04.13.08
Posted in Asia, Free/Libre Software, Microsoft, Open XML, OpenDocument at 11:30 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
OOXML is not a standard, it’s shenanigans
An open letter which was prepared for demonstration purposes in India has just stretched and leaped beyond the boundaries of the Internet.
This letter presents a complaint about vote-rigging by Microsoft and its close allies and it was put up for display in various physical places. Activities are also being organised to promote OpenDocument format and Free software.
The Candle light vigil demands India to appeal ISO approval of ooxml based on its comments and no vote. We also demands the Department of IT to draft a clear national policy for the use of Free standards for data storage.
This programme is planned as a starting point for various events & awareness campaigns on Document freedom.
What happened (and continues to happen) over there is a disgraceful shame. One must never forget to point this out a textbook classic that demonstrates political, corporate, charity-twisting misconduct. Advocacy whose emphasis are the positives (openness, freedom, choice) is truly grand but without the mentioning of its detractors (cheating, lying, bribery and bullying) it might suffer from lack of impact on an observer’s mind.
The story about Microsoft's behaviour in India won’t be forgotten any time soon (you can look back at old posts for credible details). Microsoft gave its watchers a great deal of ammunition to be used in months to come. It’s not a case of being anti-Microsoft or anti-America. That’s just how Microsoft wishes to characterise it, but it really is a case against corruption. █
“The government is not trying to destroy Microsoft, it’s simply seeking to compel Microsoft to obey the law. It’s quite revealing that Mr. Gates equates the two.”
–Government official
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Posted in America, Deception, Europe, Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Microsoft at 11:23 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“Linux is a very complete and sophisticated operating system. And there is a lot of work being done to improve it in and of itself, particularly to make it easier to use and easier for people to set up on their personal computers.”
–Paul Maritz, Senior Vice President, Microsoft
“Ideally, use of the competing technology becomes associated with mental deficiency, as in, “he believes in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and OS/2.” Just keep rubbing it in, via the press, analysts, newsgroups, whatever. Make the complete failure of the competition’s technology part of the mythology of the computer industry. We want to place selection pressure on those companies and individuals that show a genetic weakness for competitors’ technologies, to make the industry increasingly resistant to such unhealthy strains, over time.”
–Microsoft, internal document [PDF]
Here at BoycottNovell we try to keep track of GNU/Linux adoption. It is one of our points of focus and many daily findings are accumulated in the digests. Recent examples of progress include Europe putting this GNU/Linux migration proposal on its table. Venezuela has just gone FLOSS and Ecuador likewise. Even Gartner, despite being Microsoft funded, has just estimated that 4.5% of the desktops in eastern Europe already use GNU/Linux. And that’s just a lower bound, especially once credibility of the source is considered. In BoycottNovell, the 'market share' of Windows is less than 50%.
Now is the time to fight against propaganda. The rather old quotes which are prepended at the top provide a clue (Big Lie strategies). Microsoft is likely to continue with its demoralisation attempts. But they will fail. Quite miserably in fact, as long as deep down we know the truth and spread it openly. To repeat a quote which was included just an hour ago: █
“Truth is treason in the Empire of Lies.”
Image from Wikimedia
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Interoperability, Microsoft, Novell, Windows at 11:04 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
A unique Microsoft/Novell lovefest, which they even brag about over the Internet, was mentioned at the end of last year and we more recently saw it promoted using gifts, which still failed to attract a crowd. Those two partners, which some opine might be destined to become just one, are on the face of it starting to share staff. This workforce swap is not exactly new, but it marks a progression of this special relationship. Scroll down a bit to see the portion about Microsoft/Novell, along with screenshots.
It does read: “Contact a representative from Novell and Microsoft” — which means that you contact one person working for both Novell and Microsoft at the same time!
Someone should have told me that Microsoft and Novell are a joint venture!
One person that just seemingly wears a dual hat appears to be Justin Steinman, who spoke about his day and night jobs. Miguel de Novell [sic] appears to be spending a lot of his time in the Microsoft campus as well. How about those staff swaps and this high-level Novell figure, which recently defected from Novell to Microsoft?
At this pace of increased affinity and intersection, the vision of a joined-by-the-hip Novell and Microsoft is hardly far fetched. Never say never after the Yahoo bid, so it’s only sensible to prepare for the worst and not give any power and influence to Microsoft’s “chosen one”. Watch Novell’s declining market cap: now just 2.10 billion. █
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Posted in Finance, GNU/Linux, Linspire, Microsoft, Novell, Ron Hovsepian at 10:40 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Hug a stranger, get slapped, blame others … profit!
