Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft: 800 lb. Guerrilla

Guerrilla Against Apple



Microsoft's means of aggression against Apple, such as offering $15,000 for Mac bloggers to sell out, have almost culminated in moves that resemble their recent interference in a VMware conference [1, 2], crashing of PlayStation3 launch parties, the Linux Personas Web site and so forth. Microsoft seems to have used similar techniques against ODF [1, 2] and Novell is guilty of the same behaviour [1, 2].



A reader who prefers to remain anonymous has just sent us a pointer to this.

Microsoft Corp., engrossed in multi-million dollar marketing blitz to counter anti-Vista propaganda from rival Apple, Inc., is now using a portion of its budget to fuel guerilla retail tactics near the Mac maker's stores.


Says the unnamed reader: "See the poster on the right in the background: The product that just won't die.

“If it weren't for OEM lock-in BeOS, Amiga and Apple would have each bitten off a third each.”"If it weren't for per-processor fees and such, DR-DOS would have killed off Microsoft.

"If it weren't for OEM lock-in BeOS, Amiga and Apple would have each bitten off a third each.

"If it weren't for all kinds of lobbying and out-sourced marketing with off-the-scale marketing budgets, Red Hat and Ubuntu would have seen the end of Microsoft.

"It's responsible for 90+% of the world's spam, nearly 100% of the world's botnets, the vector for nearly 100% of the world's viruses and worms, in violation of most privacy and security laws, and yet the product line just won't die."

Guerrilla Against FCC



We previously discussed the relationship between Microsoft and the FCC, as well as with Comcast. A few months ago we also showed Gates' political intervention in the United Nation, which is part of a much broader phenomenon [1, 2] that shows Microsoft is a political creature no less than it is a legal, marketing and technical company. That last part too is in doubt...

"Usually Microsoft doesn't develop products, we buy products."

--Arno Edelmann, Microsoft's European business security product manager



Anyhow, another thing that was shown before is that Gates' lobbying for more visas was only for selfish gain [1, 2]. It was seen as unnecessary or even harmful at the time and earlier this month it turned out to be a fraud.

With all this knowledge in mind, can Microsoft and Gates be trusted as they approach the FCC regarding white spaces? Here are some bits from various articles in the news:

1. Gates, Microsoft lobby FCC for unlicensed white spaces use (Microsoft-influenced New York Times)

Microsoft is lobbying the FCC this week to allow unlicensed use of so-called "white spaces" television spectrum for wireless Internet services.


2. Microsoft urges FCC vote on airwaves access (Gates-funded Mercury News)

Microsoft Chief Strategy Officer Craig Mundie said a plan to use television airwaves for free Internet access may face significant delays if the Federal Communications Commission puts off a vote next week.


3. Microsoft's Gates steps up FCC 'white space' lobbying (FUD-mongering Reuters)

Bill Gates and other Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) officials stepped up lobbying of top U.S. communications regulators on Monday, ahead of an important vote next week to open up unused wireless airwaves.


Aren't governments supposed to think for themselves and make their own judgment? Are they not capable? Since when is Bill Gates a white space expert?

Guerrilla Against Yahoo and Google



Magnifying glass
Still searching for answers to Google



“Forty percent of servers run Windows, 60 percent run Linux...”

"Ballmer Still Searching for an Answer to Google"



According to Bloomberg, Yahoo is still gaining in search and the main loser continues to be Microsoft.

Yahoo had about 20.2 percent of queries in September, up from 19.6 percent in August, Reston, Virginia-based ComScore said today in an e-mail. Microsoft's share fell to 8.5 percent from 8.9 percent. Google Inc. handled 62.9 percent, compared with 63 percent in August.


Todd Bishop argues that Microsoft's attempt to pay users was unsuccessful.

[O]verall, those initiatives haven't had a lasting impact on Microsoft's share of the market.


According to another independent meter, Microsoft declined to 5.46%, down from 9.85% the year before. This statistic was shown around the same time that Microsoft began paying users in order to entice them to use its search engine (only to be spied on for harvesting behaviour of search and clicks).

These unsustainable strategies may not last for long though because Microsoft cut $400,000,000 in this particular area, due to lingering financial issues.

In reporting its latest quarterly results, the company last week said it will lower spending by $400 million to $500 million over the next year to weather the downturn.


Microsoft's last resort seems to be Yahoo, but that too would be costly (also to the consumer). One has to remember the referrer spamming that Microsoft uses, as well as other black-hat tricks and tweaked search engine results [1, 2, 3].

Several sources, all of which cite a report from the Wall Street Journal, claim that the Google-Yahoo deal is becoming less likely to materialise.

Google and Yahoo may abandon their planned search advertising deal as early as next week.


What's to blame? The very same department which Microsoft is known to have lots of control over.

Google is considering walking away from its advertising deal with Yahoo! because the Department of Justice is demanding too much in return.


We have already covered the abuse and the political games Microsoft has played to intercept this deal [1, 2]. It's always disturbing to find governments that are run by corporations.

"[If I ask you who is Microsoft's biggest competitor now, who would it be?] Open...Linux. I don't want to say open source. Linux, certainly have to go with that."

