBM: From RAs to "Workforce Re-balancing" (New Names for Mass Layoffs): Well, "workforce re-balancing" means "RAs", which is a misleading acronym IBM has devised to soften if not hide mass layoffs.
Aaron Hillel Swartz Would Have Turned 40 This Year: Aaron Swartz killed himself in 2013
The Trumps Are Making Jimmy Kimmel More Famous and Popular: Comedy has long been "controversial", but trying to get people sacked for the 'wrong' joke results in having no comedians or only pseudo-comedians who are the dictator's jester/joker
Microsoft's Grip Has Slipped, Market Share Steadily Declining: This is why Microsoft is having financial issue
Links 28/04/2026: Microsoft's GitHub Upselling After Two Leaders Jumped Ship (Losses Pile Up), "Inflation Jumps," and More: Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 60 Out of 200: Talking About Corruption at Microsoft and Arrest for Strangulation is "Malice": At the moment Brett Wilson LLP has no new clients
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part VIII - "Red Line" When the European Patent Office (EPO) President Sleeps With Sister of "Cocaine Communication Manager" (Whom He Unconditionally Protects): If only management took its own words (idealistic pontification) seriously
IBM Laying Off Thousands of Workers Again, Based on Q1 Earnings Call: under the guise of "workforce rebalancing" we are again seeing that IBM plans to pay people (severance) to leave
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, April 27, 2026: IRC logs for Monday, April 27, 2026
Gemini Links 28/04/2026: Good Sunrise Viewing and Self-hosting from Home: Links for the day[1;5C

Microsoft Redefines “Cross-platform”: Mac + Win32

Recent Techrights' Posts