As you may recall, we are still running boycottlinspire.com, but how long for? How long can the company survive?
There are isolated reports that break the company’s deafening silence. Now, now; what have we here? The very same man who sidled with Microsoft to spew GNU/Linux and GPL FUD is now bemoaning the state (fate rather) of the company which he trashed. Watch out for the more recent developments at Linspire and prepare.
Truth is Treason in the Empire of Lies: Linspire ‘Fact Sheet’ Coming Soon
[...]
When I resigned from Linspire, my intentions were, of course, given my large number of Linspire shares, to do everything I could to help Linspire succeed. Unfortunately, in the eight months following my resignation, I have witnessed some of the worst management decisions I have seen in my 25+ years as a business professional. Actions taken by Linspire’s Chairman, Michael Robertson, and their CEO, Larry Kettler, are, in my opinion, destroying the company. Not only do I feel that Linspire’s current management is squandering the Linspire asset, but soon after my resignation, Michael Robertson as Chairman, and Larry Kettler as CEO, levied criminal allegations against six past Linspire employees: the CEO (Kevin Carmony), CFO (Chad Olson), Controller (Bill Long), two Vice Presidents (Theresa Brennan and Randy Linnell), and the OS Team Lead (Clifford Beshers). This group constituted two thirds of Linspire’s then management team.
I resigned from Linspire, but the other five employees were laid off in good standing, with four to twelve months of severance for their many years of committed, quality work, culminating in a profitable year.
What will it be next? Ron Hovsepian slamming the deal with Microsoft, just like Deputy de Icaza recently did? Will blame be thrown from one person to another? More on Novell in the next post. █
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Posted in News Roundup at 2:52 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
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Posted in Finance, Google, IBM, Intellectual Monopoly, Microsoft, Patents at 2:24 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
The insanity never stops. This time it’s IBM.
IBM hopes to patent ‘dealing with chaos’
[...]
IBM wants to patent a means of responding to hurricanes, earthquakes, tidal waves, solar flares, flooding, terrorism, war, pandemics, and other situations where you would hope companies aren’t worried about patents.
See this post about patents that kill. Whether action will be taken against these dangers (the patents, not the disasters) remains to be seen, but Microsoft, Google and Corel are specifically named in this call for patents on abstract ideas to be voided. The following paragraph illustrates the seriousness of the situation.
The case in question concerns a patent submission for “managing the consumption risk costs of a commodity”, whatever that means. The patent office refused to consider such an abstract idea as patentable. However, many of the patents that are owned by such behemoths as Microsoft and Google could conceivably be argued, are based on abstract ideas.
You can find a good and lengthy new report at advogato.org, which goes a step further and proposes a rethink about intellectual monopolies as a whole.
# Dissolving WIPO – The World Intellectual Property Organisation needs to be shut down – or its job transformed into one which *protects* sovereign nations from the interference of intellectual “property” hoarding. I consider the concept of “Intellectual Property” to be “slavery”. even the name says so! Intellectual. Property. Intelligence. Owned. Information. Enslaved. It’s got to stop. We’re not a bunch of savages. any more.
# Dissolution of Patents. See above. Also: see the documentary “The Corporation”. Even the reasons why the Patent system was created is flawed: hoarding of information so that the inventor can benefit from it is so completely against the grain of an enlightened world that it hardly needs mentioning – but there will be people reading this who will genuinely believe – just like the Victorians did about their life-long human captives – that Slavery is perfectly acceptable because “everyone does it”.
# Banning of Articles of Incorporation with “profit” as the main focus. This is absolutely essential. There are plenty of alternative Articles of Incorporation where profits are made, but not at the expense of world resources. Companies House has a boilerplate designed for social clubs.
We mentioned before why we might be seeing a slow transition into a 21st-century feudal system. Unless the economy collapses and radical steps are taken to ensure sanity prevails, the patent system might become worse and worse as time goes by. Rebellion against it would only be natural.
A hoarding culture taken to the extreme becomes incompatible with rapid development of the sciences. It’s not about innovation; unless this innovation is the creation and amplification of an economic model which favours only a few and spins words like “secure” (the wealth), “protect” (the upper management) and “license” (unlock basic human rights). █
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Posted in Bill Gates, Microsoft, Open XML, Quote at 1:32 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Here is something for you to bear in mind in light of the reality that Microsoft will never implement OOXML.
“We don’t do a new version to fix bugs. We don’t. Not enough people would buy it.”
–Bill Gates (a lot more here)
For the record, this quote is not exceptional if you consider another one that we shared here before. Gates says the only aim is to sell more copies, quality being an unimportant or negligible factor. How can ISO ever rely on such an attitude? █
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