--Steve Ballmer (Microsoft's CEO), February 28th, 2008

Recent Techrights' Posts

More Microsoft-Red Hat Cross-Pollination as the Company Loses a Managing Director
some people move from Microsoft to Red Hat and some do the opposite
Cloudflare Gives Us All Another Reason to Boycott Cloudflare
If Cloudflare wants to use its vast surveillance network (which is what it does as a CDN) to foist paywalls and maybe something worse (like DRM on top), then Cloudflare should be more widely rejected as a company
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has Un-cancelled the Best People, Just in Time for the Big 4-0
Mr. Oliva should have been there all along (since 2019)
Most "Modern" Technology Makes You Slower and Dumber
Because proprietary software makes you worse off
"What Comes After Free Software?" Wrongly Insinuates We've Reached the Goal (Prison is Not the Goal)
The oil tycoons use similar tactics against environmentalists, giving them fake "wins"
Making More Work Space
I learned the hard way that less is more in circumstances where more means distraction
MAHA is a Lie, Public Officials Never Valued Citizens' Health (They Still Value Private Businesses, Their Sponsors)
Reject demagogues
 
Science is Under Attack
Oligarchy prefers a dumbed-down population
Someone Expiring Certificates on the Day of the 9/11 Attacks is Not Someone I Would Want Controlling My PC (or Deciding What's Authorised for Booting)
"social justice warriors"
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has Reportedly Failed People With Wrong Advice
At the moment the SRA has a PR blunder
The Man Suing Brett Wilson LLP and Gervase de Wilde (5RB)
Now he's probably using the (almost) 200,000 pounds he's supposed to receive to sue Brett Wilson LLP and former colleagues/partners
Slopwatch: A World Wide Web That's Rotting for Companies That Won't Even Exist in a Few Years
some of the junk Google News is promoting
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 23, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 23, 2025
Links 24/09/2025: Qt Creator 18 Beta, Microsoft Cannot Bail Out "ChatGPT" Anymore, China and US Intensify Censorship
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/09/2025: Gemlogs and Politics
Links for the day
Links 23/09/2025: Japan Limits Uses of Skinnerboxes ('Smartphones') With Toxic "Apps", Fentanylware (TikTok) Tapped by "MAGAts"
Links for the day
Brett Wilson LLP Has Just Been Sued (by Their Own Clients!)
Vladimir and Alla Yanpolsky sued Brett Wilson LLP in BL-2025-001167 at the end of last week
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part II - UK SLAPPs for Americans, SLAPPs for Profit
Brett Wilson LLP has a track record of this kind
Mayday: Optus emergency calling crisis
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 23/09/2025: Massive Data Breach, Slop Versus Productivity, and Vista 11 Update Breaks Things Again
Links for the day
Code of Censorship
Extortion is peace
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Press Kit for the Weekend After Next Weekend (40th Anniversary)
miles better than social [sic] media [sic] quips, moderated by narcissists and oil tycoons.
Microsoft Had Two Waves of Mass Layoffs This Month (That We Know of) and It'll Get Worse for Microsoft Soon
Will the axe fall again by month's end?
Gemini Links 23/09/2025: Happy Equinox, Photronic Arts, and Perception Cognition
Links for the day
Lessons We've Learned After 17 Years of American Hosting
GAFAM is "all-in" with the "Trump agenda"
Back to Normal Now, We Plan to Do More In-Depth Series (or Multi-part Stories)
Articles (or series thereof) that contain philosophy are important to us
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 22, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 22, 2025
Microsoft Media is Panicking Amid Mass Layoffs Every Month, H-1B Fees, and "Seattle’s Tech Scene in Trouble"
In "late stage Microsoft", copyleft becomes proprietary
The Next Wave of IBM/Red Hat Layoffs Being Discussed Already
Red Hat is sort of disappearing the way Tivoli did
New Techrights Turns 2
Today starts the third year of the SSG-based Techrights
What Scares Them the Most is Independent News Sites That They Cannot Control and Censor
Wikileaks was a good example of this
If You Don't Control Your Online Platform, Then Someone Else is Controlling You
be (or become) independent
Oracle Started This Year With Slop. Then It Stopped.
Passing fads are like this
Distros That Run on PCs Made 20 Years Ago and Don't Use Systemd
Betas for now
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has a Policy on Racism and Sexism
In then future we'll show the misogyny and racial slurs
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part I - Abusing British Women on Behalf of American Men Who Abuse American Women
Transparency is important to us, so we've decided to make this series
Slopwatch: Google News and the Evident Slopfarm Infestation
This is what people get about Linux when they query Google for Linux
Links 22/09/2025: Murdochs Might Join Fentanylware (TikTok) 'Investors' (Masters), United Kingdom Recognises Palestinian Statehood
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Esperanto Music History and Apps For Android
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: More American 'Censorship' (Retaliation for Journalism), Cheeto "Might Be Losing His Race Against Time"
Links for the day
The Blob Slop
Give me more words, give me some text
The 50-Pound Note Experiment and the "War on Cash"
Britain is actually seeing a rebound in cash payments, and it's not a temporary phenomenon
Slopwatch: Blaming the Victims for Microsoft's Failures and Plagiarising Phoronix
That's what Google has been reduced to: slop and slopfarms
Links 22/09/2025: Breaches, Windows TCO, and Arrests
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Rabbit Hole and DeGoogling Fairphone
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: Russian War Planes Invade NATO Airspace While Dihydroxyacetone Man Escalates Attack on Free Speech Because of Critics
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 21, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 21, 2025